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Full-Text Articles in Education

Vincentian Education: The Role Of Compassion, Jerrold Ross Dec 2016

Vincentian Education: The Role Of Compassion, Jerrold Ross

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

The renowned Vincentian Center of St John's University brings with it additional prestige and recognition to the research faculties who produce important findings for all levels of Catholic education and for the perpetuation of a tradition long associated with the University. Beginning with Catholic education in preschool and continuing through higher education, Vincentian education, now in its second century, should provide Hope, answer our dreams and refresh its reaction to a vibrant social context, so that people can understand its meaning beyond philosophical statements.


The Heart Of Vincentian Higher Education, Dennis H. Holtschneider Cm. Dec 2016

The Heart Of Vincentian Higher Education, Dennis H. Holtschneider Cm.

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

It means a great deal to me to be here at St. John’s University, where I began my university service twenty-seven years ago. It has been my own great joy to spend my life in Vincentian education. Working in Vincentian Universities combines my love for the intellectual life with a desire to serve the poor that I myself received because I attended a Vincentian university in my youth. And it’s the great heart of a Vincentian university to see possibility in ALL the young. I doubt that Bishop Loughlin, whose idea that there should be a university for immigrants led …


Jovsa: Editorial, Marc E. Gillespie Dec 2016

Jovsa: Editorial, Marc E. Gillespie

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Vincentian Universities are engaged in service at so many levels and in so many ways, yet it is easy to move through our day unaware of the herculean efforts that our students and colleagues are engaged in. The Vincentian Universities seem rooted in the idea of service. For us, service is not another trend that we adopted, but rather it has always been part of our constitution. The work presented in this issue provides two direct examples of how we can better serve.


What Kind Of Teacher For Our Citizens? A Book Review Of What Kind Of Citizen? Educating Our Children For The Common Good, Tony Decesare Nov 2016

What Kind Of Teacher For Our Citizens? A Book Review Of What Kind Of Citizen? Educating Our Children For The Common Good, Tony Decesare

Democracy and Education

Westheimer’s central argument in What Kind of Citizen? Educating our Children for the Common Good is that the current climate around public education—marked, in general, by standardization in our schools—is not conducive to the development of thoughtful and critically engaged public citizens. Westheimer demonstrated convincingly that schools—in response to recent education reform and, in some cases, pressure from parents and other education stakeholders—have increasingly emphasized individual goals at the expense of educating children for the common good. Furthermore and related, in this age of standardized testing, school curricula have become more narrowly focused on achievement in math and literacy at …


When Theory Doesn't Necessarily Meet Practice. A Book Review Of Youth, Critical Literacies, And Civic Engagement: Arts, Media And Literacy In The Lives Of Adolescents, Matthew Goldwasser Nov 2016

When Theory Doesn't Necessarily Meet Practice. A Book Review Of Youth, Critical Literacies, And Civic Engagement: Arts, Media And Literacy In The Lives Of Adolescents, Matthew Goldwasser

Democracy and Education

A book review of Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement by T. Rogers, K.-L. Winters, M. Perry, and A.M. LaMonde. In Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic Engagement, the authors presented three analytic vignettes from field work at three sites where youth employed either writing and publishing, filmmaking, or theater performance to make critical claims about their everyday lives and social issues that directly affect them. The authors used critical theory to link their empirical data to larger enterprises of resistance and counter narratives about how society views youth. They further posited that these efforts are examples of civic engagement. …


The Changing Challenges Of Transformational Resistance. A Response To "Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South", Edmund T. Hamann Nov 2016

The Changing Challenges Of Transformational Resistance. A Response To "Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South", Edmund T. Hamann

Democracy and Education

A long-time researcher of "education in the New Latino Diaspora" considers how ephemeral the demographic and sociopolitical contexts were for the endeavors captured in "Building the Dream" but concurs with the aptness of considering the five focal students’ participation in a local Spanish radio program as acts of transformational resistance (Solorzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) with particular consequences for their sense of coming-of-age into a welcoming intergenerational Latino community.


