While education for democracy has been heavily influenced by the deliberative perspective on democracy, a recent turn towards an agonistic perspective on democracy places a great deal of faith in the role of political emotion and conflict. Educational scholars have mostly interpreted agonism in relation to the emotional and conflictual experiences…

This paper is going to explore an unorthodox understanding of "authenticity." In its unorthodoxy, it may just, then, be more authentic, and more true, than the conventional understandings of this word, and less subject to attack than those conventional understandings. The author proposes here that the most authentic form of authenticity…

The paper is concerned with the relationship between hierarchy, democracy and action learning. It examines what hierarchy and democracy are and the pervasiveness of the former, noting critiques that have been made. The compatibility of democracy and hierarchy is reviewed, together with the extent to which democracy is democratic. It is proposed…

This article compares the only two countries--the UK and Finland--that have systematically applied the concept of curriculum to youth work on the national level. It begins by charting the development of a curriculum in youth work in England which has culminated in the production of the new UK government's Department for Culture Media & Sport…

The differences between soul and spirit can be quite difficult to understand throughout the works of John Dewey. What are they, how do they differ, and how do they relate to meaningful growth? Drawing from his personal correspondence and an analysis of the work in the later part of his life, Becky Noël Smith and Randy Hewitt conclude that, in…

This article delineates a Confucian approach to a democratic classroom by drawing upon the educational thought of third-century philosopher Xunzi. It is argued that Xunzi's approach is generally compatible with the three salient features of a democratic classroom: (i) it is a way of life guided by the principles of equality, freedom, justice, and…

In this article, the author reexamines some of the educational responses Sarah M. Stitzlein outlines in her presidential address and explores the need for additional responses to polarization that are, as the author puts it, less "schoolish." These kinds of broadly "educational" responses to polarization can go a long way to…

At the centre of this paper is the distinction between a politicised school, and school as a political space. We take note of Papastephanou's (2005) warning not to make education the passive receiver of political thought. Based on Masschelein and Simons (2013), we criticise the tendency to conceptualise democratic education, particularly agonistic…

This is an Open access book. This work addresses the presence and participation of adults in play with children. Rather than discussing this issue on ideological ground, the international contributions build on empirical data and report research conducted in many different contexts and settings around the world. Responding to the many forms it…

To enact democracy, which is to live in communication with difference, requires a formative process that involves an education of the whole person for and through civic life. Drawing on Charles Mills's theory of "Herrenvolk" ethics and Jonathan Lear's analysis of psychosocial lapses that ail us, Sheron Fraser-Burgess and Chris Higgins…

In this reflection on Sarah M. Stitzlein's "Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens," I attend to the process of public-making and complicate the neat vignette of inquiry (the practice of truth-seeking and truth-telling) that undergirds Stitzlein's account of honesty in democracy. In so doing, I…

This paper explores some of the perils to American democracy in the age of the Internet, social media, and the filtered bubbles that its citizens inhabit. I open my analysis by revisiting the myth of the Tower of Babel in order to reflect on the insights that can be gleaned for the present state of disinformation. Then I turn to an examination of…

The work of John Dewey continues to challenge educators whose work is to put theory into practice in the classroom. In the United States and elsewhere, a popular impression of Dewey and progressive education is that of inductive, child-centered pedagogy, but his writings in Democracy and Education--as well as in subsequent re-writings of previous…

In an era of democratic crises, democratic education in basic education is considered crucial. However, recent studies show that young people perceive their influence both at school and in society as limited, which decreases their civic activity later in life. The aim of this theoretical study is to reevaluate democratic education through feminist…

In this paper, I address Biesta's notion of world-centred education via a special focus on the school as a site of teacherly gestures. To begin with, I interpret 'world-centredness' -- qua that which goes 'beyond learning' -- through a deployment of tenets from Arendt and her appropriation of Marx's and Heidegger's motifs. Within this horizon, I…