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Full-Text Articles in Education
Learning From Literature And Legality: Supreme Court Cases And Young Adult Literature In A Social Foundations Of Education Course, Cody Miller
Democracy and Education
In this article, I detail how I revised a social foundations of education course to center major Supreme Court cases relating to K–12 public schools. Scholars in social foundations of education have articulated a vision for the field that fosters and promotes democracy and democratic dispositions. Focusing on the Supreme Court in a social foundations of education course is the result of two factors. First is the Supreme Court’s storied role in shaping K–12 public education. Second is the Supreme Court’s increasingly steep lurch toward antidemocratic jurisprudence, which many legal scholars and journalists covering the judicial branch are raising alarm …
Public And Counterpublics: Rereading The Case Of Riverside Through Critical Pragmatism. A Response To "Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, And The Common Good", Kathleen Knight-Abowitz
Public And Counterpublics: Rereading The Case Of Riverside Through Critical Pragmatism. A Response To "Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, And The Common Good", Kathleen Knight-Abowitz
Democracy and Education
An article of empirically informed philosophical analysis of charter schooling that features local histories, voices of stakeholders, and an optimistic view on the democratic potential of charter school policies, the original piece presents a compelling, if extreme, case of charter school formation. In this response, I offer an alternative theoretical framing to the case. I argue that the scholarship of constitutional scholars is much less relevant as an interpretive lens on the case than more critical, contemporary pragmatist thinkers. I hope to show in this response how Deweyan political philosophy might have been used throughout the argument to produce a …
Undergoing Political Experience. A Book Review Of Educational Politics For Social Justice, Becky L. Noël Smith
Undergoing Political Experience. A Book Review Of Educational Politics For Social Justice, Becky L. Noël Smith
Democracy and Education
The persistent reports and video evidence of the brutality against people of color, the swell of protest and community organizing in response, and also the noxious swell of white supremacy in the current political climate all amount to a desperate reminder that we must not only continually interrogate our public institutions but thoughtfully pursue the many fronts necessary to dismantle the structural forms of oppression that most U.S. institutions have been built upon. Catherine Marshall, Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin, and Mark Johnson provide an analysis of the political arenas making up the public education system—what they explain as the micro, district, state, …
Toward A Pedagogy Of Cooperative Learning. A Review Of Education And Democratic Participation: The Making Of Learning Communities, Xiuying Cai
Democracy and Education
No abstract provided.
Negating Amy Gutmann: Deliberative Democracy, Business Influence, And Segmentation Strategies In Education, Brian Ford
Negating Amy Gutmann: Deliberative Democracy, Business Influence, And Segmentation Strategies In Education, Brian Ford
Democracy and Education
The task of creating a public will is daunting in any political system, but a democracy dedicated to the principles of participation and public deliberation faces specific challenges, including overcoming organized opposition that may not accept democratic tenets. In the sphere of education (and social reproduction more generally), business-influenced movements to reform public education question many of the established goals and norms of democratic education and thus may be the vanguard of such opposition. In order to interpret and explore these movements, this article enlists Amy Gutmann's work as a heuristic device. In so doing, it looks at the task …
Supporting The Arts As Disciplines Of Learning. A Book Review Of The Role Of The Arts In Learning: Cultivating Landscapes Of Democracy, Karen Mcgarry
Supporting The Arts As Disciplines Of Learning. A Book Review Of The Role Of The Arts In Learning: Cultivating Landscapes Of Democracy, Karen Mcgarry
Democracy and Education
Learning through and in partnership with the arts has the potential to expand experiences beyond what can be measured on any standardized test assessment. The arts may offer sites of reflexive contemplation and engagement, extending learning outward, away from disciplinary silos and toward transdisciplinary action learning—a heuristic device enabling multiple modes or processes of multitextual knowing and becoming. In The Role of the Arts in Learning: Cultivating Landscapes of Democracy, the editors nurture a space of consideration toward democratic learning. By harnessing the historical and pragmatic theories and philosophies of John Dewey and Maxine Greene, in concert with additional …
Talking Back To Corporate Reform. A Book Review Of "You Can't Fire The Bad Ones!" And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, And Public Education, Alisun Thompson
Democracy and Education
A review of the book “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones!” And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, and Public Education, by William Ayers, Crystal Laura, and Rick Ayers (Beacon Press, 2018).
