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Full-Text Articles in Education
Navigating The Indeterminate Relationship Between Politics And Pedagogy. A Response To "Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community”, Derek R. Ford
Democracy and Education
In their article, Pechtelidis and Kioupkiolis added a case study to research at the intersection of politics, pedagogy, and the commons. Examining the Little Tree Community to deepen our understanding of how education can operate as a common practice, they raised key questions about the political possibility of subjectification in an education in the commons, leaving the question of politics and pedagogy open. Case studies in general, especially in the article format, require a delicate balance of theoretical exposition, contextual explication, data presentation, and analysis. In this response, I propose one way we might refine the politics assumed in the …
Land Education And Young People Working Toward Salamander: Collective Well-Being In Response To Bioindicators Of Socioenvironmental Justice, Rachael Arens, Ricardo Martinez
Land Education And Young People Working Toward Salamander: Collective Well-Being In Response To Bioindicators Of Socioenvironmental Justice, Rachael Arens, Ricardo Martinez
Democracy and Education
Our planet is facing many environmental challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and habitat, and pollution, while many of our populations are also experiencing marginalization due to poverty, race, gender, language, ability, and environmental injustices. Environmental hazards and policies often impact those in society who are most at-risk, creating a need for an environmental education (EE) movement that encourages students to challenge and regain control of a system that impacts them. Teachers can implement a reflection tool known as the SALAMANDER Collective Well-Being in Response to Bioindicators of Socioenvironmental Justice Framework to prompt students and other educators to place …
Social Justice Begins With Me: The Making Of "Seeking Social Justice Podcast" For An Undergraduate-Level Interdisciplinary Class, Ziwei Qi
Feminist Pedagogy
Instructors face several pedagogical challenges in effectively engaging undergraduate students in developing social justice competency (Adams, 2007). The overall pedagogical framework of social justice education is to integrate "affective, personal, social, and experiential dimensions of teaching and learning" (Adams, 2007, p.15). Most importantly, social justice education demands equity of voice from students who yearn to equip them with skills to tackle social injustices because of differential distributions of power and privilege. The "Seeking Social Justice Podcast" project prepares students to understand diverse groups of people residing in the United States and their communities, including racial and ethnic groups and other …
Playing Through Tragedy: A Critical Approach To Welcoming Children’S Social Worlds And Play As Pedagogy, Cassie Brownell
Playing Through Tragedy: A Critical Approach To Welcoming Children’S Social Worlds And Play As Pedagogy, Cassie Brownell
Occasional Paper Series
Children’s play frequently reflects the ways they understand and cope with personal life experiences and those in the wider world. Drawing connections to many of the tenants of Jonathan Silin’s lifelong work, the author offers illustrative examples of why play and children's social worlds matter as well as why adults should pay attention to what children do and say in their play. Through personal stories, the author shows how integrating play(full) experiences into the daily life of a classroom can foster children's understanding of seemingly "difficult" or "adult" ideas and events that may be confusing, fear-inducing or represent significant loss. …
Toward A Critical-Pbl: Centering A Critical Consciousness In The Middle Grades, Jaclyn Caires-Hurley, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Rachel Harrington
Toward A Critical-Pbl: Centering A Critical Consciousness In The Middle Grades, Jaclyn Caires-Hurley, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Rachel Harrington
Middle Grades Review
