In this article, I present selected extracts and formulations from John Dewey's seminal book "Democracy and Education" (1916) that speak to the question of the educational purpose of PBL. Dewey's work, and in particular this book, is in many ways foundational in regard to arguing for PBL as an educational approach. However, in…

How children participate in democracy has shifted toward more communicative, networked, and creative models than before. In political science and political theory, however, surprisingly little is understood about what if anything children can contribute to democracy and how they would do so. Traditionally, children have been considered as mere…

The new realities of social media, echo chambers, and partisan information sources have created social forces that challenge core assumptions about democracy. Are we in an epistemological crisis, where separate and distinct communities of inquiry limit shared understandings of truth? In this essay, I turn to the political and educational thought…

Democracy and capitalism are two of the most consequential institutional systems in the world. However, their dynamic complexity, current turmoil, and evolution make them challenging to study. High-engagement teaching can bring the subjects alive, motivate student exploration, inform choices, animate sensible policy recommendations, and make a…

Recent calls by legislators to exclude "divisive concepts" and histories from our curricula pose a challenge to the development of students' epistemic responsibility and agency in classrooms. In this paper, Martha Perez-Mugg examines the classroom as a space for the development of epistemic responsibility, ultimately suggesting that…

This paper explores the implementation and evaluation of Imagination Agents, a mixed-methods case study, with young people aged 12-13, funded by a Royal Society of Arts Catalyst Award. The project was grounded in a flexible theory that imagination enables the necessary originality for creativity, enabling learners to construct personal…

This paper outlines a conceptual framework for enacting relational pedagogy. Commencing with a description of a relational ontology that can work to provide the foundation for engaged and participatory enactments of teaching and learning, the paper moves to consider the "dynamics" that support inclusive modes of education and the…

This short review examines Chapter 5 of Sarah M. Stitzlein's "Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens," concentrating on "The Role of Honesty in Teaching About Controversial Issues." Emphasizing what I call "zetetic avoidance creep" (ZAC), the review explores how teachers may…

In the context of calls to decolonise education in European contexts, this paper draws on coloniality-based critiques of Eurocentric modernity to take up the links between democracy, slavery, and colonialism in education. Starting from the position that modernity requires epistemological support to sustain racism and white supremacy in European…

After the Second World War, the Italian educational context in Italy was distinguished by a network of different democratic and antiauthoritarian pedagogical ideas and educational experiences, developed as heterogeneous forms of New Education. The "Movimento di Cooperazione Educativa" (MCE), inspired by Freinet's popular pedagogy and…

In 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.…

This paper advocates for the integration of the 'sociological imagination', as proposed by the sociologist C. Wright Mills, into pedagogical practices to foster inclusive and democratic classrooms. Departing from narrow evidence-based approaches, it explores how the sociological imagination connects personal experiences with broader societal…

This phenomenological research examines democracy education and the conditions contributing to young students' democratic agency. The dataset includes interview and observation data from a school and educational decision-makers. The findings from the iterative analysis highlight the contradictions between democracy education as an ideal and…

Implementing democratic citizenship across disciplines in education requires careful consideration of how pre-service teachers are prepared to translate this concept into classroom practice. This study investigates Norwegian pre-service teachers' understanding of reflective rehearsals as a model in teacher education for enhancing awareness of…

The need for humans to live in a community produced the state. The state and law are the subjects of philosophers of all times. From ancient times to the present, the state and law have come a long way. They started as undeveloped empirical concepts, always at the level of human societal relations. Over time, these relationships underwent…