Segregation, The “Black Spatial Imagination,” And Radical Social Transformation, Pauline Lipman
Segregation, The “Black Spatial Imagination,” And Radical Social Transformation, Pauline Lipman
Democracy and Education
This response discusses the complexity of racial segregation in U.S. cities today and an emerging education movement for equity and racial justice. Racial segregation has been and continues to be a potent, and contested, strategy of containment, subordination, and exploitation, but African Americans have also, out of necessity, turned racial segregation into collective survival, radical solidarity, resistance, and counter-hegemonic economic and social relations. New geographies of racial containment, exclusion, and incorporation in the neoliberal, postindustrial city have spawned a new antiracist, antineoliberal education movement. While people of color have the right to live and attend school anywhere, African American and …
Seeking Democracy Inside, And Outside, Of Education: Re-Conceptualizing Perceptions And Experiences Related To Democracy And Education, Paul R. Carr, Gina Thésée
Seeking Democracy Inside, And Outside, Of Education: Re-Conceptualizing Perceptions And Experiences Related To Democracy And Education, Paul R. Carr, Gina Thésée
Democracy and Education
This conceptual article underscores the importance of critical engagement in and through education with a view to enhancing education for democracy (EfD). As a centerpiece to illustrating this connection, we refer to our research project, which engages international actors through an analysis of the perceptions, experiences and perspectives of education students, educators and others in relation to EfD. The article presents the Thick-Thin Spectrum of EfD and a Spectrum for Critical Engagement for EfD to re(present) the problematic of political engagement and literacy on the part of teacher-education students. The findings of our study highlight a necessity for education to …
Challenging White Folks Pedagogy. A Book Review Of For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood...And The Rest Of Y’All Too—Reality Pedagogy And Urban Education, Awad Ibrahim, Tahmina Reza
Challenging White Folks Pedagogy. A Book Review Of For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood...And The Rest Of Y’All Too—Reality Pedagogy And Urban Education, Awad Ibrahim, Tahmina Reza
Democracy and Education
Once in a while, we argue, an author comes in with a clear conviction and a mastery of language that enable them to create “strong poetry,” a new vision. Using Rorty, we call this person a “strong poet.” This is the case with Christopher Emdin’s (2016) book. He not only reimagines the social category of “White folks,” but also works against the notion of schooling and education they advocate for, which Emdin calls “White folks pedagogy.” Emdin also reimagines “the hood,” not as a geographical, but as a sociocultural category. In sum, Emdin articulates a vision that qualifies him as …
In Defense Of Ambiguity In Education. A Book Review Of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, And Sexuality, Caitlin Howlett
In Defense Of Ambiguity In Education. A Book Review Of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, And Sexuality, Caitlin Howlett
Democracy and Education
This article offers a positive review of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality, a readable and refreshing account of the ambiguities and possibilities relating to gender and sexuality in education today. The review argues that, with a focus on public school experiences, this collection of vignettes, lessons, and critical essays, amounts to a resource that is of great value to teachers, preservice teachers, teacher educators, and citizens as they navigate the ever-changing winds of gender and sexuality, particularly as they diverge and multiply along categories of race, religion, ethnicity, and class. This book offers hope and excitement for those of us …
Is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Enough? Toward Culturally “Real”-Evant Curriculum. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", James A. Gambrell
Is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Enough? Toward Culturally “Real”-Evant Curriculum. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", James A. Gambrell
Democracy and Education
In this response to Lingley's (2016) article "Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy," the author invites the framework of (a)spiritually responsive curriculum to include a more direct engagement with a culturally relevant curriculum as well. The author agrees with Lingley's postulation that (a)spirituality is deeply embedded within the worldview of many students in K–12 classrooms, whether educators include this important aspect of their epistemology or not. Similar to the problems that come when we ignore identities of race, gender, (a)sexuality, (dis)ability, and social class, ignoring these important characteristics of students’ lived experiences is detrimental to learning outcomes and reinforces dominating …
Researching Holistic Democracy In Schools. A Reponse To "Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy", Philip A. Woods
Researching Holistic Democracy In Schools. A Reponse To "Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy", Philip A. Woods
Democracy and Education
Bradley-Levine reported in her article how she created an opportunity to explore research data with the aim of examining the degree to which New Tech schools were democratic in the sense conceptualized by the notion of holistic democracy. My response is in three parts. The first sets out my understanding of the significance of the model of holistic democracy and the purpose of the framework. The second is a review of Bradley-Levine’s findings, with reflections that occurred to me as I worked through these. The third comprises my conclusions. The framework has been applied, in my judgement, in a diligent …
The Changing Challenges Of Transformational Resistance. A Response To "Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South", Edmund T. Hamann
Democracy and Education
A long-time researcher of "education in the New Latino Diaspora" considers how ephemeral the demographic and sociopolitical contexts were for the endeavors captured in "Building the Dream" but concurs with the aptness of considering the five focal students’ participation in a local Spanish radio program as acts of transformational resistance (Solorzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) with particular consequences for their sense of coming-of-age into a welcoming intergenerational Latino community.
