Democratic Education Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Research on youth civic engagement often sees the everyday lives of young people as barriers to civic engagement. Recent qualitative approaches have drawn attention to the civic and political dimensions of young people’s everyday lives. This is a crucial insight, but cannot—by itself—answer a key question: Just how is it that everyday experience can be transformed into civic engagement? I argue that Dewey's theory of experience makes two key contributions towards answering this question. First, Dewey’s situational understanding of experience directs us to the concrete conditions everyday life as the necessary groundwork and starting point for civic engagement. Second, Dewey’s concept of reflective experience helps us understand how taken for granted assumptions about political and social life can be transformed into more active forms of engagement. I illustrate this argument by drawing on selected findings from a qualitative study of young people’s experience in Public Achievement, a civic engagement initiative

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- Democratic Education, Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Civic Education

Actualmente es difícil encontrar alumnos que, en cualquier ámbito y de manera voluntaria y no
gratificada, quieran representar colectivos o participar en actividades dentro o fuera de sus centros
educativos (ya sea para implicarse en proyectos o como delegados de clase en la escuela o como
miembros de los claustros o consejos de Departamentos en la universidad). Esta actitud pasiva
bastante generalizada presenta un problema de identificación con su centro en el que se genera
más una relación de "cliente” que espera un servicio, que la de un miembro con espíritu
colaborador para mejorar la institución a la que pertenece. Este hecho se debe analizar y afrontar
porque implica un déficit democrático ya que precisamente una buena democracia requiere una
ciudadanía participativa donde todos tienen un grado de responsabilidad. Por estos motivos, un
equipo de docentes universitarios y de escuelas se unen para diseñar actividades integradas en el
currículo del estudiante para potenciar fundamentalmente 2 competencias transversales: la de la
Responsabilidad Social y la de la Comunicación Oral. Esto implica el desarrollo y aplicación de
metodologías, con el apoyo de docentes universitarios, que hagan que los alumnos, en primer
lugar, aprendan a trabajar de manera cooperativa (se necesitan unos a otros para la viabilidad del
proyecto de grupo); y , en segundo lugar , que tengan que aprender técnicas de comunicación no
verbal y de expresión oral para saber comunicar el proyecto a los receptores. Los resultados de
estas técnicas y metodologías serían evaluadas con el apoyo de docentes universitarios para
determinar la posibilidad de ser extrapoladas a otros centros

- by David Dueñas i Cid and +1
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- Democratic Education, Social Development, Citizen participation

Teacher education in England now requires that student teachers follow practices that do not undermine " fundamental British values " where these practices are assessed against a set of ethics and behaviour standards. This paper examines the political assumptions underlying pedagogical interpretations about the education of national identities through documenting how a group of student teachers uphold the institutional demand of promoting fundamental British Values in relation to their discursive constructions of Britishness. Empirical data exemplifies potential political under-standings guiding educational practices. Analysis suggests that pedagogies of national education are mediated by (i) educators' understandings of the nation as an essential entity or a social construct and (ii) their understanding of national identities as being open or closed to competing interpretations. The paper concludes by examining implications of different political and pedagogical positions for practice and research.

The Washington Post's recent mea culpa over its participation in the broader media's complicity in the Bush administration's reckless revival of naked imperialism in Iraq belies the fact that investigative journalism in the... more

The paper offers a robust definition of democracy that focuses upon the decision making processes of democratic societies that are dependent on the ability and willingness of citizens to enter into a democratic dialectic in which informed... more

- by Stephen Lafer and +1
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- Democratic Education, Democracy, Educating the Educators
- by Adler Yang
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- Social Change, Media and Cultural Studies, Democratic Education, Alternative Education

This article introduces this Special Issue of FORUM with a discussion of freedom and autonomy and considers the ways in which alternative approaches to pedagogy might provide opportunities to address inequalities in the context of education and in society beyond education. The article draws on work carried out in a project funded by an ESRC seminar series grant entitled 'Thinking the 'Yet to be Thought': an international cross-sector seminar series exploring socially just education and inequalities in education'. Underpinning the article is a belief in the intrinsic power of pedagogy to interrupt dominant paradigms and the article acknowledges the importance of surfacing the role of pedagogic discourse in intensifying existing inequalities. Despite the rising tide of neo-liberalism in education across the world, this article and the special issue that follows provide examples of positive educational practice and spaces of resistance where schools, colleges and other educational institutions are doing things differently.

- by Max A Hope
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- Democratic Education, Alternative Education, Freedom

The underlying assumption of any educational reform is that we can and should control measurable achievement. The entire scenario builds on a platform of causal determinism, since every effect has a cause, the causes can be tweaked to produce unique desired effects. But the targeted goals have hardly been achieved, with rote memorization and ‘textbook culture’ plaguing the system. Another striking feature of discussions around educational reform is the absence of conversation around the child’s free will and what might make a child happy. Consequently ‘school’ is being repeatedly labelled as an environment hindering a child's autonomy and creativity. The meaning and need of education goes beyond and should not be restricted to measurable learning outcomes and policies based on cause-effect rationales. The child’s happiness is a continuous component and the paramount metric of his or her education. A compatibilist attempt has been made to preserve a child’s free will within the confines of our deterministic laws. An alternative system of democratic schooling is then proposed, where the school alters itself to the child’s needs, rather than the other way round.

