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Full-Text Articles in Education
Does The Common Core Further Democracy? A Response To "The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy", Johann N. Neem
Democracy and Education
The Common Core does not advance democratic education. Far from it, the opening section of the language standards argues that the goal of public K–12 education is “college and career readiness.” Only at the end of their introductory section do the Common Core’s authors suggest that K–12 education has any goals beyond the economic: learning to read and write well has “wide applicability outside the classroom and work place,” including preparing people for “private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a republic.” The democratic purposes of K–12 education are not goals but, in the Common Core’s words, a “natural outgrowth” of …
Empowering Young People Through Conflict And Conciliation: Attending To The Political And Agonism In Democratic Education, Jane C. Lo
Democracy and Education
Deliberative models of democratic education encourage the discussion of controversial issues in the classroom (e.g., Hess, 2009); however, they tend to curtail conflicts for the sake of consensus. Agonism, on the other hand, can help support the deliberative model by attending to antagonism in productive ways (Ruitenberg, 2009). In this paper, I present how agonistic deliberation (the infusion of agonism into deliberation) can work as an account of the political that may help empower young people. The paper presents two classic democratic classroom practices—structured academic controversy (SAC) and debate—together as examples of how agonistic deliberation can help students engage politically. …
Media Literacy As Mindful Practice For Democratic Education. A Response To “Transaction Circles With Digital Texts As A Foundation For Democratic Practices”, Theresa Redmond
Democracy and Education
This essay is a response to Brown’s (2015) article describing her strategy of transaction circles as a student-centered, culturally responsive, and democratic literacy practice. In my response, I provide further evidence from the field of media literacy education (MLE) that serves to enhance Brown’s argument for using transaction circles in order to promote democratic discourse, specifically augmenting her ideas by connecting the purposes and processes of transaction circles with key implications of media literacy pedagogy. I invite Brown to consider how her concept of transaction circles may be extended in three ways: (a) through acknowledging the indispensable role of the …
Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie
Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie
Democracy and Education
This article was written by a white high school teacher (Sam) and a high school student of color (Cristina) in order to consider the harmful potential for schools in the United States to commoditize students of color at the expense of critical, antiracist work. It was written out of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study and uses a critical whiteness framework in order to examine how Cristina, in dialogue with Sam, came to theorize that her racial identity was commoditized as a cultural asset of their high school in exploitative ways. Her thinking, juxtaposed with Sam’s consideration of his …
Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics, Brian W. Dotts
Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics, Brian W. Dotts
Democracy and Education
Jefferson believed that citizenship must exhibit republican virtue. While education was necessary in a republican polity, it alone was insufficient in sustaining a revolutionary civic spirit. This paper examines Jefferson's expectations for citizen virtue, specifically related to militia and jury service in his 'little republics.' Citizens required not only knowledge of history and republican principles, but also public spaces where they could personify what they learned. Jefferson often analogized the nation as a ship at sea, and while navigational instruments are necessary in charting an accurate course, i.e., republican theories, they become inconsequential without the decisive action required for their …
“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.