Is Group Therapy Democratic? Enduring Consequences Of Outward Bound’S Alignment With The Human Potential Movement. A Response To “How To Be Nice And Get What You Want: Structural Referents Of 'Self’ And ‘Other’ In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice.", Jayson Seaman Nov 2016

Is Group Therapy Democratic? Enduring Consequences Of Outward Bound’S Alignment With The Human Potential Movement. A Response To “How To Be Nice And Get What You Want: Structural Referents Of 'Self’ And ‘Other’ In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice.", Jayson Seaman

Democracy and Education

Franklin Vernon provided an example of how programs viewing themselves as “cultural islands” are in fact embedded within historical capitalist relations, through the discourses of self that they promote. In this response, I expand on Vernon’s argument to situate the quasi-therapeutic practices he identified in the history of the human potential movement, which effectively merged with Outward Bound starting in the 1960s and continues to define outdoor experiential education. Where Vernon sought the structural referents to different models of self, this response seeks their historical origins. The response concludes by linking Vernon’s argument with existing critiques and parallel efforts in …


Media Literacy As Mindful Practice For Democratic Education. A Response To “Transaction Circles With Digital Texts As A Foundation For Democratic Practices”, Theresa Redmond Nov 2016

Media Literacy As Mindful Practice For Democratic Education. A Response To “Transaction Circles With Digital Texts As A Foundation For Democratic Practices”, Theresa Redmond

Democracy and Education

This essay is a response to Brown’s (2015) article describing her strategy of transaction circles as a student-centered, culturally responsive, and democratic literacy practice. In my response, I provide further evidence from the field of media literacy education (MLE) that serves to enhance Brown’s argument for using transaction circles in order to promote democratic discourse, specifically augmenting her ideas by connecting the purposes and processes of transaction circles with key implications of media literacy pedagogy. I invite Brown to consider how her concept of transaction circles may be extended in three ways: (a) through acknowledging the indispensable role of the …


Deliberative Democracy: A Contested Interactive Space. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Esperanza De La Vega Nov 2016

Deliberative Democracy: A Contested Interactive Space. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Esperanza De La Vega

Democracy and Education

This is a response to Liggett’s (2014) call to implement “deliberate democracy” in English language education classrooms. While the concept of participating in deliberate democracy is a solid ideal and worthy of pursuit, I present questions and scenarios that illustrate the complicated nature of the tasks. By sharing my testimonio along with the research, I propose that in order for teachers to guide their students' participation in deliberate democratic activities, they must step back and understand the context of the sociocultural interactive space created in the classroom and whether ELL students are able to and/or prepared to speak in an …


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.


Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley Nov 2016

Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley

Democracy and Education

Spirituality has been identified as an important component of democratic education by influential scholars such as Dewey, Freire, hooks, and Noddings. However, many teachers in the United States do not engage openly with a framework for understanding, organizing, and integrating pedagogical knowledge of spirituality within the context of culturally conscious social justice education. Drawing from an analysis of the works of Dewey, Noddings, Freire, and hooks and using a critical construct of spirituality that emphasizes inquiry, practical experience, meaning making, and awareness of interconnectedness, I argue that spiritually responsive pedagogy is a vital element of emancipatory, culturally responsive education in …


Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie Nov 2016

Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie

Democracy and Education

This article was written by a white high school teacher (Sam) and a high school student of color (Cristina) in order to consider the harmful potential for schools in the United States to commoditize students of color at the expense of critical, antiracist work. It was written out of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study and uses a critical whiteness framework in order to examine how Cristina, in dialogue with Sam, came to theorize that her racial identity was commoditized as a cultural asset of their high school in exploitative ways. Her thinking, juxtaposed with Sam’s consideration of his …


Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education, Lisa A. Sibbett Nov 2016

Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education, Lisa A. Sibbett

Democracy and Education

This article uses a well-received recent text—Hess and McAvoy’s The Political Classroom—to suggest that democratic citizenship education today has a social accountability problem. I locate this discussion in the context of a longstanding conflict between the critical thinking approach to democratic citizenship education, the approach typified by The Political Classroom, and the critical pedagogical approach, which has an equal but opposite problem, that of indoctrination. If democratic citizenship educators are truly interested in transforming the social order, I suggest, then we need to listen appreciatively, and respond thoughtfully, to critiques of the approach we favor. The article ends …


Transforming Educational Leadership Preparation: Starting With Ourselves, Patricia L. Guerra, Barbara L. Pazey Oct 2016

Transforming Educational Leadership Preparation: Starting With Ourselves, Patricia L. Guerra, Barbara L. Pazey

