The Democratic Dilemma of American Education PDF Download

Author: Arnold Shober
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429972512
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This compelling new book asks: How can American education policy be consistent with democratic ideals? Robust democracy is the combination of participation, self-rule, equality, understanding, and inclusion, but these norms can produce contradictory policy. Local control in education policy can undermine educational equality. Participation in teachers unions can improve working conditions but thwart self-rule by local taxpayers. The Democratic Dilemma of American Education draws on contemporary research in political science and education policy to offer remarkably balanced insights into these challenging issues. Expertly navigating through local, state, and federal layers of education policy, Arnold Shober examines contemporary controversies over education governance, teachers unions and collective bargaining, school funding, school choice, academic accountability, and desegregation. Shober describes the inherent practical dilemmas of current policy and the difficulties policymakers face in overcoming them to produce lasting educational reform in a democratic, federal system of government. Timely, engaging, and accessible, this is the ideal resource for courses in public policy as well as education and politics.

Author: ARNOLD. SHOBER
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780367097448
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Ronald W. Evans
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230119107
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Two persistent dilemmas haunt school reform: curriculum politics and classroom constancy. Both undermined the 1960s' new social studies, a dynamic reform movement centered on inquiry, issues, and social activism. Dramatic academic freedom controversies ended reform and led to a conservative restoration. On one side were teachers and curriculum developers; on the other, conservative activists determined to undo the revolutions of the 1960s. The episode brought a return to traditional history, a turn away from questioning, and the re-imposition of authority. Engagingly written and thoroughly researched, The Tragedy of American School Reform offers a provocative perspective on current trends.

Author: Jennifer L. Hochschild
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300031133
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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'Hochschild has written an important study of desegregation that covers law, history, practice, and policy. She proposes a solution that many readers will challenge. But few will question the power and logic of her underlying analysis.' --Frank D. Aquila

Author: C. Dorn
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230608884
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
American Education, Democracy, and the Second World War examines how U.S. educational institutions during World War II responded to the dilemma of whether to serve as "weapons" in the nation s arsenal of democracy or "citadels" in safeguarding the American way of life. By studying the lives of wartime Americans, as well as nursery schools, elementary and secondary schools, and universities, Charles Dorn makes the case that although wartime pressures affected educational institutions to varying degrees, these institutions resisted efforts to be placed solely in service of the nation s war machine. Instead, Dorn argues, American education maintained a sturdy commitment to fostering civic mindedness in a society characterized by rapid technological advance and the perception of an ever-increasing threat to national security.

Author: Deborah Greenblatt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429776713
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Reimagining American Education to Serve All Our Children: Why Should We Educate in a Democracy? examines and reevaluates the history and purpose of public education in the United States, in order to provide students of current and future generations with a robust and fulfilling learning experience. The authors approach knowledge from a critical perspective, with the intention of broadening the definition of knowledge and critical thinking, positioning education as a gateway to life’s endless possibilities and participation in a democratic society. In asking "why should we educate in a democracy rather than why do we educate in a democracy," the authors suggest directions that need to be taken to enhance democracy, social justice, and the positive effects of education for all. Divided into ten concise chapters, this volume provides activities and strategies for developing meaning for often contentious concepts, illustrates concepts, and brings together new ideas as well as assessment ideas. Greenblatt and Michelli and their coauthors cover a diverse range of important topics allowing us to understand education in a democracy, including: Sociopolitical barriers to knowledge The importance of all subjects, including the arts, health and physical education Methods of fostering imaginative thinking The political nature of the effects of policies on education Reimagining American Education to Serve All Our Children aims to provide practicing teachers, teacher educators, graduate education students—and all those interested in enhancing education, a discussion on the relationship between education and policy. A topical conversation, this book aids readers to develop a better understanding of the effects of social justice on American learners and the effects of education on social justice and democracy in order to take a position on these critical issues.

