Chapter 12 Public Education: What Is Its Purpose in a Democratic Society?

1. Chapter 12Public Education: What Is Its Purpose in a Democratic Society?

2. What Does a Democratic Society Expect of Its Schools? • Defining democracy • At basic level, democracy is a government based on the consent of the governed • At larger level, democracy should be more than “informed consent” and include active involvement of all citizens in constantly recreating the good society for all

3. What Does a Democratic Society Expect of Its Schools? • The school’s role in a democratic society • Expanding the notion of democracy is one of oldest and most important roles the U.S. has assigned to its schools • Educated citizens make democracy a reality in the daily lives of the people • New notions of democracy argue for schools that foster empowerment in its students

4. What About Me? • What should a school’s role be in creating responsible citizens? What should schools accomplish?

5. Historically Speaking: What is the Relationship Between a Universal Education and Democratic Citizenship? • The educational philosophy of Thomas Jefferson • Believed even the best governments had the tendency to be “perverted into tyranny” • Best protection against this was an educated citizenship (in this case, free white males) • Believed education and democracy were inextricably linked

6. Historically Speaking: What is the Relationship Between a Universal Education and Democratic Citizenship? • Structuring a democratic school system • In early 1800’s, efforts began for the inclusion of women, minorities, and poor into the public school systems • Horace Mann argued: • For public funding of education for all (in this case, white males and females) • Against students being separated into common and elite schools

7. Historically Speaking: What is the Relationship Between a Universal Education and Democratic Citizenship? • Education, slavery, and freedom • First education advocates ignored the education rights of African Americans • African American population had an active interest and passion to educate former slaves • During slavery, literacy represented a skill that contradicted the status of slaves • Many gains were won after the Civil War but quickly lost thereafter

8. Historically Speaking: What is the Relationship Between a Universal Education and Democratic Citizenship? • Making democracy “come alive” in school • Progressive education was a means of engaging more students so they would stay in school longer • Progressive educators believed schools should be small-scale models of larger democratic societies

9. Join the Dialogue • Discuss your own “Pedagogic Creed” – a statement of your basic philosophical beliefs about education.

10. Historically Speaking: What is the Relationship Between a Universal Education and Democratic Citizenship? • Education is a civil right • Victories in desegregating schools were part of a much larger national civil rights movement • Movement was dedicated to a more democratic system of education • Larger goal of movement was the creation of a society that allowed all citizens full participation in democracy at all levels

11. Historically Speaking: What is the Relationship Between a Universal Education and Democratic Citizenship? • Recent visions of democratic schooling • Ann Bastian: Called for quality and equality in schools • Rethinking Schools journal: Strong voice for social justice in education • Deborah Meier: Works to create democratic learning communities • Lisa Delpit: Argues for a multicultural approach to education

12. How Can We Make Our Schools More Democratic? • Schools are not all equal • Quality education for every child is far from realized • Many schools have insufficient funding or resources, and under-qualified teachers • Students are still excluded from school based on: • Gender • Race • Disability • Home language • Sexual orientation

13. How Can We Make Our Schools More Democratic? • Schools are not all equal • Jonathan Kozol found: • Schools for poor children are not happy places • Two sets of school exist, one for well-off, mostly white children, and another set for overwhelmingly poor students of color • These two sets of students received profoundly different educations

14. How Can We Make Our Schools More Democratic? • The teacher’s role in a democratic society • Every teacher has a responsibility to make schools fairer for all • Those entering the profession need to be clear about their own beliefs, expectations, and role they can play in a democratic system of education

15. Reading: “My Pedagogic Creed” by John Dewey • Dewey’s personal beliefs about education, including: • “I believe that education…is a process of living and not a preparation for future living” • “I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform” • “I believe that the community’s duty to education is…its paramount moral duty” • “I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life”

16. Reading: “The Meaning of Education” by W.E.B. DuBois • Discusses two concepts of education • Training for mastery of technique (craft) • Training the man who is going to exercise the technique and for whom the technique exists (character) • DuBois argues, “Technique without character is chaos and war. Character without technique is labor and want”

17. Reading: From Exploring the Moral Heart of Teaching by David T. Hansen • Hansen writes, “Conceptions of what teaching is, and what it is for, make a difference in educational thought and practice” • Argues that teaching must be fueled from within, and teachers must work both in well-defined roles and as idealistic practitioners • Educators should work towards the ideal of “tenacious humility” in their teaching

18. Reading: “Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice” by the editors of Rethinking Schools • Based on premise that schools “should be laboratories for a more just society than the one we live in now” • School reform must be guided by democratic social goals and values • Efforts to reform schools must be both visionary and practical in their approach