Speech at Australian universities is restricted in various ways. A few of them, such as student protests against visiting speakers, receive lots of attention. Others seldom do, such as defamation threats and cyber harassment. Self-censorship may be more significant than overt censorship. Those who want to raise awareness of hidden limitations on…

In this special issue of "English in Australia" dedicated to Annette Patterson, Bronwyn Mellor reflects on this "gentle dissenter". Annette Patterson published articles, book chapters, and school textbooks in Australia, the USA, and the UK. Her incisive intellect and commitment to education probably meant that she was not ever…

Heated battles over free speech have erupted on college campuses across the United States in recent months. Some of the most prominent incidents involve efforts by students to prevent public appearances by speakers espousing controversial viewpoints. Efforts to silence offensive speakers on college campuses are not new; in these endeavors, one can…

Over the past few years, students by the thousands have refused to take their state's standardized tests. This "opt-out" phenomenon has prompted debate in state legislatures and in Washington, putting states at risk of losing Title I funds. Advocates describe opt-out as a grassroots movement of parents concerned about overtesting,…

This response to Peterson's (2014) "Nonviolent Action as a Necessary Component in Educating for Democracy" enlarges the discussion of the role of the teacher/educator in deciding whether or when it is responsible to facilitate the engagement of students in acts of nonviolent dissent. Ultimately it would seem that the most important of…

In this opinion piece, the author writes that England is now well on the way to having the most totalitarian as well as one of the most inefficiently managed schools system in Europe. He states that in the much maligned 1960s, people came from all over the world to learn from what was being achieved in the best of England's publicly-funded, local…

In this article, the author argues that true knowledge of democracy requires learning about the values of diversity and dissent. The American brand of democratic ideology has inspired numerous movements for inclusion through the securing of rights and opportunities for marginalized populations. Multicultural education is a recent historical…

In the "Journal of Moral Education," 39(2), Brenda Almond and Lawrence Blum debate the importance of tolerance versus acceptance in sex education. Blum defines acceptance as "positive regard", in contradistinction to mere tolerance, "a live and let live attitude toward others, an acceptance of coexistence, but with a…

Gary Greenberg and Charles Lambdin's review (in the summer 2007 issue) does an excellent job of summarizing the contents of Uttal's book "Neural Theories of Mind: Why the Mind-Brain Problem May Never Be Solved" (hereafter NTM). These authors make several insightful comments about the issues raised in NTM. In this response, the author disagrees,…

Argues that the centrality of consensus in contemporary inquiries into society limits the understanding of dissent and contemporary disputation. Questions what role dissent plays in contemporary society by interrogating an exemplar of traditional social rhetoric, the public sphere. Explores the possibility of decentering consensus and the public…

Drawing on a systematic content analysis of UK newspaper coverage of young anti-Iraq war protestors, I examine how young people's opinions were mediated before and during the war in Iraq. I explore the extent and nature of coverage, and ask whether newspapers encouraged young people to be active citizens in the public sphere. I argue that the UK…

In this keynote address presented at the October, 2005 Annual Conference, the author considers the role of dissent in the academy from the perspective of the turbulent late sixties and early seventies. He examines the role of dissent as a foundational principle in the modern era of the American university. He states that dissent was neither…

An article published by Issac and Kelly ("American Journal of Sociology," 86:1348-86) analyzing the relationship between urban rioting and welfare expansion in the United States has serious shortcomings. Reanalysis suggests that both civil turmoil and standard developmental variables shaped U.S. public assistance outputs from 1947 to 1976.…

Few scholars have achieved the level of recognition and respect among the wider public as Howard Zinn. This should not come as a surprise, given the "unconventional" ways that Zinn embodied and enacted his scholarship. He often took his teaching and writing into those seemingly restricted spaces of popular protest, converting words into…

This paper presents a discussion of Howard Zinn's intellectual and political ideas. Through the analysis of selections from his immense body of work, several interrelated themes emerge. Drawing more attention to these notions of dissent and democracy is crucial to revitalizing education at all levels and vital to advancing the public discourse…