The Qualitative Report

To lead for social justice, scholars have maintained aspiring leaders should examine their own values and beliefs that dictate, to a great extent, their day-to-day decision-making and responsibilities. To do so requires faculty to examine themselves before they can prepare leaders for social justice. The purpose of this paper is to engage others with similar interests toward creating and/or improving programs designed to prepare leaders for social justice. Serving as a source of data and method of analysis, this duoethnography chronicles the life histories of two faculty members working in different leadership programs to reveal how their understanding of diversity …


Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge "Common Sense." A Response To "The Political Nuances Of Narratives And An Urban Educator's Response", Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales May 2016

Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge "Common Sense." A Response To "The Political Nuances Of Narratives And An Urban Educator's Response", Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales

Democracy and Education

In this response to “The Political Nuances of Narratives and an Urban Educator’s Response,” the authors applaud Pearman’s critical approach to deconstructing and challenging narratives of heroic figures who single-handedly change the world and agree with him that these narratives restrict the sense of agency that may propel citizens to become actively involved in social change efforts. We argue that it is important to question why these narratives exist and to understand them in light of the hegemonic capitalist structure that exploits the masses in service to the capitalist class. Although we agree with Pearman that democracy is best served …


The Missing Elements Of Change. A Response To "Youth Change Agents: Comparing The Sociopolitical Identities Of Youth Organizers And Youth Commissioners", Matthew L. Goldwasser May 2016

The Missing Elements Of Change. A Response To "Youth Change Agents: Comparing The Sociopolitical Identities Of Youth Organizers And Youth Commissioners", Matthew L. Goldwasser

Democracy and Education

By establishing a set of theoretical frameworks to view and compare the work of youth organizers and youth commissioners, and through personal interviews, the authors of the paper “Youth Change Agents: Comparing the Sociopolitical Identities of Youth Organizers and Youth Commissioners” presented their explanation of the development of the sociopolitical identities and civic commitments of each group. This response paper asks questions about the authors’ limited use of context and complexity to explain how their youth arrived at their opinions, perspectives, and ultimately their sociopolitical identities. Their work also raises questions of how and why civic engagement and social activism …


Reinventing The High School Government Course: Rigor, Simulations, And Learning From Text, Walter C. Parker, Jane C. Lo May 2016

Reinventing The High School Government Course: Rigor, Simulations, And Learning From Text, Walter C. Parker, Jane C. Lo

Democracy and Education

The high school government course is arguably the main site of formal civic education in the country today. This article presents the curriculum that resulted from a multiyear study aimed at improving the course. The pedagogic model, called Knowledge in Action, centers on a rigorous form of project-based learning where the projects are weeks-long simulations. The first section introduces the course and the study, the second describes the methodology and design principles, the third describes the political simulations that are the spine of the course, and the fourth examines implementation and design issues that emerged across the years. The …


Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South, Eleanor A. Petrone Dr May 2016

Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South, Eleanor A. Petrone Dr

Democracy and Education

This article examines how a group of Latino youth living in the Southeast experienced, adapted to, and resisted oppressive social structures within their community through their involvement with youth media. Through the content analysis of a teen radio show produced by and for Latino youth, in conjunction with semistructured interviews and ethnographic field notes, the author investigates how five Mexican-born high school students confronted and attempted to transform the educational practices that served to keep them subordinate. The study posits the community organization that sponsored the radio show as a pedagogical site of resistance and transformation, which provided the students …


Youth Change Agents: Comparing The Sociopolitical Identities Of Youth Organizers And Youth Commissioners, Jerusha O. Conner, Katherine Cosner May 2016

Youth Change Agents: Comparing The Sociopolitical Identities Of Youth Organizers And Youth Commissioners, Jerusha O. Conner, Katherine Cosner

Democracy and Education

Although youth have long been at the forefront of social change, the last two decades have seen an upsurge in the number of organizations, agencies, and governmental bodies dedicated to supporting the idea of youth voice in public policy. Drawing on in-depth individual interviews with 32 youth in one major urban center, this study compares how participation in differently positioned political activities influences participants’ sociopolitical identities and their views of the most effective mechanisms for social change. Specifically, this research compares youth involved in a government-sanctioned youth commission, developed to advise policymakers, with youth involved in a community-based youth organizing …