The dual pandemic of 2020 that includes racism and COVID-19 demonstrates the need for students to become socially responsible and critically conscious world citizens. Students in the middle grades are developing their sense of identity while concomitantly trying to understand the complex world around them. While many teachers understand the need for critical pedagogy, many still struggle to find time to teach rigorous content standards while integrating social justice education. In this article, we propose the four pillars of Critical-Problem Based Learning (Critical-PBL). Using critical standards, critical problems, critical content, and critical discourse, we offer a framework to support teachers …
Understanding Conflict In Education For Democracy. A Response To "The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education", Steven P. Camicia
Understanding Conflict In Education For Democracy. A Response To "The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education", Steven P. Camicia
Democracy and Education
Teachers are often apprehensive about facilitating deliberation in classrooms because conflicts can develop when deliberations surround issues of authentic concern to students. However, conflict is central to deliberation, and the identities and experiences of participants must be reflected in deliberation. These differences challenge the assumptions of neutrality and a common good that can restrain conflict. Harell’s article focuses upon many of these aspects of deliberation and the essential role of facilitators as conflicts emerge from deliberation. In my response to Harell, I extend his findings by developing the themes of conflict, identity, and inclusion. These themes are conceptually linked and …
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 …
Dialectic Of Empathy. A Book Review Of Educating For Empathy: Literacy Learning And Civic Engagement, Dan Deweese
Dialectic Of Empathy. A Book Review Of Educating For Empathy: Literacy Learning And Civic Engagement, Dan Deweese
Democracy and Education
In Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement, Mirra describes the value of teaching “critical civic empathy” in K–12 literacy classrooms. Distinguished from standard curricular uses of empathy that stress politeness at the level of the individual, critical civic empathy challenges students to take active steps toward questioning how imbalances of power and privilege arise and what assumptions should be questioned in order to address those imbalances. Mirra examines various teachers who center social issues in their literacy classrooms through the use of literature, the techniques of high school debate, research methodologies that see students as knowledge producers, …
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 …
Teaching Spirituality As Ontology In Public Schools. A Response To "Democratic Foundations Of Spiritual Responsive Pedagogy", Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon
Teaching Spirituality As Ontology In Public Schools. A Response To "Democratic Foundations Of Spiritual Responsive Pedagogy", Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon
Democracy and Education
In “Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy,” Lingley worried that talk of spirituality is taboo in U.S. public school classrooms. Lingley pointed out that the dominant narrative demands silence on the topic. She wanted to make the case for spiritually responsive pedagogy as vital to an inclusive democracy. I begin this responsive essay by describing Lingley’s argument, and then I strengthen her argument through my work on relational ontologies. When we equate spirituality with ontology, we realize it is impossible to avoid teaching spirituality in our schools, for we begin passing on to our children our fishing nets to help …
Ypar, Critical Whiteness, And Generative Possibilities. A Response To “Sam And Cristina: A Dialogue Between A High School Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color”, Chris Corces-Zimmerman, Jamie Utt, Nolan L. Cabrera
Ypar, Critical Whiteness, And Generative Possibilities. A Response To “Sam And Cristina: A Dialogue Between A High School Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color”, Chris Corces-Zimmerman, Jamie Utt, Nolan L. Cabrera
Democracy and Education
In this response to the article by Tanner and Corrie, the authors provide three critiques of the methodology and theoretical framing of the study with the hopes of informing future scholarship and practice. Specifically, the three critiques addressed in this paper include the integration of CWS frameworks and YPAR methodology, the application and description of CWS and YPAR frameworks, and the role of power in the relationship between educator and student that served as the central medium for the study.
