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Full-Text Articles in Education

A Review Of Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs The Humanities, Laura A. Desisto Oct 2011

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).


Imagining How To Break The Co-Optation Of A Consensus. A Response To “Imagining No Child Left Behind Freed From Neoliberal Hijackers”, Herve Varenne Oct 2011

Imagining How To Break The Co-Optation Of A Consensus. A Response To “Imagining No Child Left Behind Freed From Neoliberal Hijackers”, Herve Varenne

Democracy and Education

Given that I share, mostly, Eugene Matusov’s passionate concerns, picking on his vocabulary might appear pedantic. However, the issues involved in labeling political movements and, even more, political practices, can be fundamental and address the very grounds on which social analysis must stand. Briefly, I am concerned with the label neo-liberal, particularly when it is used as an epithet and blinds us to actual processes. I end with some, perhaps optimistic, remarks about the rise of educational activities that are not already marked for measurement on any pass/fail scale.


Race To The Top: An Example Of Belief-Dependent Reality. A Response To "Race To The Top Leaves Children And Future Citizens Behind", William J. Mathis Oct 2011

Race To The Top: An Example Of Belief-Dependent Reality. A Response To "Race To The Top Leaves Children And Future Citizens Behind", William J. Mathis

Democracy and Education

Although the federal government claims otherwise, Race to the Top is not research based. Rather, its foundation is in ideology and belief-based realism. The overall effort is fundamentally antiscientific and distracts valuable and needed attention, resources, and focus from the nation's real problems of social, economic, and educational deprivation.


Imagining No Child Left Behind Freed From Neoliberal Hijackers, Eugene Matusov Oct 2011

Imagining No Child Left Behind Freed From Neoliberal Hijackers, Eugene Matusov

Democracy and Education

As a sociocultural educator and scholar, I have always been ambivalent about No Child Left Behind's slogan. I like its democratic ideal of “education without failure,” but I do not like the current educational policies guided by a neoliberal ideology. This article begins a discussion about what a No Student Left Behind educational practice might look like from a sociocultural democratic education perspective.


Race To The Top Leaves Children And Future Citizens Behind: The Devastating Effects Of Centralization, Standardization, And High Stakes Accountability, Joe Onosko Oct 2011

Race To The Top Leaves Children And Future Citizens Behind: The Devastating Effects Of Centralization, Standardization, And High Stakes Accountability, Joe Onosko

Democracy and Education

President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top (RTT) is a profoundly flawed educational reform plan that increases standardization, centralization, and test-based accountability in our nation’s schools. Following a brief summary of the interest groups supporting the plan, who is currently participating in this race, why so many states voluntarily submitted proposals, and what features of the plan that are most problematic, eight arguments are offered as to why RTT is highly detrimental to our nation.


The Courage To Critique Policies And Practices From Within: Youth Participatory Action Research As Critical Policy Analysis. A Response To “Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School”, Anjale Welton Apr 2011

The Courage To Critique Policies And Practices From Within: Youth Participatory Action Research As Critical Policy Analysis. A Response To “Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School”, Anjale Welton

Democracy and Education

This response to “Buscando la Libertad: Latino Youths in Search of Freedom in School” by Jason G. Irizarry demonstrates how youth participatory action research (YPAR) as an instrument of subverting oppressive school policies and structures is a form of critical policy analysis (CPA). As an evolving method, CPA acknowledges the absent voices in policy, questions policy inequities, fosters empowerment, and influences policy. Youths who engage in YPAR, as demonstrated by Project FUERTE, have the courage to critique school policies that have the power to alter their educational trajectories, which offers more hope for change than scholarly elites who critique policies …


Schooling For Democracy, Nel Noddings Apr 2011

Schooling For Democracy, Nel Noddings

Democracy and Education

There is a widespread movement today to prepare all students for college, and it is promoted in the name of democracy. I argue here that such a move actually puts our democracy at risk by forcing students into programs that do not interest them and depriving them of courses at which they might succeed. We risk losing the vision of democracy that respects every form of honest work and cultivates a deep appreciation of interdependence.