This article argues that in pluralistic, secular, democratic schooling we need a concept of critical character education. There are substantial challenges to the theory and practice of character education, which indicates that character education is a "problem" in the philosophical sense. The way forward is to cultivate a critical theory…

This paper is about the notion of conflict in the work of John Dewey. Special attention is given to "Democracy and Education" (1916) because of its centennial and its acclaimed status of "magnum opus". After depicting "conflicts as gadflies" that stir thinking--reflection and ingenuity--and relating it to Socrates, in…

The relationship between the philosophical orientation of a high school citizenship education program and the kinds of competencies that students exhibit on a nationally administered civics knowledge assessment was investigated. The researcher imposed a philosophical paradigm of political perfectionism on the citizenship education curriculum in…