Is Group Therapy Democratic? Enduring Consequences Of Outward Bound’S Alignment With The Human Potential Movement. A Response To “How To Be Nice And Get What You Want: Structural Referents Of 'Self’ And ‘Other’ In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice.", Jayson Seaman
Democracy and Education
Franklin Vernon provided an example of how programs viewing themselves as “cultural islands” are in fact embedded within historical capitalist relations, through the discourses of self that they promote. In this response, I expand on Vernon’s argument to situate the quasi-therapeutic practices he identified in the history of the human potential movement, which effectively merged with Outward Bound starting in the 1960s and continues to define outdoor experiential education. Where Vernon sought the structural referents to different models of self, this response seeks their historical origins. The response concludes by linking Vernon’s argument with existing critiques and parallel efforts in …
Being Critical About Being Critical. A Response To "Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education", Nicholas C. Burbules
Being Critical About Being Critical. A Response To "Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education", Nicholas C. Burbules
Democracy and Education
This response to "Toward a Transformative Criticality for Democratic Citizenship Education" takes a positive and supportive stance toward pressing the arguments forward. By focusing on the communicative components of democratic citizenship education and activist pedagogy, it highlights some of the tensions and difficulties of actually doing this work.
Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley
Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley
Democracy and Education
Spirituality has been identified as an important component of democratic education by influential scholars such as Dewey, Freire, hooks, and Noddings. However, many teachers in the United States do not engage openly with a framework for understanding, organizing, and integrating pedagogical knowledge of spirituality within the context of culturally conscious social justice education. Drawing from an analysis of the works of Dewey, Noddings, Freire, and hooks and using a critical construct of spirituality that emphasizes inquiry, practical experience, meaning making, and awareness of interconnectedness, I argue that spiritually responsive pedagogy is a vital element of emancipatory, culturally responsive education in …
Necessary But Not Sufficient: Deweyan Dialogue And The Demands Of Critical Citizenship. A Book Review Of The Political Classroom: Evidence And Ethics In Democratic Education, Joseph C. Wegwert
Democracy and Education
This is a book review of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, by Hess and McAvoy.
Cultural Mapping As A Social Practice: A Response To "Mapping The Cultural Boundaries In Schools And Communities: Redefining Spaces Through Organizing", Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur, Shenaz A. Hanif-Shahban
Cultural Mapping As A Social Practice: A Response To "Mapping The Cultural Boundaries In Schools And Communities: Redefining Spaces Through Organizing", Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur, Shenaz A. Hanif-Shahban
Democracy and Education
Inspired by Gerald Wood and Elizabeth Lemley’s (2015) article entitled Mapping the Cultural Boundaries in Schools and Communities: Redefining Spaces Through Organizing, this response inquires further into cultural mapping as a social practice. From our perspective, cultural mapping has potential to contribute to place making, as well as the values to sustain more equitable social futures. Thus, alongside the maps created, we longed to learn more about how the participants were engaged in mapping, how perceptions of mapping changed over time and context, how participation was mediated by relationships, and how transformation in the participants, child, youth, and adults …
The Ethics Of Teaching For Social Justice: A Framework For Exploring The Intellectual And Moral Virtues Of Social Justice Educators. A Response To "Ethics In Teaching For Democracy And Social Justice", Rebecca M. Taylor
Democracy and Education
Pursuing social justice in education raises ethical questions about teaching practice that have not been fully addressed in the social justice literature. Hytten (2015) initiated a valuable way forward in developing an ethics of social justice educators, drawing on virtue ethics.
In this paper, I provide additional support to this effort by arguing that a virtue approach to ethics of teaching is in fact compatible with responsiveness to social context in teaching. I then propose a refined framework for considering the virtues of teachers, one which asks us to identify virtues relevant to teaching within the broad categories of intellectual …
Enacting Social Justice Ethically: Individual And Communal Habits. A Response To "Ethics In Teaching For Democracy And Social Justice", Michael G. Gunzenhauser
Enacting Social Justice Ethically: Individual And Communal Habits. A Response To "Ethics In Teaching For Democracy And Social Justice", Michael G. Gunzenhauser
Democracy and Education
In response to Hytten’s provocative opening of a conversation about an ethics for activist teaching, in this essay I address three interesting contributions that Hytten made. First, I explore the significance of the imagined ethical subject in Hytten’s example and in many prior authors’ work on ethics in social justice teaching. Expanding the imagined ethical subject (beyond the resistant student with limited experience of difference), which Hytten began to do, is fruitful for additional contexts. Second, I attend to the philosophical basis upon which Hytten rested her ethical theory and suggest some ways that philosophers might follow her critical and …
"How To Be Nice And Get What You Want": Structural Referents Of "Self" And "Other" In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice, Franklin Vernon
"How To Be Nice And Get What You Want": Structural Referents Of "Self" And "Other" In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice, Franklin Vernon
Democracy and Education
This critical ethnography explores a social justice program utilizing nontraditional, democratic, "experiential" education practices. The author posits a historical legacy of pedagogy of self obscures its emancipatory, democratic potential while simultaneously expanding on contemporary discourses of self and other as aspects of the educational setting. Students' labors to reference and enact oppressive, capitalistic idealizations of either self or other problematizes pragmatic theories of self, and the author draws upon critical pragmatism to reposition self and other as aspects of pedagogy and curriculum in democratic education.
