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Public Schooling For Democracy. A Book Review Of Public Education: Defending A Cornerstone Of American Democracy, Ellis E. Reid V May 2024

Public Schooling For Democracy. A Book Review Of Public Education: Defending A Cornerstone Of American Democracy, Ellis E. Reid V

Democracy and Education

This essay is a book review of Public Education: Defending a Cornerstone of American Democracy.


Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment: Democratic Contingency And Racial Re-Valuing In Education Governance, Kathleen Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen M. Sellers May 2023

Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment: Democratic Contingency And Racial Re-Valuing In Education Governance, Kathleen Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen M. Sellers

Democracy and Education

We examine school governance in populist era, using contemporary readings of pragmatist philosophy. We are in a “populist moment,” a time of uprisings and movements of the demos making political claims (Mouffe, 2018). School officials in the U.S. are subject to an array of political demands in the form of protests and campaigns. We focus on the struggles around critical race theory in K–12 schools. Glaude (2017) has advocated pragmatism’s use in light of racial revaluing and democratic struggle. Rogers’ work (2009) has highlighted inquiry, founded on contingency, in the face of disagreement and power struggles. These scholars show us …


Learning From Literature And Legality: Supreme Court Cases And Young Adult Literature In A Social Foundations Of Education Course, Cody Miller May 2023

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 …


Expanding The Landscape Of Wholeness: The Spirituality Of Teacher Preparation. A Response To "Reconstituting Teacher Education: Toward Wholeness In An Era Of Monumental Challenges", Paul A. Michalec Oct 2022

Expanding The Landscape Of Wholeness: The Spirituality Of Teacher Preparation. A Response To "Reconstituting Teacher Education: Toward Wholeness In An Era Of Monumental Challenges", Paul A. Michalec

Democracy and Education

This article is a response to a paper arguing for a shift from “oneness” to “wholeness” as a democratic principle when reconceptualizing teacher education in a time of large-scale social change. While the paper provides compelling arguments for wholeness as a tool to address social injustice, the discussion is framed primarily through a humanist lens. This response is an invitation to expand the definition of wholeness to include spirituality as core to what it means to be human and whole. It addresses the importance of spirituality in teacher education when considering culturally responsive pedagogy, the religion-spirit distinction, the source of …


Reconstituting Teacher Education: Toward Wholeness In An Era Of Monumental Challenges, Jessica E. Masterson, Lauren Gatti Oct 2022

Reconstituting Teacher Education: Toward Wholeness In An Era Of Monumental Challenges, Jessica E. Masterson, Lauren Gatti

Democracy and Education

Speaking to the political and social upheaval of our present moment, and drawing on discourses of democratic education, we argue that the U.S.’s racial reckoning propelled by recent events constitutes a sort of “founding” for our democracy and that this founding has important implications for reconfiguring citizenship within institutions and practices of teacher education. In building this argument, the authors articulate the aims of teacher education in a democracy and expand upon political scientist Danielle Allen’s theoretical concepts of "sacrifice," "reconstitution," and "wholeness," demonstrating their urgent utility within our “thinning” democracy (Hess & McAvoy, 2015). We then draw on relevant …


Prioritizing Patriotism. A Book Review Of How To Educate A Citizen: The Power Of Shared Knowledge To Unify A Nation, Heather E. Gerker May 2022

Prioritizing Patriotism. A Book Review Of How To Educate A Citizen: The Power Of Shared Knowledge To Unify A Nation, Heather E. Gerker

Democracy and Education

How to Educate a Citizen offers readers a look at the historical context of American public schooling while perpetuating an enduring argument over the best approaches to curriculum. Hirsch revisits his work from the past 30 years, calling on parents, teachers, and educational leaders to view American public schooling as an opportunity to teach patriotism rather than skills and content.


Toward A Pedagogy Of Cooperative Learning. A Review Of Education And Democratic Participation: The Making Of Learning Communities, Xiuying Cai Oct 2020

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.


