This concise, digestible book shows how the cultivation of reason became the defining aim of western education, and critiques how this aim has been eclipsed in recent decades by the neoliberal system of mass schooling imposed by the state. Chapters outline succinctly the history of western education and its origins in Ancient Greece, demonstrating…

At a time when there are renewed expressions of concern about how our societies are organised and the health of our democracies, this paper focuses on the role of education in a democracy. Informed by John Dewey's and Martin Buber's accounts of what it is to be educated, and Homi Bhabha's concept of third space work, the paper presents the case…

Through the use of the Program for International Student Assessment's (PISA) Global Competence results, the Economic Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Democracy Index ratings, and centralization-decentralization spectrum rubrics, this dissertation shows the association between level of democracy and education system, and the association of these variables…

Background/Context: Considered one of the most influential educators in Brazil's history, Anísio Teixeira is one of the renowned Latin American students who came to Teachers College (TC). Teixeira was a prominent reformer and educator known for advocating free, public, and secular education accessible to all children. His work as an educator and…

The paper traces the development of citizenship in the curriculum in England since the 1960s, emerging particularly from the Crick report. It argues for lessons to be learnt from John Dewey's "Democracy and education", the centenary of which is being celebrated this year.

It has become increasingly evident that the discourse of transformation that has shaped the democratising of higher education institutions over the first two decades of the democratic dispensation in South Africa has now run its course. Over the past few years, and particularly during the tumultuous student protests of 2015 and 2016, students and…

From the very founding of the United States, education's actual influence on American society has not measured up to Americans' belief in education as a vehicle of meritocracy. Shortly after the American Revolution, the lexicographer, editor, and would-be education reformer, Noah Webster noted that in the United States "The constitutions are…

School leadership is an important factor in educational reform and school transformation. This article aims to examine the challenges of school leadership in Singapore through the lens of the Fourth Way. In particular, this article makes reference to three messages in the Fourth Way and examines the paradoxes and challenges faced by school leaders…

This paper explores how civic engagement as an important dimension of public engagement in higher education has been slow to develop in the UK, despite an important history dating from the "civic universities" in the nineteenth century. I specifically consider the development of "service learning" as an important way in which…

Sweden has recently seen three major political attempts to empower parents through national regulations--the transferal of authority from the state to district school boards, the heavy promotion of independent schools, and the introduction of local school boards at municipality schools. This article provides an overview of these developments by…

An interview-based qualitative study was undertaken to explore the experiences and practices of educators in providing democratic schooling as a way of delivering quality education for learners in schools. The exploration looked at educators' understandings of the concept of democracy in schools, their understanding of the concept quality…

Comparing popular education in the Philippines and South Korea, it is clear that a number of similarities and differences exist regarding the characteristics, methods, and main fields in which popular education has operated. "Church-related practices," "uniting with CO movements," "an elite-led tendency," and "a…

This paper is a contribution to the debate in Germany and beyond in Europe on future directions for education. It builds on and extends earlier work by the authors, on democratic experimentalism (Moss, 2009; Fielding & Moss, forthcoming) and early childhood workforce professionalism (Urban, 2008, 2009, 2010; Dalli & Urban 2010). At a time…

Scotland has a particular history, that moves around the unique public experiences of the Enlightenment and the Act of Union as defining moments that could have developed differently. For complex reasons, public thinking moved more and more towards the fractured moral and political conditions that we know now. But, following the work of Alasdair…

This book, published in 1937, discusses public education and its unique function in American democracy. Among the topics discussed are the following: (1) how educational leadership must reconsider its position in society and obligations to society's needs following World War I; (2) the development of education in the United States; (3) the role…