Long regarded by the vanguard of America's universities as antiquated and even dangerous, civic education is suddenly fashionable again. With the publication of "A Crucible Moment," a long battle in the culture wars appears to be winding down. It appears that everyone supports civic education today. For the past three decades, the ideal of civic…

With the rise of the Cold War, federal officials in the United States sought to end the racial segregation that the U.S. Supreme Court had accepted in the 1896 decision of "Plessy v. Ferguson." Although the reforms began with changes in the armed services, they moved to reduce racial segregation in schools. Many forces brought about the…

The aim of the research is to analyze the effects of performance assessment approach on democratic attitude of students. The research model is an experimental design with pretest-posttest control groups. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques are used for gathering of data in this research. 46 students participated in this research, with 23…

We present a case study to analyze how higher education students attending a Spanish University (N = 100) democratize the virtual classroom by assuming responsibility for their learning and that of the other members of the class; participate actively in social, cognitive, and teaching issues; and collaborate by creating a learning community and…

This study is an examination of the state of the liberal arts curriculum in community colleges in three geographic regions of the United States. From a constructivist paradigm and using globalization theory as a theoretical framework, this multiple case study examined faculty work life and administrative processes related to curriculum change in…

From 2009 to 2011, the authors launched the Basic Law Education Project: Education for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong. This article focuses on a subset of the overarching data-set and discusses the findings that resulted from a comparative analysis of two participating schools. A survey was deployed to assess the extent to which a…

This article examines the meanings ascribed to democracy by 74 township children in primary and intermediate schools outside Cape Town. The Xhosa children's racial and historical accounts form the qualitative substance to postulate democracy as "ubuntu" (respect). Embedded in a 'struggle for recognition', democratic belonging, being, and…

This is the account of a practitioner using action research in his classroom. Lamenting a lack of democracy in his teaching, the teacher is advised by his critical friends to present the problem to his sixth grade students. Together, they come up with a plan to try to democratize their classroom one period at a time. Using both student and teacher…

In this article, the author talks about citizenship, which raises raises a question whether the good citizen is the one who fits in, the one who goes with the flow and is part of the whole, or whether the good citizen is the one who stands out from the crowd, the one who goes against the flow and bucks the trend, who is, in a sense, "out of…

Schools may be able to play a particular role in instilling a strong American identity in young people. They can do this by actively practicing democratic community within the school. This practice of democratic community is key to the development of an individual identity that prioritizes the interdependent relationship between individual and…

In this paper, the author aims to bring individuals together and engage in a meaningful, critical examination of selected topics that concern teacher educators and practitioners. The author focuses on the imperative of civic engagement--fostering democratic minds among a citizenry motivated and capable in civic engagement--which is evermore…

Two conditions are crucial in preparing radical democratic leaders for a democratic society. In this article, the author argues against instrumental rationality and for radical democratic leaders with a critical perspective in education and schools.

Reviewing the literature on critical pedagogy (CP) and democratic education (DE) reveals that very little has been written comparing the two (Knight and Pearl in Urban Rev 32(2):197-226, 2000). After reading the Urban Review article by Knight and Pearl (2000)--the only publication explicitly comparing the two approaches to education--I was…

What are the prerequisites for principals' success within a decentralized and deregulated Swedish-policy environment characterized by democratic equity values and neo-liberal practices? Twenty-four secondary school principals identified internal and external factors that promote or inhibit principals' success. The discussion concerns whether the…

This quantitative study examined the beliefs of middle grades education faculty from universities across the United States about the purpose of education. The results of a survey of 144 respondents who identified themselves as university faculty that taught middle level courses as a specialty will be discussed. The survey included 23 statements,…