Envisioning Democratic Education In Neoliberal Times: A Book Review Of Radical Schooling For Democracy: Engaging Philosophy Of Education For The Public Good, Jessica Lussier, Samuel D. Rocha May 2020

Envisioning Democratic Education In Neoliberal Times: A Book Review Of Radical Schooling For Democracy: Engaging Philosophy Of Education For The Public Good, Jessica Lussier, Samuel D. Rocha

Democracy and Education

In Radical Schooling for Democracy: Engaging Philosophy of Education for the Public Good, Neil Hooley (2017) sets out to reexamine formal education by highlighting six competing ideologies that contemporary schooling must contend with and respond to (religious, conservative, neoliberal, social-democratic, scientific, and Marxist). Under the political and economic dictates of neoliberalism, Hooley argues, the scope of learning has become narrow and constrained to the frustration and alienation of many students and teachers. Reflecting on these concerns within the many issues of education today, Hooley’s project positions philosophy of education as a meaningful tool in our globalized context. …


Disrupting Whiteness In Curriculum History. A Book Review Of Reclaiming The Multicultural Roots Of U.S. Curriculum: Communities Of Color And Official Knowledge In Education, Christopher L. Busey May 2019

Disrupting Whiteness In Curriculum History. A Book Review Of Reclaiming The Multicultural Roots Of U.S. Curriculum: Communities Of Color And Official Knowledge In Education, Christopher L. Busey

Democracy and Education

The canon and curriculum of curriculum history remain grounded in Whiteness. Little attention is given to multicultural narratives of curriculum history, especially those that emerge from marginalized communities of color in the U.S. This book review details how Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum: Communities of Color and Official Knowledge in Education (Au, Brown, & Calderón, 2016) aims to address a void in the canon of curriculum history. Through the lens of Indigenous peoples, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans, the field of curriculum history is enriched with discourses as to how communities of color both …


Epistemic Inclusion And The Argument From Circumspection, James Scott Johnston May 2019

Epistemic Inclusion And The Argument From Circumspection, James Scott Johnston

Democracy and Education

In this response to Martin's "Should Deliberate Democratic Inclusion Extend to Children?" I examine Martin's comments against the "argument from circumspection," which is dubious regarding the claims children make to change democratic policies and procedures. I explain there are good reasons for being circumspect. One of these concerns the need for all in public discourse to supply not just claims but reasons and to have both these claims and reasons adjudicated in the logical space of reasons. Children, as with all who practice public discourse, must have their claims and reasons assessed for these to be admitted as candidates for …


Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms, Julia Collins, Michael E. Hess, Charles L. Lowery May 2019

Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms, Julia Collins, Michael E. Hess, Charles L. Lowery

Democracy and Education

Democratic education focuses on developing students using democratic principles and processes in the classroom. In this study, we aim to understand how self-identified democratic educators practice democratic education in public-school classrooms. Nine participants, teachers in K12 schools, were interviewed for this qualitative study. In investigating how public-school teachers implemented and sustained democratic education in their classrooms, six themes emerged—fostering relationships, empowering students, and teaching and using democratic skills, democratic educative structure, democratic teacher praxis, and obstacles.


Racism, Reform, Revolution? The Segrenomics Of American Education. A Book Review Of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, And The End Of Public Education, Sue Ellen Henry, Michael Drabich, Charlotte Detwiler, Katelyn Kempf, Katherine Kromer, Anthony Scrima, Kafilat Oladiran, Melanie Scurto, Will Simonson, Janey Woo Oct 2018

Racism, Reform, Revolution? The Segrenomics Of American Education. A Book Review Of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, And The End Of Public Education, Sue Ellen Henry, Michael Drabich, Charlotte Detwiler, Katelyn Kempf, Katherine Kromer, Anthony Scrima, Kafilat Oladiran, Melanie Scurto, Will Simonson, Janey Woo

Democracy and Education

A review of the book Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education, by Noliwe Rooks (The New Press, 2017).