The Cake Is A Lie. A Book Review Of The Failure Of Corporate School Reform, Amy Rector Aranda
The Cake Is A Lie. A Book Review Of The Failure Of Corporate School Reform, Amy Rector Aranda
Democracy and Education
This is a book review of The Failure of Corporate School Reform by Kenneth J. Saltman.
Interrogating The Relationship Between Schools And Society. A Book Review Of Can Education Change Society?, Wayne Au
Democracy and Education
This reviewer found Can Education Change Society? a typical Apple text, far-ranging in terms of scope and example and theoretically and conceptually ambitious.
Becoming A Social Justice Educator: Emerging From The Pits Of Whiteness Into The Light Of Love. A Response To "Respect The Differences? Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education, Kay F. Fujiyoshi
Democracy and Education
This paper addresses the limitations of social justice in institutional spaces and in rhetoric. I write in the form of a quest narrative to describe the lessons I learned from a brief sojourn in a temporary position in an urban teacher education program with a social justice focus and at a nonprofit organization with other social justice workers. My quest entails a retelling of encounters with Whiteness, the challenges of engaging social justice as a process that pushes beyond conversation, and the lessons I took away from my own sense-making of the contradictions in social justice work.
Lift Every Voice And Sing. A Response To "Mathematics For What? High School Students Reflect On Mathematics As A Tool For Social Inquiry", Anita Bright
Democracy and Education
In this response, I applaud the work initiated in this research and underscore some of the key reasons I find it so valuable. Building from this, I also issue a call to the greater mathematics education community—particularly the large mathematics professional organizations—to consider the ways their organizations have conceptualized and framed equity work, and invite them to entertain the idea of remapping their visions in ways that are more forward thinking and less traditionally safe.
Mapping Cultural Boundaries In Schools And Communities: Redefining Spaces Through Organizing, Gerald K. Wood, Christine K. Lemley
Mapping Cultural Boundaries In Schools And Communities: Redefining Spaces Through Organizing, Gerald K. Wood, Christine K. Lemley
Democracy and Education
For this study, the authors look specifically at cultural maps that the youth created in Student Involvement Day (SID), a program committed to youth empowerment. In these maps, youth identified spaces in their schools and communities that are open and inclusive of their cultures or spaces where their cultures are excluded. Drawing on critical geographies of/in education and Freirian notions of praxis, this paper considers the nature of school spaces through school curriculum and offers ways to render these contested spaces more democratic. Using these cultural maps, students work to individually identify spaces that allow them to engage meaningfully and …
Critical Discomfort And Deep Engagement Needed For Transformation. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Rick Ayers
Democracy and Education
This essay seeks to engage the discussion about how to successfully conduct social justice and critical pedagogy classes for teacher candidates. Because the identity and consciousness of teachers is such a crucial factor in equity education, teacher-educators seek to challenge and transform hegemonic assumptions. The essay seeks to engage some of the main points of Sensoy and DiAngelo and to extend the conversation to other considerations and issues that arise in the work to develop educators committed to equity and justice.
“The Diffusion Of Light”: Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Education, M. Andrew Holowchak
“The Diffusion Of Light”: Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Education, M. Andrew Holowchak
Democracy and Education
Jefferson's republicanism—a people-first, mostly bottom-up political vision with a moral underpinning—was critically dependent on general education for the citizenry and higher education for those who would govern. This paper contains an analysis of Jefferson’s general philosophy of pedagogy by enumerating some of its most fundamental principles, applicable to both elementary and higher education.
Resisting The Neoliberal Ambush Of Public Education. A Book Review Of Educational Courage: Resisting The Ambush Of Public Education, Brandy S. Wilson
Resisting The Neoliberal Ambush Of Public Education. A Book Review Of Educational Courage: Resisting The Ambush Of Public Education, Brandy S. Wilson
Democracy and Education
This is a review of the book Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education.