Eleven years after Estonia regained independence, its government sought admission to the European Union and NATO, which pressured the country to act on issues related to the Holocaust and in particular to adopt a Holocaust education day in schools. The policy, though adopted, was deeply unpopular within the country, leading to the dilemma of…

This article reviews the comparative merits of distributed leadership and democratic leadership as understandings of, and preferred alternatives to, the leadership of and in organizations. It is particularly concerned that, while distributed leadership may provide a welcome and worthwhile respite from and alternative to the kind of heroic…

The article presents the findings of the comparative survey on attitudes (beliefs, preferences) of 222 Slovenian and 230 Finnish early childhood teachers (Turnsek 2005). They have completed the questionnaire on aspect of democratisation of early childhood education, which consisted of attitude (Likart) scales and questions of ranking the…

This article explicates the viewpoints of school managers from various dysfunctional, historically black African schools. The 56 school managers from four Eastern Cape districts addressed several questions pertaining to what is really causing the lapse of management and leadership in various "failing schools". Both these aspects…

The purpose of the study was to uncover the cultural beliefs and values that underlie American and Russian teachers' representations of their professional identities and their understanding of power in education in the context of globally disseminated education reforms and current educational mandates--the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)…

The author brings together Paulo Freire and Jurgen Habermas to ask whether dialogue is possible in the classroom or whether, in a culture of rational debate, the classroom becomes more oppressive than democratic? In a voice and style that attempts to invite the skeletons out of the classroom closet, the author asks scholarly readers to lend an…

The Swedish school law and curriculum states that students shall be participative in their work. They should work in a participative manner and the pedagogical idea is that influence and participation has multiple benefits for students' development. In this article the relationship between student participation and school success is examined. By…

This quantitative research study identified perceptions regarding leadership styles of a sample of high school, middle school, and elementary school principals serving in South Dakota public and tribal/BIE (Bureau of Indian Education) schools in 2011. From 152 public school districts and 20 tribal/BIE schools, a sample of 148 school principals was…

The incorporation of compulsory courses on human rights into the secondary school curriculum in 1998 has been an important first step in developing respect for human rights and responsibilities among the younger generation in Turkey. Yet, these courses have many shortcomings in terms of materials, pedagogy and teacher attitudes. This paper…

This qualitative study examines an art lesson in a multiage inquiry-based charter school. The arts curriculum focused on democratic process, dialogical interaction, aesthetic and imaginative understanding, and visual culture art education. Questions considered in the research were: Within an inquiry-based setting what might an art lesson look…

In this article, the author digs into John Dewey's writings to explore his democratic community to better understand the meaning and the value of community. The author begins by considering the connotation of the concept "community," which is distinguished from the more popular term "society" used in ordinary language. Then the author transitions…

In this essay, William Ayers calls for a more vital and effective public education system, one guided by the basic democratic principle that all human beings are of incalculable and irreducible value. Ayers argues that to achieve such a system we must reclaim schools from the industrial model of the twentieth century and build classrooms that…

The First Amendment's guarantee of an independent press that may freely collect and disseminate news is often considered the bedrock of American democracy. Yet more than a century and a half after the "New York Herald's" John Nugent became the first American reporter jailed for refusing to identify a confidential source, reporters…

This article identifies historical connections between adult learning, popular education and the emergence of the public sphere in Europe, exploring potential implications for adult learning and community development, drawing upon research evaluating programmes to promote community-based learning "for" active citizenship in UK. The…

In a 2x2x2 factorial design, 3rd year Romanian psychology students (N = 94) were assigned into 2 groups according to the extent to which they acknowledged an epistemic dependence (low vs. high) toward their professor. They then compared the competence of 3rd year students to that of 1st year or 5th year students. Finally, they were exposed to a…