Teaching Moral Literacy Through Critical Pedagogical Bricolage: A Co-Constructed Auto-Ethnography Of An Educational Leadership Program, Chetanath Gautam, Charles L. Lowery
Teaching Moral Literacy Through Critical Pedagogical Bricolage: A Co-Constructed Auto-Ethnography Of An Educational Leadership Program, Chetanath Gautam, Charles L. Lowery
The Qualitative Report
In this collaborative auto-ethnographical inquiry, two developing scholar–practitioner educational leaders explore the notion of moral literacy through a lens of critical pedagogical bricolage. This study aims to reveal certain experiences of two doctoral candidates engaged in an educational doctorate, contemplating their identities as emergent leaders from diverse backgrounds. By approaching this inquiry from a qualitative and strictly post-positivist understanding of research, we aim to present critical components of our program and the literature presented in that program that led to our understanding of moral literacy’s role in theoretical and pragmatic provinces of educational leadership. Our analysis is presented in three …
When Theory Doesn't Necessarily Meet Practice. A Book Review Of Youth, Critical Literacies, And Civic Engagement: Arts, Media And Literacy In The Lives Of Adolescents, Matthew Goldwasser
When Theory Doesn't Necessarily Meet Practice. A Book Review Of Youth, Critical Literacies, And Civic Engagement: Arts, Media And Literacy In The Lives Of Adolescents, Matthew Goldwasser
Democracy and Education
A book review of Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement by T. Rogers, K.-L. Winters, M. Perry, and A.M. LaMonde. In Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement, the authors presented three analytic vignettes from field work at three sites where youth employed either writing and publishing, filmmaking, or theater performance to make critical claims about their everyday lives and social issues that directly affect them. The authors used critical theory to link their empirical data to larger enterprises of resistance and counter narratives about how society views youth. They further posited that these efforts are examples of civic engagement. …
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 …
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 …
Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education, Lisa A. Sibbett
Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education, Lisa A. Sibbett
Democracy and Education
This article uses a well-received recent text—Hess and McAvoy’s The Political Classroom—to suggest that democratic citizenship education today has a social accountability problem. I locate this discussion in the context of a longstanding conflict between the critical thinking approach to democratic citizenship education, the approach typified by The Political Classroom, and the critical pedagogical approach, which has an equal but opposite problem, that of indoctrination. If democratic citizenship educators are truly interested in transforming the social order, I suggest, then we need to listen appreciatively, and respond thoughtfully, to critiques of the approach we favor. The article ends …
Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge "Common Sense." A Response To "The Political Nuances Of Narratives And An Urban Educator's Response", Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales
Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge "Common Sense." A Response To "The Political Nuances Of Narratives And An Urban Educator's Response", Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales
Democracy and Education
In this response to “The Political Nuances of Narratives and an Urban Educator’s Response,” the authors applaud Pearman’s critical approach to deconstructing and challenging narratives of heroic figures who single-handedly change the world and agree with him that these narratives restrict the sense of agency that may propel citizens to become actively involved in social change efforts. We argue that it is important to question why these narratives exist and to understand them in light of the hegemonic capitalist structure that exploits the masses in service to the capitalist class. Although we agree with Pearman that democracy is best served …
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.
"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.
Media And Democracy. A Response To "The Need For Media Education In Democratic Education", Lance E. Mason
Media And Democracy. A Response To "The Need For Media Education In Democratic Education", Lance E. Mason
Democracy and Education
This response supports Stoddard’s (2014) assertion that media education should be considered a crucial factor of democratic education and offers both extensions and cautions related to that end. Extensions include practical suggestions for studying the non-neutrality of technology. The author also cautions educators that if media education and democratic education are to be productively merged, a more substantive consideration of the relationship between digital technologies and dispositional factors is warranted.
Exploring The Implications Of Citizenship-As-Equality In Critical Citizenship Education. A Response To "The Practice Of Equality: A Critical Understanding Of Democratic Citizenship Education", Michalinos Zembylas
Democracy and Education
This is a response to Ruitenberg’s (2015) argument that citizenship-as-equality should be the focus of citizenship education. My aim in the response is to offer clarifying comments and questions and suggest further ideas for expanding her analysis, highlighting in particular two perspectives that deserve more attention: first, the role of emotions in the constitution of political subjectification and the practice of equality; second, the possible openings that might be created when the notion of citizenship-as-equality is utilized as a point of departure to instill more criticality in students’ understandings of and feelings about citizenship.