Author: Christopher D. Thomas
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807781002
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Since the spring of 2018, hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, and their allies have protested at or against their schools. These students and teachers have been protesting on a wide range of issues from gun control and climate change to the underfunding of education and institutional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Reclaiming Democratic Education, Chris Thomas examines how these activities exist at the intersection of two conflicting traditions. The book looks at a history of student and teacher activism that aligns with the democratic purposes of public education. This history is now colliding with current policies that privilege the economic aims of education and restrict civic agency. By situating contemporary activism within these conflicting traditions, Thomas demonstrates how these activities constitute a rejection of the currently dominant policy paradigm in U.S. education. Thomas concludes with a discussion of how activism provides a foundation from which concerned teachers, school leaders, and policymakers can develop a new model for American education, one that reclaims an education for citizenship. Book Features: Traces the interconnected histories of student and teacher activism, from the Revolutionary Period through the Common School Movement and the decade of protests in the 1960s to today.Demonstrates how education policy positions teachers as the passive recipients of policy, who are often expected to sacrifice their own wellbeing for that of their students.Provides a roadmap of policy shifts that would disrupt the currently dominant paradigm in American education and realize an Education for Citizenship paradigm.

Author: C. Dorn
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781403984210
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
American Education, Democracy, and the Second World War examines how U.S. educational institutions during World War II responded to the dilemma of whether to serve as "weapons" in the nation s arsenal of democracy or "citadels" in safeguarding the American way of life. By studying the lives of wartime Americans, as well as nursery schools, elementary and secondary schools, and universities, Charles Dorn makes the case that although wartime pressures affected educational institutions to varying degrees, these institutions resisted efforts to be placed solely in service of the nation s war machine. Instead, Dorn argues, American education maintained a sturdy commitment to fostering civic mindedness in a society characterized by rapid technological advance and the perception of an ever-increasing threat to national security.

Author: Lorraine McDonnell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Why do America's public schools seem unable to meet today's social challenges? As competing interest groups vie over issues like funding and curricula, we seem to have lost sight of the democratic purposes originally intended for public education. Public schools were envisioned by the Founders as democratically run institutions for instilling civic values, but today's education system seems more concerned with producing good employees than good citizens. Meanwhile, our country's diversity has eroded consensus about citizenship, and the professionalization of educators has diminished public involvement in schools. This volume seeks to demonstrate that the democratic purposes of education are not outmoded ideas but can continue to be driving forces in public education. Nine original articles by some of today's leading education theorists cut a broad swath across the political spectrum to examine how those democratic purposes might be redefined and revived. It both establishes the intellectual foundation for revitalizing American schools and offers concrete ideas for how the educational process can be made more democratic. The authors make a case for better empirical research about the politics of education in order to both reconnect schools to their communities and help educators instill citizenship. An initial series of articles reexamines the original premise of American education as articulated by important thinkers like Jefferson and Dewey. A second group identifies flaws in how schools are currently governed and offers models for change. A final section analyzes the value conflicts posed by the twin strands of democratic socialization and governance, and their implications for education policy. Spanning philosophy, history, sociology, and political science, this book brings together the best current thinking about the specifics of education policy—vouchers, charter schools, national testing—and about the role of deliberation in a democracy. It offers a cogent alternative to the exchange paradigm and shows how much more needs to be understood about an issue so vital to America's future.

Author: Johann N. Neem
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421423219
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The unknown history of American public education. At a time when Americans are debating the future of public education, Johann N. Neem tells the inspiring story of how and why Americans built a robust public school system in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. It’s a story in which ordinary people in towns across the country worked together to form districts and build schoolhouses and reformers sought to expand tax support and give every child a liberal education. By the time of the Civil War, most northern states had made common schools free, and many southern states were heading in the same direction. Americans made schooling a public good. Yet back then, like today, Americans disagreed over the kind of education needed, who should pay for it, and how schools should be governed. Neem explores the history and meaning of these disagreements. As Americans debated, teachers and students went about the daily work of teaching and learning. Neem takes us into the classrooms of yore so that we may experience public schools from the perspective of the people whose daily lives were most affected by them. Ultimately, Neem concludes, public schools encouraged a diverse people to see themselves as one nation. By studying the origins of America’s public schools, Neem urges us to focus on the defining features of democratic education: promoting equality, nurturing human beings, preparing citizens, and fostering civic solidarity.