High school students no longer keep company with the grown-ups they are about to become. Schools and districts have grown exponentially larger, impersonal, and bureaucratic, resembling post offices. Superintendents and boards who know their schools only through media representations or statistics fashion unrealistic policies. Coercion and…

Describes how the Centre of Excellence for Literacy and Literacy Education in Nigeria strives to promote reading clubs at the grass-roots level to foster literacy empowerment. Shows how these reading clubs enhance democratic participation and critical thinking. Offers a sample of material for discussion and discussion questions for mature readers.…

Focuses on an Internet-based instructional activity called a WebQuest. Highlights WebQuest components and explains the pedagogical rationale for the activity's structure. Describes a WebQuest designed to help preservice and inservice teachers examine the core democratic principles of the United States and the reflection of those principles within…

Analyzes the growth of private education in Poland and its contribution to the ongoing processes of democratization and educational development. Suggests that its development has been haphazard, reflecting the uncertainties of a society in transition. Urges the need for evaluation and dissemination of private-sector initiatives to serve as…

Believes that with the turn of the millennium, the United States should undergo a self-examination of the state of democracy in the country. Addresses various concerns in relation to societal reform movements and idealism, the country's performance on the world stage, inequalities still prevalent in society, and the call for social justice. (CMK)

Argues that the historical development of U.S. bilingual education policy largely results from a morality based on economic and social interdependency. Explores strengths and limitations of that morality. Develops the construct of a spiritual morality that combines the powers of intellect, emotions, politics, and spirituality in support of…

Examines the forces enhancing democratic citizenship education in Taiwan focusing on the social, political, and cultural context of the country. Highlights the progress that has been made, reviews the factors that hinder the development of a democratic citizenship education, and considers its future in Taiwan (Republic of China). (CMK)

During the 1980s, 35 percent of French pupils attended private schools at some point. The private sector (largely state-supported Catholic schools) offered a second chance that was not seized equally. Research shows public-sector recruitment was more democratic; private schools equalized results more successfully. (Contains 12 references.) (MLH)

Shares observations made and lessons learned by the author while student teaching in a democratic classroom environment. Outlines keys to creating a democratic classroom. Discusses preparing teachers for democratic classrooms. (SR)

Uses field data to build a case for presenting sexual orientation as another form of diversity that preservice teachers must recognize, understand, and be prepared to live with, exploring the power of democratic principles to support the conceptual framework and examining the role of teacher educators in promoting democratic values that extend to…

Schools in Arthurdale (West Virginia), a New Deal resettlement community for displaced coal miners, made landmark efforts to bring Deweyan ideals of progressive education to bear on community life. The article examines Arthurdale's pedagogy and history in order to illuminate ambiguities of educators' efforts to promote community, emphasizing…

A case study examined ways to improve schools through democratic accountability, highlighting a principal's strategies to increase staff and student expectations in a low-performing middle school in rural Florida. Results gleaned from interviews and surveys suggest that leaders must build schools' capacity for sustaining achievement. (Contains 32…

Three key contributions of Iris Young to democratic political theory, and three challenges that have arisen in response to Young's theory, are examined here in relation to education. First, Young has argued that oppression and domination, not distributive inequality, ought to guide discussions about justice. Second, eliminating oppression requires…

In this article, education policy is analyzed from a welfare state perspective. The aim is to Analise the significance attributed to social-inclusive aspects of education in contemporary education policies of the Nordic countries, and the extent to which education is regarded as an element in welfare policies. Four aspects are addressed: (1)…

Recent work on distributed leadership extends an ongoing critique of conventional "heroic" leader portrayals. This article examines work in this area seeking implications for democratic school governance. With material from case studies of two Texas schools, it considers frameworks presented by Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond and by…