Democracy & Education (E-Journal)
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Reconceptualizing Democratic Citizenship: Meeting Our Civic Obligations. A Book Review of \u3cem\u3eThe Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizenship\u3c/em\u3e
Full text linkThe greatest threat to American democracy is the failure of Americans to fulfill 10 critical obligations of citizenship. This book is a call to action that also stresses the importance of a democratic civic education
Reconstructing Democracy in Polarized Times: Thinking through/with the CRT Conflicts
Full text linkIn this essay, we consider how reconstructing our ideas about the nature of democracy, and its relationship to education, can help us respond to contemporary challenges. We focus specifically on the ongoing fights about critical race theory (CRT), providing an overview of the CRT controversy—we argue that its cultivation for political reasons has often lessened the possibility of democratic discussions of race, racism, and ongoing white supremacy. Next, we consider how debates around CRT can help us to rethink how we “do” democracy and how to use education to help cultivate democratic habits and values. Finally, we describe three possibilities for responding to the CRT debates in ways that focus on pragmatic inquiry and that enable better thinking about the democratic purposes of schools to work to change racial habits/values and renew civic education and to increase the health of our democracy
The Community of Philosophical Inquiry in Question: Examining the Role of the Facilitator in Deliberative Discussion
Full text linkThis article examines the democratic hopes for the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI), a mode of deliberative discussion, when social justice is both the topic and the goal of discussion. It shares insights from a CPI that was used as an intersubjective research method (Golding, 2015) to enable the authors to interrogate their assumptions about teaching for social justice. The bake sale was a recurrent metaphor employed by the group to reject thin conceptions and pedagogical practices of social justice. However, the inquiry became blocked at a level of externalized analysis and arguably perpetuated injustice. This article uses the productive force of the authors’ failures to consider the methodological and facilitative conditions that could have promoted a deeper interrogation of teaching for social justice. In affirming calls for greater attention to the dynamics of race, positionality, and power in CPI (e.g., Burgh & Yorshanky, 2011; Chetty, 2017, 2018; Chetty & Suissa, 2017; Reed-Sandoval & Sykes, 2017; Vansieleghem & Kennedy, 2011), we argue that facilitators seeing themselves and the CPI as being in question (Biesta, 2017) is central to the viability of the CPI to pursue social justice aims
Myths Economic and Civic. A Book Review of \u3cem\u3eThe Education Myth: How Human Capital Trumped Social Democracy\u3c/em\u3e
Full text linkI review historian Jon Shelton\u27s 2023 book, The Education Myth: How Human Capital Trumped Social Democracy. First, I summarize the book\u27s main claim that a pernicious myth about public schooling\u27s role in developing human capital is the root of our current educational problems. Second, I provide a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book\u27s contents. Finally, I analyze the book\u27s accomplishments and suggest that there is one powerful education myth about public schools\u27 relationship to American democracy that the author omits from this valuable new study
Agonism in a Classroom Discussion on Strindberg\u27s \u3cem\u3eMiss Julie\u3c/em\u3e
Full text linkIn many parts of the world, researchers and policymakers alike report possible threats to democracy and its institutions. Accounts in the media of hatred and threats aimed at people taking part in public discourse, and of a polarized political debate, raise general questions about the current state and future of democratic dialogue and processes. Solutions are sought, by both research and policy, in the educational context. Some researchers have turned to the agonistic theory proposed by Chantal Mouffe, highlighting the democratic role of conflict and dissent. Empirical research on agonism in education is, however, scarce. In this article, we explore agonistic democratic theory in educational practice, more precisely in a conversation about a literary classic in an upper-secondary Swedish L1 classroom. Based on the analysis of data generated through a teacher-researcher collaboration, we propose six didactic conditions that are fruitful for what we call agonistic literary discussions. Contributing to the debate on how education could meet a possible threat to democracy, we argue that an agonistic approach is a productive path. This approach views democracy as an ongoing process, and it views the classroom as a place where the meaning of democracy can be negotiated
Conservatives’ Use of a Civil Rights Narrative Helped Them Secure Control of American Education Policy. A Book Review of \u3cem\u3eThe Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America\u3c/em\u3e