A Testimony Of Hope. A Book Review Of Critical Consciousness In Curricular Research, Audrey Lingley
A Testimony Of Hope. A Book Review Of Critical Consciousness In Curricular Research, Audrey Lingley
Democracy and Education
The anthology Critical Consciousness in Curricular Research: Evidence from the Field (William-White, Muccular, D., Muccular, G., & Brown, 2013) contains a multilogical collection of strategies for establishing curriculum work as an integral part of what it means to be a teacher. Although the contributors represent a diverse range of backgrounds, perspectives, and years in education, a common manifesto emerges: Curriculum inquiry is a pathway for the enactment of democratic pedagogy and enfranchisement of marginalized students (and teachers). The editors provide a vibrant and engaging testimony of hope with which to revitalize the notion of curriculum work as part of what …
Heeding Woolf’S Great Teacher: Uncovering And Defusing An Education In “Unreal Loyalties”, Stacy Otto
Heeding Woolf’S Great Teacher: Uncovering And Defusing An Education In “Unreal Loyalties”, Stacy Otto
Democracy and Education
In her 1938 epistolary novel and educational treatise, Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf discusses “freedom from unreal loyalties” as key to educating for peace rather than for war, as was the concern in Woolf’s time and remarkably remains of serious concern seventy-odd years later. This essay analyzes how modern-day, post-9/11 U.S. public education is influenced by a whole range of unreal loyalties and, in fact, how we as educators reify and reinscribe these. The argument uses Woolf’s text as a theoretical frame to analyze select aspects of U.S. public education, concluding with an exploration of the meaning and value of …
Case Study Of A Participatory Health-Promotion Intervention In School, Venka Simovska
Case Study Of A Participatory Health-Promotion Intervention In School, Venka Simovska
Democracy and Education
This article discusses the findings from a case study focusing on processes involving pupils to bring about health-promotion changes. The study is related to an EU intervention project aiming to promote health and well-being among children (4–16 years). Qualitative research was carried out in a school in the Netherlands. Data sources include project documents, interviews, and observations. Thematic analysis was carried out combining the different data sources. The case study shows that, if given sufficient guidance, children can act as agents of health-promoting changes. The main arena for youth influence was the pupil council. Pupils were meaningfully involved in two …
Feel Free To Change Your Mind. A Response To "The Potential For Deliberative Democratic Civic Education", Walter Parker
Feel Free To Change Your Mind. A Response To "The Potential For Deliberative Democratic Civic Education", Walter Parker
Democracy and Education
Walter Parker responds to Hanson and Howe's article, extending their argument to everyday classroom practice. He focuses on a popular learning activity called Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). SAC is pertinent not only to civic learning objectives but also to traditional academic-content objectives. SAC is at once a discourse structure, a participation structure, and an instructional procedure; and it centers on Hanson and Howe’s autonomy-building fulcrum—exchanging reasons. At a key moment in SAC, students are invited to step out of an assigned role and to form their “own” position on the issue. Parker argues that SAC is one way to mobilize …
Students Have Their Own Minds. A Response To “Beyond The Catch-22 Of School-Based Social Action Programs: Toward A More Pragmatic Approach For Dealing With Power”, Matthew Goldwasser
Students Have Their Own Minds. A Response To “Beyond The Catch-22 Of School-Based Social Action Programs: Toward A More Pragmatic Approach For Dealing With Power”, Matthew Goldwasser
Democracy and Education
In response to the authors’ work on finding a more pragmatic approach to dealing with power, this commentary calls into question the possibility of a preestablished agenda by the researchers, who struggled to engage high school students. There might have been a case of overly ambitious expectations at work; also, the authors confess to being in the school only once a week and that their students were themselves struggling to find their place in a new charter school with an emphasis on social action. This response challenges the authors to reexamine their wish to engage students with institutional power by …
Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School, Jason Irizarry
Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School, Jason Irizarry
Democracy and Education
Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study of Latino high school students engaged in youth participatory action research (YPAR), this article describes students’ quest for freedom in schools, locating their struggle within a larger effort to realize the democratic ideals of public schooling. Using Latino/a Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, the author demonstrates how popular discourse around the “achievement gap” often obscures the oppressive policies and practices implemented by educators that limit freedoms necessary for educational and personal development and profoundly influence the identities and life trajectories of Latino youth. The article concludes with an exploration of YPAR as …