Public schools have always been meant to provide all children with the skills and knowledge to become successful participants in the economy. But currently, a second important purpose of public education has become more salient: to promote social cohesion in a diverse and fractured democracy. As ugly and naked racism in America is further…

In the middle decades of the 20th century, Hilda Taba played a prominent role in efforts to help American schoolchildren develop the cognitive skills and values necessary to think democratically. Drawing on the principles of progressive education and on social psychological and cognitive developmental theory, Taba directed Intergroup Education in…

More than five decades after Brown v. Board of Education and four decades after the Civil Rights era, racial prejudice remains a national problem cutting across social class and culture. Although schools may seem ideal places to teach children about tolerance and harmony, there is little consensus on how to best reduce negative sentiments and…

Modern educational reform owes much to the legal team and educational leaders who fought to make equal educational opportunity a reality for Black students in the United States of America. Their efforts helped to dismantle American apartheid; a.k.a. Jim Crow, a system of allocating human and civil rights according to assigned or assumed…

In examining the university structure, this chapter raises questions as to how institutional protocols can and should be put in place that will ensure that the commitment to urban education is being met, specifically in teacher preparation. In responding to Gutierrez and Jaramillo, these authors do two things. First, they attempt to characterize…

On July 28, 2006, a panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on the putative benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary education. Four experts presented written statements to the Commissioners that assessed the social science literature on this issue. They also addressed whether or not…