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Full-Text Articles in Education

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 …


Reenvisioning Education For Civic Engagement In The Social Media Century, Ryan T. Knowles Oct 2018

Reenvisioning Education For Civic Engagement In The Social Media Century, Ryan T. Knowles

Democracy and Education

The reviewed article, “The Impact of Student Political Identity Over the Course of an Online Controversial Issue Discussion,” represents a timely response to the eye-opening influences of social media in modern political climates. Particularly, the project provides a useful model and relevant findings for future teachers and teacher educators to incorporate online political discussions. The study clearly demonstrates the value of online discussions, especially in mixed partisan groups. Based on the findings, three additional considerations were identified and elaborated on within this response. These include a renewed consideration of quantitative analysis, a focus of identity in civic education, and a …


The Impact Of Student Political Identity Over The Course Of An Online Controversial Issue Discussion, Christopher H. Clark Oct 2018

The Impact Of Student Political Identity Over The Course Of An Online Controversial Issue Discussion, Christopher H. Clark

Democracy and Education

As civic educators become increasingly concerned about polarized political environments, researchers have begun explore the ramifications of contentious political discourse on young people. Through a quantitative analysis of data gathered from two rural, Midwestern schools, this study provides evidence that the degree to which a student socially identifies with a political party is influential over the course of an online discussion. Strength of identification was associated with students’ relative amount of knowledge for and against their position on a controversial issue and with the types of contributions students made to the online forum.


Human Rights Education In Different Contexts. A Book Review Of Human Rights And Schooling: An Ethical Framework For Teaching For Social Justice, Steven P. Camicia Apr 2018

Human Rights Education In Different Contexts. A Book Review Of Human Rights And Schooling: An Ethical Framework For Teaching For Social Justice, Steven P. Camicia

Democracy and Education

In her book, Human rights and schooling: An ethical framework for teaching for social justice, Audrey Osler covered design and implementation of human rights education (HRE) within local and global contexts, as well as for students ranging from childhood to university levels. One of the central themes that Osler developed throughout the book is a complex recognition of diversity while embracing solidarity in the name of social justice. Osler supported the development of her framework through examples from multiple contexts around the globe where HRE education has been implemented. These tangible illustrations from her experiences and research provided pictures …


Renewed Commitment To Democratic Schools. A Book Review Of These Schools Belong To You And Me: Why We Can’T Afford To Abandon Our Public Schools, Pamela Fisher Apr 2018

Renewed Commitment To Democratic Schools. A Book Review Of These Schools Belong To You And Me: Why We Can’T Afford To Abandon Our Public Schools, Pamela Fisher

Democracy and Education

In These Schools Belong to You and Me, renowned educator Deborah Meier partners with a younger former colleague, Emily Gasoi, to offer both a multigenerational perspective of their successful work in small, autonomous, democratic schools and a rich commentary on the evolution of the small schools movement in light of the recent press for high-stakes accountability. Writing in alternating chapters and reflecting on their decades of experience, MacArthur award winner Meier and Gasoi present a compelling argument for renewed support for democracy and equity in all our public schools.


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 …


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 …


Deliberating Public Policy Issues With Adolescents: Classroom Dynamics And Sociocultural Considerations, Margaret S. Crocco, Avner Segall, Anne-Lise S. Halvorsen, Rebecca J. Jacobsen Apr 2018

Deliberating Public Policy Issues With Adolescents: Classroom Dynamics And Sociocultural Considerations, Margaret S. Crocco, Avner Segall, Anne-Lise S. Halvorsen, Rebecca J. Jacobsen

Democracy and Education

Classroom discussion and deliberation have been widely touted in the research literature as a centerpiece of high quality civic education. Empirical studies, however, of such processes are relatively few. In a public policy deliberation on immigration conducted in three Midwestern high schools during the academic year 2015–16, the authors found that analysis of a set of deliberations on the subject of immigration policy in the United States reveals the ways in which sociocultural identity aspects of the settings and participants influenced the processes and dynamics of these classroom events. Reflecting upon this analysis suggests a set of factors that reveal …


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 …


Democratic Education And Agonism: Exploring The Critique From Deliberative Theory, Ásgeir Tryggvason Apr 2018

Democratic Education And Agonism: Exploring The Critique From Deliberative Theory, Ásgeir Tryggvason

Democracy and Education

Due to the current political challenges facing democratic societies, including an apparent presence of populist rhetoric, the question of how political discussions should take place in democratic education is as urgent as ever. In the last two decades, one of the most prominent approaches to this question has been the use of deliberative theory. However, the deliberative approach has been criticized from an agonistic perspective for neglecting the role of emotions in political discussions. Deliberative theorists have in turn responded to this critique and argued that the agonistic approach tends to put too much emphasis on students’ emotions and identities …