All universities and colleges in the United States were deeply and immediately affected by the sudden appearance of COVID-19. Two-year public community colleges suffered the same fate as their university neighbors: the immediate needs were to close up operations, shift instruction to online and distance modalities and keep students engaged and…

Since its inception in 2004, Siena Italian Studies (SIS) has worked to offer students a challenging and engaging intercultural experience thanks to the implementation of the service-learning pedagogy and the practice of reflection combined with language acquisition. Over the years, SIS courses have been aligned with European policies and…

This article problematizes evidence-based policies in the USA, using Dewey's (1916) education theory and findings from a school development project in 71 culturally diverse Arizona schools. The study asked three questions: (1) How do formal and informal school leaders work in teams to mediate between evidence-based policy requirements at federal,…

Using critical consciousness as a framework, we investigated how the predominantly White institution (PWI) environment plays a role in Black immigrant students' engagement with race, racism, and race-based activism in the United States. Findings from this qualitative study demonstrate that Black immigrant students' positive and negative…

This article presents a study that explored how race and racism impact teaching and learning and how civic education can be employed to promote racial justice. We argue the need to examine educators' perspectives on how increased awareness of existing inequities coupled with ongoing professional development can better equip them to understand…

Equity is desirable in all aspects of our democracy. Public schools, in particular, are essential to that enterprislse. Unfortunately, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) educators have often not experienced equity in our schools. Equity-oriented school leaders, however, can make schools more equitable for LGBT teachers while increasing…

Studies show adults' attitudes towards citizenship to be related to their educational level. It has been claimed that higher educated people more often possess 'good' citizenship values. However, only limited insight exists into how differences in citizenship attitudes between adolescents from various educational tracks develop over time. In this…

Educating for active and informed citizenship represents a core goal of Australian education and schooling. Owing to a range of factors -- including the contested conceptual nature of citizenship and democracy -- there is reason to question the extent to which this goal is being translated into practice. Similarly, while the Australian Curriculum…

This paper makes the case for fairness as a driver towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of equitable quality education. We outline a dialogic fairness framework attending to the principles of relational justice in both the service of reducing educational inequalities and improving democratic qualities. The prominence of…

In this paper, we problematize current conceptualizations of agency in education. We begin by considering how the construction of the hyperindividual, one that is entirely determined by its own internal capacities, has become the norm within Australian educational policy. We propose that this conceptualization produces undemocratic educational…

This article provides a discussion of the book, "Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities" by Martha C. Nussbaum from the perspective of a visiting scholar to the United States from China. It begins by addressing two critical topics discussed by Nussbaum: consequences of focusing only on economic growth and the importance of…

Spirituality has been identified as an important component of democratic education by influential scholars such as Dewey, Freire, hooks, and Noddings. However, many teachers in the United States do not engage openly with a framework for understanding, organizing, and integrating pedagogical knowledge of spirituality within the context of…

The purpose of this article was to gain a deeper understanding of Arendt's educational philosophy, her perspective of political involvement as a kind of political education, and natality as the fundamental nature of education. The current study has extended past research by elucidating Arendt's view of participatory democratic politics, her…

The U.S. incarceration rate has quadrupled since the 1980s. While criminal convictions associated with the "War on Drugs" is the common narrative offered for the rising rate, additional factors are also contributing to this growth. Scholars have addressed alternative explanations including how a ubiquitous prescription drug market,…

Youth today are participating in political and civic life in new and emerging ways--some positive and some negative--but there is scant evidence that these new forms of engagement spawn enduring forms of participation to enhance democratization at all levels in society. How, then, do we educate for democracy and for what type of democracy,…