Full text linkIn The Death of Public School, Cara Fitzpatrick traces the history of America’s move to privatize its education system. In 23 chapters, she follows the history of this movement from its beginnings as a white supremacist attempt to keep schools segregated, to its development into a bipartisan effort employing a civil rights narrative. Fitzpatrick provides case studies of how privatization efforts played out in places like Cleveland, Ohio, Florida, and New Orleans, and the author shows how conservatives appropriated a civil rights narrative to pursue their own aims for privatization in the 21st century. While others have outlined and explained the multiple motivations behind the school privatization movement, the detail with which Fitzpatrick tells this history is noteworthy, and this work is important as it forces the reader to acknowledge the complicated history behind this movement. Fitzpatrick’s analysis is wanting in a critical framework for understanding the nuanced intersections of race, class, and politics that influence this history, but she opens a window to understanding how powerful conservative forces have successfully gained control of civil rights narratives that support the school privatization movement today
Enhancing Democracy through P-20 School-University Partnerships in Teacher Education: Implications for Educational Leaders
Full text linkThe purpose of this paper is to share how schools and universities can partner intentionally through Professional Development Schools to enhance democracy by answering the questions: (1) What is it about Professional Development Schools, as robust school-university partnerships, that give voice to teachers to enhance democracy, particularly in a high-stakes accountability climate? and (2) How can schools and universities create robust partnerships to empower teachers’ voices in a high-stakes accountability climate? The paper argues that educational leaders in schools and universities must change their mindset and their practice to form partnerships in ways that rethink teacher preparation, induction, and professional development together. This paper describes two cases situated in a high-accountability context in the United States and offers concrete actions educational leaders can take to enhance democracy through school-university partnerships by building robust Professional Development Schools
A Situated Lens to Designing Assessments of Citizenship Competency
Full text linkAs education systems increasingly emphasize teaching for the development of competency, teachers need support in how to design classroom assessments of competencies associated with their areas of learning. Teachers who engage students in learning democracy through deliberative dialogue and participation in real-world processes will find limited support in the literature on how to operationalize the development of associated competencies. In this first design cycle of an ongoing multi-stage design-based research study, a researcher and two classroom teachers in British Columbia collaborated to apply principles of authentic assessment (Koh, 2017) to the design of an assessment of the citizenship competencies Grades 6 and 7 students may have developed when deliberating as citizens in a real-world public engagement process. Findings suggest promising value in using a situated lens and an associated heuristic to operationalize these competencies, and the ability to prioritize to be a potentially transferable feature of citizenship competency
Searching for the Path to a More Perfect Union. A Book Review of \u3cem\u3eEducating for Democracy\u3c/em\u3e
Full text linkEducating for Democracy presents Walter Feinberg’s vision for the democratic aims of education. Feinberg argues that the evolutionary nature of democracy should be met with a citizenry capable of critical reflection. Education for democracy, then, entails the development of cognitive and affective habits that underpin this critical reflexivity. However, Educating for Democracy asserts that such education should be embedded across curricular areas and not limited solely to civics education. In this review of Educating for Democracy, we begin by providing a broad overview of Feinberg’s foundational arguments presented in the opening chapters. Next, we identify specific themes developed in these opening chapters that permeate the rest of the book. From here, we detail how Educating for Democracy argues that these themes may apply across curricular areas. We finish with descriptions of our highlights, critiques, and general impression of Educating for Democracy
Critical Reflections on SALAMANDER. A Response to “Land Education and Young People Working Toward SALAMANDER”
Full text linkIn this response, we examine what it means to center Indigenous perspectives, how we can avoid overly individualistic approaches to examine the well-being of students, and how SALAMANDER might be implemented with younger students