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Full-Text Articles in Education

Who’S Afraid Of Populism? A Book Review Of Political Education In Times Of Populism, Claudia W. Ruitenberg Oct 2023

Who’S Afraid Of Populism? A Book Review Of Political Education In Times Of Populism, Claudia W. Ruitenberg

Democracy and Education

Edda Sant’s Political Education in Times of Populism offers a helpful, minimalist understanding of populism. By separating the form of populism from its content, we can reserve our moral panic for particular populist movements, while understanding the role of populist contestations in the democratic process. The book offers educators new and provocative points of departure for discussing present conditions and their historical antecedents, including the role of populist movements.


Social Movements, Deliberation, And Educational Governance. A Response To “Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment”, Ellis Reid Oct 2023

Social Movements, Deliberation, And Educational Governance. A Response To “Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment”, Ellis Reid

Democracy and Education

In this response essay, the author provides an account of the role of social movements in a democracy as part of a larger argument about democratic school governance. Focusing on Black Lives Matter (BLM), the author contends that social movements like BLM support a vibrant and legitimate democracy because they constitute vital nodes in the ongoing, norm-governed conversation that constitutes democratic politics. To make this argument, the author defends an account of democratic deliberation that recognizes (1) the contribution of emotion to our capacity for reason and (2) the fact that deliberation extends beyond the confines of official democratic fora. …


Democratic Disagreements. A Book Review Of Lived Democracy In Education. Young Citizens’ Democratic Lives In Kindergarten, School And Higher Education, Sonja Helkala, Julia Jaakkola, Tuukka Tomperi May 2023

Democratic Disagreements. A Book Review Of Lived Democracy In Education. Young Citizens’ Democratic Lives In Kindergarten, School And Higher Education, Sonja Helkala, Julia Jaakkola, Tuukka Tomperi

Democracy and Education

As the title Lived Democracy in Education suggests, the predominantly Norwegian writers of the book share a deep and robust vision of democracy. Drawing on deliberative democratic theory and many other theoretical perspectives, the authors blend theory, practice, and empirical case studies to illuminate these modes of “lived democracy” in educational contexts. In particular, the book’s chapters examine different communicative interactions between children and young people, presenting these as examples of learning to live with controversies in communities of disagreement. The book contains valuable perspectives on democratic discussion in education. As several authors are experts in mathematics and science education, …


Deliberative Facilitation In The Classroom: The Interplay Of Facilitative Technique And Design To Make Space For Democracy, Kei Nishiyama, A. Wendy Russell, Pierrick Chalaye, Tom Greenwell May 2023

Deliberative Facilitation In The Classroom: The Interplay Of Facilitative Technique And Design To Make Space For Democracy, Kei Nishiyama, A. Wendy Russell, Pierrick Chalaye, Tom Greenwell

Democracy and Education

Widespread global interest and adoption of deliberative democracy approaches to reinvigorate citizenship and policymaking in an era of democratic crisis/decline has been mirrored by increasing interest in deliberation in schools, both as an approach to pedagogy and student empowerment and as a training ground for deliberative citizenship. In school deliberation, as in other settings, a key and sometimes neglected element of high-quality deliberation is facilitation. Facilitation can help to establish and maintain deliberative norms, assist participants to deliberate productively, and enable collective goals. By participating in facilitated deliberation, students can develop awareness, skills, and voice that empower them to engage …


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 …


The Impact Of Polarization On The Political Engagement Of Generation Z Elementary Preservice Teachers And Their Teaching, Patrick Keegan, Kelly P. Vaughan May 2023

The Impact Of Polarization On The Political Engagement Of Generation Z Elementary Preservice Teachers And Their Teaching, Patrick Keegan, Kelly P. Vaughan

Democracy and Education

This instrumental case study of Generation Z preservice teachers enrolled in elementary teaching methods courses in social studies and literacy explores the impact of polarization on their political engagement and teaching. Using the 2020 presidential election as a teachable moment, participants developed and taught literacy-infused civics units in order to bring to light their understandings of their role in preparing elementary students as political actors. This study has important implications for how teacher educators can better facilitate elementary preservice teachers’ own political engagement, thereby ensuring equitable democratic learning opportunities for students.