Segregation, The “Black Spatial Imagination,” And Radical Social Transformation, Pauline Lipman Oct 2018

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 …


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 Apr 2018

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 …


Drawing On The Past To Open Up Possible Futures. A Response To "The Cultural Contours Of Democracy: Indigenous Epistemologies Informing South African Citizenship", John Ambrosio Apr 2018

Drawing On The Past To Open Up Possible Futures. A Response To "The Cultural Contours Of Democracy: Indigenous Epistemologies Informing South African Citizenship", John Ambrosio

Democracy and Education

This article is a response to a qualitative study that examined how the indigenous African notion of ubuntu informs how some school teachers in a Black township in South Africa conceptualize Western-oriented narratives of democracy. While the study acknowledges important differences in how ubuntu is understood and defined, the author argues that it nonetheless tends to overlook them in order to harness ubuntu as a force for positive social change and national development. The author argues that ubuntu could potentially serve as a powerful cultural force for change, but this requires a context in which some of the moral qualities …


Open, Risky, And Antioppressive: Hope For An Agonistic Deliberative Model. A Response To "Empowering Young People Through Conflict And Conciliation: Attending To The Political And Agonism In Democratic Education", Matthew Thomas-Reid Apr 2018

Open, Risky, And Antioppressive: Hope For An Agonistic Deliberative Model. A Response To "Empowering Young People Through Conflict And Conciliation: Attending To The Political And Agonism In Democratic Education", Matthew Thomas-Reid

Democracy and Education

First, I review the context for the need of new deliberative models, specifically agonistic deliberative models, for public discourse and for use in training students for public discourse. I then highlight five specific points that I trouble and enrich, principally through the work of Giroux, Arendt, Biesta, and Duarte. While I agree that there is great value in Lo’s description of the agonistic deliberative model, I advocate for what Biesta would call a weaker model of deliberation, one that sets the conditions for transformative education but one that does not act as an instrument for it.


Political Emotions In The Classroom: How Affective Citizenship Education Illuminates The Debate Between Agonists And Deliberators, Michalinos Zembylas Apr 2018

Political Emotions In The Classroom: How Affective Citizenship Education Illuminates The Debate Between Agonists And Deliberators, Michalinos Zembylas

Democracy and Education

This is a response to Ásgeir Tryggvason’s argument that the deliberative critique of the agonistic approach to citizenship education is based on a misreading of the main concepts in agonistic theory—a misreading that has important implications for any attempt to bring closer agonism and deliberation in citizenship education. My aim in this response is to offer some clarifying comments and questions and suggest some further ideas for expanding Tryggvason’s analysis, highlighting in particular two perspectives that, in my view, deserve further attention in citizenship education: first, the consequences of cultivating agonistic emotions in the classroom; and, second, the possibilities and …


Contention And Conversation In The K–12 Classroom. A Review Essay Of Teaching Controversial Issues And The Case For Contention, Robert Kunzman Apr 2018

Contention And Conversation In The K–12 Classroom. A Review Essay Of Teaching Controversial Issues And The Case For Contention, Robert Kunzman

Democracy and Education

This review essay explores the complexities and challenges involved in addressing controversial issues in the K–12 public school classroom, drawing from two recent books: Noddings and Brooks’s Teaching Controversial Issues: The Case for Critical Thinking and Moral Commitment in the Classroom and Zimmerman and Robertson’s The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools. This educational work requires thoughtful preparation by teachers, support from administrators and communities, and careful discernment about whether issues require pedagogical neutrality or directive instruction. Teaching young people how to understand unfamiliar perspectives and engage respectfully across ethical disagreement should be a fundamental priority for …


Education For Deliberative Democracy And The Aim Of Consensus, Martin Samuelsson Apr 2018

Education For Deliberative Democracy And The Aim Of Consensus, Martin Samuelsson

Democracy and Education

The aim of consensus is essential to deliberative democracy. However, this aim has also been frequently criticized. In this article, I present two different forms of criticism against consensus in democratic education. The first, articulated by scholars of education for democracy, claims that the aim of consensus fails to account for the conflictual nature of democracy and thereby disallows disagreement and dissensus. The second, formulated by classroom practitioners, argues that it disrupts the pattern of communication in classroom discussions. I nevertheless attempt to defend consensus on both accounts by arguing that it is a multifaceted concept that allows for different …


Improving Equality Through Study In The Humanities. A Book Review Of Education And Equality, Jane Blanken-Webb Dec 2017

Improving Equality Through Study In The Humanities. A Book Review Of Education And Equality, Jane Blanken-Webb

