Education Commons^™

Liberating Children, Or Breaking The Backbone Of Our Democracy? A Book Review Of Hostages No More: The Fight For Education Freedom And The Future Of The American Child, Jeffrey Frenkiewich

Democracy and Education

In Hostages No More, former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos provides a 10-chapter memoir in which she argues for school privatization, including the expansion of government funding of charter schools. DeVos argues that the modern public education system, supported by an “establishment” of government bureaucracies, the education industrial complex, and teacher unions, holds American children, especially poor Black and Hispanic children, “hostage” (DeVos, 2022, p. 261) and that her life’s work has been a civil rights struggle to help parents and their children obtain their “education freedom” (p. 216). However, many of her claims are supported with misleading information, and …

The Privatization Movement Is Not Dead! A Book Review Of A Wolf At The Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling Of Public Education And The Future Of School, Jeffrey Frenkiewich

Democracy and Education

In January of 2020, Diane Ravitch published Slaying Goliath, in which she claimed the movement to privatize America’s public school system was dying. While this might be true, the movement is not dead, and this review looks at Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire’s A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, which examines the history of school privatization and calls for renewed vigilance by those who oppose it. Schneider and Berkshire argued that defenders of public education need three conceptual frames to fight privatization efforts: (a) a clear presentation of the aims and objectives of the privatization movement; (b) knowledge of the …

How Teaching Virtues Became A Movement. A Book Review Of The Rise Of Character Education In Britain: Heroes, Dragons, And The Myths Of Character, Judith L. Pace

Democracy and Education

How did character education become so popular? What does its curriculum look like? And what is its educational impact? Lee Jerome and Ben Kisby answer these and other questions in a bold and brilliant book. Focusing on the character education movement in Britain, they dissect its theoretical foundation, explain its ascendancy, analyze its curricula, and examine its results. The authors construct a compelling argument that character education clashes with education for democracy.

Character education claims to be a panacea for improving individual children’s life chances as well as an array of societal problems. But with its deeply flawed ideology, curricula, …

What Is Education For? A Response To "What Kind Of Citizens Do Educators Hope Their Students Become? A Response To 'Storypath: A Powerful Tool For Engaging Children In Civic Learning.'", Margit E. Mcguire, Laurie Stevahn, Shari Wennik Bronsther

Democracy and Education

Darwich (2020) asked “What Kind of Citizens Do Educators Hope Their Students Become?” in her response to “Storypath: A Powerful Tool for Engaging Children in Civic Education” (McGuire et al., 2019). She argued that civics should be rooted in social justice grounded by critical civic empathy, which requires focusing on power and privilege given persistent disparities in caring for all people within our democracy. We agree and here further emphasize the importance of dismantling systems of oppression that block efforts to advance this goal. We also recognize pragmatic complexities in elementary school classrooms that require teacher professional judgment to create …

The Slow Work Of Democracy: Resisting Reductionist Views Of Women And Children, Stephanie C. Serriere

Democracy and Education

In her research article “State your defense!": Children negotiate analytic frames in the context of deliberative dialogue," Hauver offers important contributions to the field of elementary civic education that illuminate how young people apply various analytical frames to make collective decisions. First, I highlight significant contributions of her work, namely children’s capabilities to build perspective-taking through dialogue, which I suggest can be more solidly grounded in a sociocultural framework, not a developmental one. Second, I offer suggestions toward such a theoretical framework that loosens determinism for children’s development and offers a less deterministic framework for women. My review seeks …

Listening To Children In Dialogue. A Response To “‘State Your Defense!’ Children Negotiate Analytic Frames In The Context Of Deliberative Dialogue”, Kathy Bickmore

Democracy and Education

In this appreciative response to Jennifer Hauver’s article about elementary children’s negotiation of analytic frames in deliberative dialogue during input into a school governance decision, Bickmore argues for the value of such agentic, citizenship-relevant learning opportunities in public schools. She points to their unfortunate infrequency (to the detriment of socially just democracy) in economically and racially marginalized communities. The concept of analytic frames is compared with the notion of interests—desires, needs, concerns, and ethical principles—underlying each party’s proposals in integrative negotiated conflict resolution theory. Questions are raised about the roles played by cultural context and status inequalities within dialogue groups. …