Democracy In Action: A Book Review Of John Dewey’S Imaginative Vision Of Teaching: Combining Theory And Practice, B. Jacob Del Dotto Oct 2022

Democracy In Action: A Book Review Of John Dewey’S Imaginative Vision Of Teaching: Combining Theory And Practice, B. Jacob Del Dotto

Democracy and Education

With his new book, John Dewey’s Imaginative Vision of Teaching: Combining Theory and Practice, Deron Boyles set out to explore the confluence of Deweyan practice in real-world educational settings. Arguing there is a dearth of books analyzing Dewey’s pedagogical philosophy in these settings, Boyles detailed and clarified Dewey’s imaginative vision of teaching via the blending of theory and case studies. This approach honors the merger of theory and action that characterizes Dewey’s unique brand of pragmatism. Here, Boyles gave credence to Dewey’s claim that philosophy can be recovered by applying it to our own, real-world problems. This easily accessible …


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 …


Too Much Storytelling, Too Little Democracy. A Book Review Of Critical Issues In Democratic Schooling, Bridget Brett, Emma Curtin, Sue Ellen Henry, Lili Kilkenny, Maddyson Mallory, Daija Misler, Bess Murad, Lucia Singer Oct 2021

Too Much Storytelling, Too Little Democracy. A Book Review Of Critical Issues In Democratic Schooling, Bridget Brett, Emma Curtin, Sue Ellen Henry, Lili Kilkenny, Maddyson Mallory, Daija Misler, Bess Murad, Lucia Singer

Democracy and Education

No abstract provided.


Practices To Live With, Invitations For Change. A Book Review Of Descriptive Inquiry In Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom In Create Democratic Schools, Dana Frantz Bentley Oct 2021

Practices To Live With, Invitations For Change. A Book Review Of Descriptive Inquiry In Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom In Create Democratic Schools, Dana Frantz Bentley

Democracy and Education

This review explores the discourse between theory and practice put forth in Cara E. Furman and Cecelia E. Traugh's Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools. Through the practice of descriptive inquiry, these two authors engage in a lively examination of schools and educators developing individualized democratic practices. This review explores the engaging conversations between schools, educators, and school communities as they learn to center their democratic teaching on human dignity, and a focus on practical wisdom.


Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Efforts To Foster Classroom Democracies. A Response To "Creating A Democratic Mathematics Classroom", Amanda Jansen, Lorianne Kalb, Denise Mccunney Oct 2021

Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Efforts To Foster Classroom Democracies. A Response To "Creating A Democratic Mathematics Classroom", Amanda Jansen, Lorianne Kalb, Denise Mccunney

Democracy and Education

How can middle school mathematics teachers navigate their roles as authorities in managing classroom democracies while providing their students with opportunities to exercise their rights? The concept of complementarity (Vithal, 1999) acknowledges that a teacher’s authority is not always in conflict with students’ rights or agency, but instead a teacher’s authority can be exercised judiciously to invite students to enact their rights. In this response to “Creating Democratic Mathematics Classrooms,” we take up the authors’ invitation to reflect on how we consider the role of responsibilities in classrooms that promote Torres’s Rights of the Learner. We share ways that two …


Public And Counterpublics: Rereading The Case Of Riverside Through Critical Pragmatism. A Response To "Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, And The Common Good", Kathleen Knight-Abowitz Oct 2021

Public And Counterpublics: Rereading The Case Of Riverside Through Critical Pragmatism. A Response To "Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, And The Common Good", Kathleen Knight-Abowitz

Democracy and Education

An article of empirically informed philosophical analysis of charter schooling that features local histories, voices of stakeholders, and an optimistic view on the democratic potential of charter school policies, the original piece presents a compelling, if extreme, case of charter school formation. In this response, I offer an alternative theoretical framing to the case. I argue that the scholarship of constitutional scholars is much less relevant as an interpretive lens on the case than more critical, contemporary pragmatist thinkers. I hope to show in this response how Deweyan political philosophy might have been used throughout the argument to produce a …


Scientifically Based Research And Teacher Agency: Combating “Conspiracies Of Certainty”, Kurt Stemhagen, Brionna C. Nomi Oct 2021

Scientifically Based Research And Teacher Agency: Combating “Conspiracies Of Certainty”, Kurt Stemhagen, Brionna C. Nomi

Democracy and Education

This project considers how certain types of educational research position teachers as problems to be managed or worked around. We start with a discussion of scientifically based research (SBR), particularly how the quest for generalization/objectivity are often pursued at the expense of relevance. We use the way teachers are positioned in the growing field of Implementation Science as an example of what’s wrong with SBR. A fundamental tension emerges—researchers’ need for scientific control is inescapably at odds with the idea of teacher as professional. Finally, we provide an example of an approach that has potential to counter the SBR-influenced idea …