Democracy and Education

Danielle Allen’s recent book, Education and Equality, forwards a much-needed perspective for considering the relationship between education and equality in an era in which the value of education seems to be almost unquestionably commensurate with the economic payback it produces in terms of future job earnings. Rather than thinking of education only as a proxy for the transmission of technical know-how and skill that can lead to higher-paying jobs and ultimately improve conditions of economic inequality in our society, Allen took up the intrinsic relationship between education and equality in which the practice of human development, in itself, contributes …


Democracy Dies In Dualisms. A Response To “Dewey And Democracy”, Dan Sarofian-Butin Dec 2017

Democracy Dies In Dualisms. A Response To “Dewey And Democracy”, Dan Sarofian-Butin

Democracy and Education

This essay reviews Atkinson’s article “Dewey and Democracy” and argues that while Dewey and the social foundations classroom may indeed be important for teacher preparation, it is not in the way Atkinson suggests. Namely, I argue that Atkinson’s essay has three distinct (yet interrelated) issues: his problematic oversimplifications, what I term as “Dewey doesn’t do dualisms”; his misreading of Dewey, where I point out that “Dewey doesn’t do debate”; and his unexamined positionality, where I make clear that “Dewey doesn’t do Descartes.” I conclude this essay with a different perspective of a way forward with Dewey: that Dewey’s antifoundationalism serves …


Seeking Democracy Inside, And Outside, Of Education: Re-Conceptualizing Perceptions And Experiences Related To Democracy And Education, Paul R. Carr, Gina Thésée Dec 2017

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 …


Countering The Neos: Dewey And A Democratic Ethos In Teacher Education, Jamie C. Atkinson Dec 2017

Countering The Neos: Dewey And A Democratic Ethos In Teacher Education, Jamie C. Atkinson

Democracy and Education

Neoliberalism and neoconservatism are two ideologies that currently plague education. The individualistic free-market ideology of neoliberalism and the unbridled nationalistic exceptionalism associated with neoconservatism often breed a narrowed, overstandardized curriculum and a hyper-testing environment that discourage critical intellectual practice and democratic ideas. Dewey’s philosophy of education indicates that he understood that education is political and can be undemocratic. Dewey’s holistic pragmatism, combined with aspects of social reconstructionism, called for a philosophical movement that favors democratic schooling. This paper defines neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies and makes a case for including more critique within teacher preparation programs, what Dewey and other educationists …


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 May 2017

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 May 2017

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 …


The Complex Reasons For Missing Spirituality. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", Marian De Souza Dr May 2017

The Complex Reasons For Missing Spirituality. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", Marian De Souza Dr

Democracy and Education

This article is written in response to Lingley’s (2016) concept of spiritually responsive pedagogy. To begin with, the word spiritual, when applied to education, still attracts varied responses. Therefore, I have begun by examining contemporary understandings of spirituality as reflected in current research and literature, which provides an informed context for my response. I follow up by aligning some of the key features noted by Lingley in democratic education and spiritually responsive pedagogy to other perspectives that deal with the spiritual dimension in education; I do this in order to offer a supportive stance to Lingley’s assertion that, if …


Teaching Spirituality As Ontology In Public Schools. A Response To "Democratic Foundations Of Spiritual Responsive Pedagogy", Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon May 2017

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 …


Is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Enough? Toward Culturally “Real”-Evant Curriculum. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", James A. Gambrell May 2017

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 …


The Critique Of Deliberative Discussion. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy: A Typology Of Classroom Discussions", David I. Backer May 2017

The Critique Of Deliberative Discussion. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy: A Typology Of Classroom Discussions", David I. Backer

Democracy and Education

My response to Samuelsson’s (2016) recent essay offers a different paradigm with which to think about education, deliberative discussion and democracy. I call this paradigm the critique of deliberative discussion. Following Ruitenberg’s application of Mouffe’s critiques of deliberative democracy to education, the critique of deliberative discussion focuses on what Jameson called the “political unconscious” of deliberative discussions like those presented by Samuelsson. There is literature that critique traditionally moderate-liberal notions of deliberative discussion, which Samuelsson defines his typology: reason, willingness to listen, and consensus. While others, like Ruitenberg, have developed this critique of deliberative-democratic citizenship education, the critique of deliberative …


Being Critical About Being Critical. A Response To "Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education", Nicholas C. Burbules Nov 2016

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.