Education Commons^™

Starting With Children’S Democratic Imagination. A Response To "That’S My Voice! Participation And Citizenship In Early Childhood", Katherina A. Payne

Democracy and Education

The article adds to a growing conversation that recognizes and supports young children’s civic capabilities, positioning them as citizens-now and not simply citizens in the future. They detail how three different classrooms sought to work with children to engage in social action on behalf of their broader community. This response wonders alongside the authors about how adults can best work with children to support their civic action and proposes that teachers engage children’s visions for a more just, humanizing democratic society. The article offers three avenues of action for teachers as they support children’s civicness: reflection on our views and …

The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy, Benjamin J. Bindewald, Rory P. Tannebaum, Patrick Womac

Democracy and Education

This conceptual paper assesses prevalent critiques of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and analyzes content from the CCSS in language arts and literacy to determine whether the standards are likely to support or undermine key democratic aims of education. The authors conclude that critiques of the CCSS have some merit but are generally overstated and misdirected, and the standards give inadequate attention to the development of public autonomy but an ideal amount of attention to development of private autonomy.

Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism And The Erosion Of Democratic Education, Robert Karaba

Democracy and Education

Goodlad, et al. (2002) rightly point out that a culture can either resist or support change. Schein’s (2010) model of culture indicates observable behaviors of a culture can be explained by exposing underlying shared values and basic assumptions that give meaning to the performance. Yet culture is many-faceted and complex. So Schein advised a clinical approach to cultural analysis that calls for identifying a problem in order to focus the analysis on relevant values and assumptions.

This project starts with two assumptions: (1) The erosion of democratic education is a visible overt behavior of the current U.S. macro-culture, and (2) …

The Complexity Of Thomas Jefferson. A Response To "'The Diffusion Of Light': Jefferson's Philosophy Of Education", James Carpenter

Democracy and Education

This response argues that Jefferson's educational philosophy must be considered in a proper historical context. Holowchak accurately demonstrates both Jefferson's obsession with education and the political philosophy on which his educational beliefs are built. However, the effort to apply modern democratic and meritocratic attributes to Jefferson is unwarranted.

A Review Of Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs The Humanities, Laura A. Desisto

Democracy and Education

A review of the book Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, by Martha Nussbaum (Princeton University Press, 2010).