Without A Philosophy, Chaos Ensues. A Book Review Of When Kids Rule The School: The Power And Promise Of Democratic Education , Kara Follosco, Sue Ellen Henry, Victoria Loffredo, Tyler Rifkin, Garbielle Walsh May 2021

Without A Philosophy, Chaos Ensues. A Book Review Of When Kids Rule The School: The Power And Promise Of Democratic Education , Kara Follosco, Sue Ellen Henry, Victoria Loffredo, Tyler Rifkin, Garbielle Walsh

Democracy and Education

This is a book review of When Kids Rule The School, by Jim Rietmulder.


Discussing Controversial Issues: Exploring The Role Of Agonistic Emotions, Emil Sætra May 2021

Discussing Controversial Issues: Exploring The Role Of Agonistic Emotions, Emil Sætra

Democracy and Education

Drawing on recent work on affective citizenship and agonistic emotions, this article explores the role of emotions in discussions of controversial issues in Norwegian high schools. Empirical material was collected through individual interviews with 11 teachers (two of whom were interviewed together) and group interviews with 28 students (five or six students per group). This study contributes to the literature on the teaching of controversial issues by shedding light on the affective dynamics and emotional complexities involved. This task was carried out along two interrelated lines of inquiry. First, it explored the role of emotions in starting and sustaining discussions …


Creating A Democratic Mathematics Classroom: The Interplay Of The Rights And Responsibilities Of The Learner, Priya V. Prasad, Crystal Kalinec-Craig May 2021

Creating A Democratic Mathematics Classroom: The Interplay Of The Rights And Responsibilities Of The Learner, Priya V. Prasad, Crystal Kalinec-Craig

Democracy and Education

One way in which democratic classrooms can reflect a democracy is by guaranteeing students some inalienable rights; Kalinec-Craig (2017) outlined Olga Torres’s Rights of the Learner (Torres’s RotL) in mathematics classrooms. However, democracies rely not only on citizens’ rights, but on their willingness to take up certain responsibilities as well. We extend this idea to mathematics classrooms to explore the consequences of the interplay of learners’ rights and responsibilities, in the context of the preparation of elementary mathematics teachers. In addition, we explore ways in which learners may overexercise their rights of the learner or opt out of exercising them …


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.


A Vision For Change. A Book Review Of Questioning Allegiance: Resituating Civic Education, Sherri Sklarwitz Oct 2020

A Vision For Change. A Book Review Of Questioning Allegiance: Resituating Civic Education, Sherri Sklarwitz

Democracy and Education

In a time where global tensions are running high and productive dialogue on conflict resolution feels difficult to come by, Questioning Allegiance: Resituating Civic Education (2019) provides a rousing and well-researched manifesto to provide a compelling argument for creating a global system of civic education that will teach people to live together in a way that leads to positive social change.


Understanding Conflict In Education For Democracy. A Response To "The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education", Steven P. Camicia Oct 2020

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 …


The Morning Meeting: Fostering A Participatory Democracy Begins With Youth In Public Education, Rebecca C. Tilhou Oct 2020

The Morning Meeting: Fostering A Participatory Democracy Begins With Youth In Public Education, Rebecca C. Tilhou

Democracy and Education

There is a faltering sense of democracy in America’s current political climate due to polarized opinions about leadership’s decisions and antagonistic political parties. John Dewey (1916) proposed that education is the place to foster democracy, as schools can provide a platform to actively engage students in authentic democratic experiences that will empower them to act democratically beyond the walls of the school. The democratic schools that emerged during the Free School Movement of the 1960s and 1970s embody Dewey’s philosophy, specifically with the shared governance occurring in their School Meetings. Unfortunately, American public education’s present preoccupation with standardization, proficiency scores, …


That's My Voice! Participation And Democratic Citizenship In The Early Childhood Classroom, Monica Miller Marsh, Elizabeth A. Kenyon, Terri Cardy, Erin M. West Oct 2020

That's My Voice! Participation And Democratic Citizenship In The Early Childhood Classroom, Monica Miller Marsh, Elizabeth A. Kenyon, Terri Cardy, Erin M. West

Democracy and Education

This paper shares a participatory action research study conducted by a team of researchers at a university laboratory school in collaboration with three classroom teachers and 60 preschoolers. The team engaged in this research in order to examine the ways in which school personnel could generate more authentic community service experiences with, rather than simply for, children. Findings illustrate that with the support of adults, children generated ways to address issues, discussed their ideas with adults, reflected on their actions, and understood that their voices were being heard beyond the school community. With this increased participation, young people were able …


Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community, Yannis Pechtelidis, Alexandros Kioupkiolis May 2020

Education As Commons, Children As Commoners: The Case Study Of The Little Tree Community, Yannis Pechtelidis, Alexandros Kioupkiolis

Democracy and Education

This paper presents the emergent paradigm of the "commons" as an alternative value and action system in the field of education, and it critically draws out the implications of the commons for refiguring education and its potential contribution to democratic transformation. The paper delves into an independent pedagogical community, Little Tree, which is active in early childhood education and care, aiming to explore the ways in which children conduct themselves in accordance with the ethics and the logics of the commons and to show how they thereby unsettle the conventional meaning of citizenship. Proceeding from an enlarged notion of the …


Negating Amy Gutmann: Deliberative Democracy, Business Influence, And Segmentation Strategies In Education, Brian Ford May 2020

Negating Amy Gutmann: Deliberative Democracy, Business Influence, And Segmentation Strategies In Education, Brian Ford

Democracy and Education

The task of creating a public will is daunting in any political system, but a democracy dedicated to the principles of participation and public deliberation faces specific challenges, including overcoming organized opposition that may not accept democratic tenets. In the sphere of education (and social reproduction more generally), business-influenced movements to reform public education question many of the established goals and norms of democratic education and thus may be the vanguard of such opposition. In order to interpret and explore these movements, this article enlists Amy Gutmann's work as a heuristic device. In so doing, it looks at the task …


The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education, Kiel F. Harell May 2020

The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education, Kiel F. Harell

Democracy and Education

Deliberative democracy surfaces disagreements so that people holding conflicting stances understand each other’s reasons for the purpose of decision-making. Democratic education approaches should provide students with the opportunity to learn and practice how to address conflict in the collective decision-making process. In this paper, I examine the Foxfire Course for Teachers, a professional development retreat in which teachers learn to practice democratic teaching by themselves experiencing democratic decision-making. In particular, a series of disagreements among course participants is analyzed in detail to understand the learning that resulted and the conditions that supported that learning. As a result of this experiential …


Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq+-Inclusive Curriculum. A Book Review Of Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq-Inclusive Curriculum: Opportunities And Constraints, Matthew A. Thomas-Reid May 2020

Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq+-Inclusive Curriculum. A Book Review Of Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq-Inclusive Curriculum: Opportunities And Constraints, Matthew A. Thomas-Reid

Democracy and Education

With the aim of promoting the democratic education values of inclusion equity and social justice using a queer theoretical framework to identify and deconstruct normalizing forces, author Camicia sets the reader up for a deep analysis of educational practice, policy, and curriculum using Utah and California as concrete illustrations of democratic inclusive curriculum. Camicia's book ends with an epilogue “discussing a rationale for using auto-ethnography within curriculum in order to increase inclusion," which opens up excellent possibilities for future research.


Dialectic Of Empathy. A Book Review Of Educating For Empathy: Literacy Learning And Civic Engagement, Dan Deweese May 2020

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, …


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. …


The Struggle For Strong Democracy: We Need To Go Deeper. A Response To "Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms", Rick Ayers May 2020

The Struggle For Strong Democracy: We Need To Go Deeper. A Response To "Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms", Rick Ayers

Democracy and Education

The article by Collins, Hess, and Lowery (2019) explores struggles teachers faced in order to pursue Deweyan educational practices. This response proposes that even more is needed for a critical educational practice, called “strong democracy.” Such an approach requires addressing and countering the White supremacist legacy of U.S. capitalism and U.S. education. The article advances examples and various projects in strong democratic education.


Restoring The Political: Exploring The Complexities Of Agonistic Deliberation In Classrooms, John Ambrosio May 2019

Restoring The Political: Exploring The Complexities Of Agonistic Deliberation In Classrooms, John Ambrosio

Democracy and Education

This article is a response to a theoretical and philosophical examination of agonistic deliberation in classrooms, which requires accepting the legitimacy of perspectives that are outside of prevailing societal norms and the expression of political emotion. The author argues that students must develop certain dispositions to achieve productive ends in negotiations and that the role of teachers in the deliberative process must be clarified. He concludes that modifying instructional practices to include agonistic deliberation can potentially open up public spaces in classrooms for more inclusive and equitable deliberative practices.


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 …