Full Description
We are not "scared" of educators but do understand the fear that many may and do feel, and why some people may believe that "education" has a disproportionately negative effect on them and those close to them. With so much wealth, technological prowess, innovation, and economic development, why do we still have marginalization, social inequalities, conflict, mass incarceration and generational poverty?
The connection to democracy, Education for Democracy (EfD) and social justice is, for Carr and Thésée, clear, and this volume interweaves a narrative within these themes based on a Freirian theoretical backdrop. Aiming to deconstruct, re-imagine and plan for a more meaningful, vibrant, social-just-based democracy that problematizes the normative, representative, hegemonic democracy in place that holds sway over formal relations, institutions, processes and education is a central preoccupation for the authors. This book presents a vision for transformative education and EfD, seeking to cultivate, stimulate and support political and media literacy, critical engagement and a re-conceptualization of what education is, and, importantly, how it can address entrenched, systemic and institutional problems that plague society. Based on over a decade of empirical research in a range of contexts and jurisdictions, the authors strive to link teaching and learning with agency, solidarity, action and transformative change within the conceptual framework of a critically-engaged EfD.
Contents
Figures
Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Foreword: In Search Of Democratic Education
Antonia Darder
1. Introduction: Who's Scared of the Classroom? And Can We Talk about It?
2. What's So Wonderful about Democracy, and Where is the Link To Education?
3. Some Theoretical Voices That Underpin Our Approach To Democracy
4. The Mythology of Democracy and the Quest for a Way Out
5. On the Trail of Signs of Democracy in and around Education: Starting with a Synthesis of the Research and Some Conceptual Thoughts
6. Connecting the Prospect of Democratizing Education with the Experiences of Educators: What Is the Effect?
7. Transforming Educational Leadership without Social Justice? Critical Pedagogy and Democracy
8. Critically Engaged Democracy as a Practice of Resistance and Resilience against Tyranny
9. Some Proposals/Recommendations from Transformative Education
10. A Few More Thoughts on Democracy and Transformative Education
Afterword: If We Cannot Transform Democracy, Then the Paroxysm of Decay That Results from the Disintegration of the Fairy-Tale Will Continue to Prolong Our Free Fall into Infantile Helplessness
Peter McLaren
Notes on the Authors
Index
