Education Commons^™

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.

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 …

Supporting The Arts As Disciplines Of Learning. A Book Review Of The Role Of The Arts In Learning: Cultivating Landscapes Of Democracy, Karen Mcgarry

Democracy and Education

Learning through and in partnership with the arts has the potential to expand experiences beyond what can be measured on any standardized test assessment. The arts may offer sites of reflexive contemplation and engagement, extending learning outward, away from disciplinary silos and toward transdisciplinary action learning—a heuristic device enabling multiple modes or processes of multitextual knowing and becoming. In The Role of the Arts in Learning: Cultivating Landscapes of Democracy, the editors nurture a space of consideration toward democratic learning. By harnessing the historical and pragmatic theories and philosophies of John Dewey and Maxine Greene, in concert with additional …

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 …

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

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 …

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 …

Democracy Dies In Dualisms. A Response To “Dewey And Democracy”, Dan Sarofian-Butin

Democracy and Education

This essay reviews Atkinson’s article “Dewey and Democracy” and argues that while Dewey and the social foundations classroom may indeed be important for teacher preparation, it is not in the way Atkinson suggests. Namely, I argue that Atkinson’s essay has three distinct (yet interrelated) issues: his problematic oversimplifications, what I term as “Dewey doesn’t do dualisms”; his misreading of Dewey, where I point out that “Dewey doesn’t do debate”; and his unexamined positionality, where I make clear that “Dewey doesn’t do Descartes.” I conclude this essay with a different perspective of a way forward with Dewey: that Dewey’s antifoundationalism serves …

Seeking Democracy Inside, And Outside, Of Education: Re-Conceptualizing Perceptions And Experiences Related To Democracy And Education, Paul R. Carr, Gina Thésée

Democracy and Education

This conceptual article underscores the importance of critical engagement in and through education with a view to enhancing education for democracy (EfD). As a centerpiece to illustrating this connection, we refer to our research project, which engages international actors through an analysis of the perceptions, experiences and perspectives of education students, educators and others in relation to EfD. The article presents the Thick-Thin Spectrum of EfD and a Spectrum for Critical Engagement for EfD to re(present) the problematic of political engagement and literacy on the part of teacher-education students. The findings of our study highlight a necessity for education to …

Navigating Middle Of The Road Reforms Through Collaborative Community, Andrea J. Bingham, Patricia Burch

Democracy and Education

The current wave of educational reform is complex and situated in market-based initiatives coupled with a renewed emphasis on local autonomy, deliberation, and community—middle-of-the-road reforms. In practice, schools are challenged to develop organizational forms that can support collaboration and community engagement, alongside the bureaucratic and accountability-driven reforms that demand more oversight, transparency, and demonstrable results. Our intent in this paper is to begin to map the emerging contradictions and opportunities that the complex reform climate presents for practitioners through a case study of a personalized learning charter school. In so doing, we illustrate how a community of teachers within a …

In Defense Of Ambiguity In Education. A Book Review Of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, And Sexuality, Caitlin Howlett

Democracy and Education

This article offers a positive review of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality, a readable and refreshing account of the ambiguities and possibilities relating to gender and sexuality in education today. The review argues that, with a focus on public school experiences, this collection of vignettes, lessons, and critical essays, amounts to a resource that is of great value to teachers, preservice teachers, teacher educators, and citizens as they navigate the ever-changing winds of gender and sexuality, particularly as they diverge and multiply along categories of race, religion, ethnicity, and class. This book offers hope and excitement for those of us …

The Critique Of Deliberative Discussion. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy: A Typology Of Classroom Discussions", David I. Backer

Democracy and Education

My response to Samuelsson’s (2016) recent essay offers a different paradigm with which to think about education, deliberative discussion and democracy. I call this paradigm the critique of deliberative discussion. Following Ruitenberg’s application of Mouffe’s critiques of deliberative democracy to education, the critique of deliberative discussion focuses on what Jameson called the “political unconscious” of deliberative discussions like those presented by Samuelsson. There is literature that critique traditionally moderate-liberal notions of deliberative discussion, which Samuelsson defines his typology: reason, willingness to listen, and consensus. While others, like Ruitenberg, have developed this critique of deliberative-democratic citizenship education, the critique of deliberative …

Researching Holistic Democracy In Schools. A Reponse To "Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy", Philip A. Woods

Democracy and Education

Bradley-Levine reported in her article how she created an opportunity to explore research data with the aim of examining the degree to which New Tech schools were democratic in the sense conceptualized by the notion of holistic democracy. My response is in three parts. The first sets out my understanding of the significance of the model of holistic democracy and the purpose of the framework. The second is a review of Bradley-Levine’s findings, with reflections that occurred to me as I worked through these. The third comprises my conclusions. The framework has been applied, in my judgement, in a diligent …

What Makes Hope Possible. A Book Review Of Strike For America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity, Amy B. Shuffelton

Democracy and Education

This is a positive review of Strike for America, by Micah Uetricht.

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.

