Educators focused on community literacy and public engagement have access to a unique critical platform from which larger social issues that impact us both as a whole and on very personal levels are open to exploration. Being particularly situated to have significant impact on community, literacy work in this area may require uncommon pedagogical…

This paper examines the development of the concept of the "public" and the "people" in U.S. society. Community problem-solving is an art, and like the art of dance or the game of soccer, the dispositions and skills of communal life are learned by doing and reflecting on what has been done. This essay discusses the "arts" of democracy, including:…