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

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 …

Neoliberal Ideology And Democratic Learning. A Response To "Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism And The Erosion Of Democratic Education", Emery James Hyslop-Margison, Andrés Ramírez

Democracy and Education

In "Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democratic Education," the author suggests that the presumed decline of democratic learning in public schooling follows from two primary forces: (a) the metaphysical implications of Cartesian psychophysical dualism that support an ontological understanding of the self as distinct from social influence and (b) a corresponding concept of freedom emerging from this ontology that exonerates individuals from any meaningful level of social moral responsibility. Although we agree in large part with the general argument advanced in the essay, there are some theoretical and historical gaps that we attempt to bridge in this response. …

Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism And The Erosion Of Democratic Education, Robert Karaba

Democracy and Education

Goodlad, et al. (2002) rightly point out that a culture can either resist or support change. Schein’s (2010) model of culture indicates observable behaviors of a culture can be explained by exposing underlying shared values and basic assumptions that give meaning to the performance. Yet culture is many-faceted and complex. So Schein advised a clinical approach to cultural analysis that calls for identifying a problem in order to focus the analysis on relevant values and assumptions.

This project starts with two assumptions: (1) The erosion of democratic education is a visible overt behavior of the current U.S. macro-culture, and (2) …

Necessary But Not Sufficient: Deweyan Dialogue And The Demands Of Critical Citizenship. A Book Review Of The Political Classroom: Evidence And Ethics In Democratic Education, Joseph C. Wegwert

Democracy and Education

This is a book review of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, by Hess and McAvoy.

"How To Be Nice And Get What You Want": Structural Referents Of "Self" And "Other" In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice, Franklin Vernon

Democracy and Education

This critical ethnography explores a social justice program utilizing nontraditional, democratic, "experiential" education practices. The author posits a historical legacy of pedagogy of self obscures its emancipatory, democratic potential while simultaneously expanding on contemporary discourses of self and other as aspects of the educational setting. Students' labors to reference and enact oppressive, capitalistic idealizations of either self or other problematizes pragmatic theories of self, and the author draws upon critical pragmatism to reposition self and other as aspects of pedagogy and curriculum in democratic education.

Mindfulness, Democracy, And Education, Andrea Marie Hyde, James G. Laprad

Democracy and Education

In this article, we explain how mindfulness can enhance a democratic way of being, connecting practices of awareness, reflection, dialog, and action to democratic citizenship and social arrangements. We begin by sharing our understanding of democracy as a philosophy and a political system. We then provide a background for the concept of mindfulness as it is used by those in the field of education and health care and as we connect it to democracy and democratic education. We introduce a mindfulness pedagogy and use this pedagogy to develop our concept of mindfully democratic schools. We use the work of John …

Interrogating The Relationship Between Schools And Society. A Book Review Of Can Education Change Society?, Wayne Au

Democracy and Education

This reviewer found Can Education Change Society? a typical Apple text, far-ranging in terms of scope and example and theoretically and conceptually ambitious.

Lift Every Voice And Sing. A Response To "Mathematics For What? High School Students Reflect On Mathematics As A Tool For Social Inquiry", Anita Bright

Democracy and Education

In this response, I applaud the work initiated in this research and underscore some of the key reasons I find it so valuable. Building from this, I also issue a call to the greater mathematics education community—particularly the large mathematics professional organizations—to consider the ways their organizations have conceptualized and framed equity work, and invite them to entertain the idea of remapping their visions in ways that are more forward thinking and less traditionally safe.

Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics, Brian W. Dotts

Democracy and Education

Jefferson believed that citizenship must exhibit republican virtue. While education was necessary in a republican polity, it alone was insufficient in sustaining a revolutionary civic spirit. This paper examines Jefferson's expectations for citizen virtue, specifically related to militia and jury service in his 'little republics.' Citizens required not only knowledge of history and republican principles, but also public spaces where they could personify what they learned. Jefferson often analogized the nation as a ship at sea, and while navigational instruments are necessary in charting an accurate course, i.e., republican theories, they become inconsequential without the decisive action required for their …

Litigation And Organization: Educational Rights In A Deliberative Democracy. A Book Review Of Realizing Educational Rights: Advancing School Reform Through Courts And Communities, Todd A. Demitchell, Winston C. Thompson

Democracy and Education

Realizing Educational Rights: Advancing School Reform through Courts and Communities by Anne Newman advances an important argument for the establishment of education as a right. Her argument asserts that a fair, deliberative democracy cannot be sustained without a right to education. She builds an argument for a right to an an education in response to the U.S. Supreme Court case San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez denial of education as a fundamental federal right.

Recognizing The Intellectual Complexity Of Teaching. A Response To “Democratic Teaching: An Incomplete Job Description”, Alisa J. Bates

Democracy and Education

This response to “Democratic Teaching: An Incomplete Job Description” explores the intellectual work that teachers must do to achieve the goal of preparing citizens for a flourishing democracy. This piece analyzes the rigor of such a teaching task and asks questions about what it means to engage in the intellectual work of teaching for democracy. Public perceptions of teaching as an intellectual practice and the impact this has on teaching as both a profession and element of fostering democracy are explored.

Critical Discomfort And Deep Engagement Needed For Transformation. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Rick Ayers

Democracy and Education

This essay seeks to engage the discussion about how to successfully conduct social justice and critical pedagogy classes for teacher candidates. Because the identity and consciousness of teachers is such a crucial factor in equity education, teacher-educators seek to challenge and transform hegemonic assumptions. The essay seeks to engage some of the main points of Sensoy and DiAngelo and to extend the conversation to other considerations and issues that arise in the work to develop educators committed to equity and justice.