- by Saurabh Khanna
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- Education, Democratic Education, Philosophy of Education
- by Philip Woods
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- Sociology, Educational Leadership, Democratic Education, Educational Administration
- by Deron Boyles
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- Metaphysics, Education, Democratic Education, Metaphysics of Time
- by Federico Ferretti
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- Cartography, Education, Democratic Education, Radical Geography

The uprising of secondary school students in the state of São Paulo (Brazil) is related to a type of collective action that, although recent, finds support in other anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist movements, with forms of action and organizational dynamic. For a long time, no social movement had expressed such power of mobilization, rupture and resistance in Brazil as the recent school occupations. This article revisits some aspects of resistance towards the policy of "school reorganization" in São Paulo, 2015-2016 and discusses the resistance strategies that emerged from the occupations, indicating a renewal of struggles for democratic education in Brazil. In particular, we examine the interaction between student movements, public universities and the justice system in the context of school occupations and consider how the fertile field of resistance and solidarity led to the emergence of the Public-School and University Network (REPU). The REPU proposes a closer relationship between public universities and movements for the struggle for public education, constituting a singular space for knowledge production and political action.

- by Débora Cristina Goulart and +1
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- Social Movements, Democratic Education, Education Policy, University

Aktiveringens politik beskriver och analyserar den omvandling av det svenska politiska landskapet som äger rum under decennierna kring millennieskiftet. Den svenska välfärdsmodellen har genomgått en rad djupgående förändringar. Valfrihet och eget ansvar är ledorden i den nya tidens politik. Men vilka egenskaper kännetecknar egentligen en aktiv medborgare? Hur har idealet om aktiva medborgare växt fram och hur kommer det till uttryck inom olika politikområden? Författaren lyfter fram idéer och problembeskrivningar, visioner och ideal, åtgärdsförslag och reformer som tar sikte på att skapa delaktiga och ansvarstagande demokratiska medborgare.

- by Magnus Dahlstedt
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- Cultural Studies, Democratic Education, Governmentality, Cultural Theory

Teaching controversial issues in the classroom is now more urgent and fraught than ever as we face up to rising authoritarianism, racial and economic injustice, and looming environmental disaster. Despite evidence that teaching controversy is critical, educators often avoid it. How then can we prepare and support teachers to undertake this essential but difficult work? Hard Questions: Learning to Teach Controversial Issues, based on a cross-national qualitative study, examines teacher educators’ efforts to prepare preservice teachers for teaching controversial issues that matter for democracy, justice, and human rights. It presents four detailed cases of teacher preparation in three politically divided societies: Northern Ireland, England, and the United States. The book traces graduate students’ learning from university coursework into the classrooms where they work to put what they have learned into practice. It explores their application of pedagogical tools and the factors that facilitated or hindered their efforts to teach controversy. The book’s cross-national perspective is compelling to a broad and diverse audience, raising critical questions about teaching controversial issues and providing educators, researchers, and policymakers tools to help them fulfill this essential democratic mission of education.

- by Li-Ching Ho
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- Democratic Education, Curriculum Studies, Civic Education, Singapore

Since 1995, the National Department of Education has developed a number
of policies to give effect to the proposed transformation outlined in
White Paper 1 (Notice 196 of 1995) and in subsequent legislation. A
range of Acts and policies were introduced, many of them dealing with
how religion should be dealt with in schools and it culminated in the promulgation
of the National Policy on Religion and Education (2003). In
all these policies the role of the school and, in particular, of the school
principal has been foregrounded as important for effective implementation
of policies. This article is based on research conducted to determine
how school principals dealt with religion and the implementation of the
religion and education policy. This study found that school principals
often ignore the policy and maintain the status quo. When faced with
conflict of religious interests, they partially sub-contract into the policy.
The study also found that past experiences with religion in education,
either as students or educators, had a major impact on how principals
perceive the role of religion in schools and how they dealt with it.

In this essay I examine the racial achievement gap in American education in terms of an impaired psychosocial developmental process. I argue that the well-documented academic underperformance of certain minority groups may stem from the unfavorable resolution of a key developmental crisis in constituent members’ early scholastic experience. I go on to suggest that individual educators can play an important role in eliminating the achievement gap by changing the way they teach in their own classrooms. In part, they may do so by adopting a "transcultural" pedagogy or teaching style, according to which both teachers and their minority students develop (at minimum) transcultural proficiencies and (at maximum) transcultural identities, as a promising way to achieve two important ends. First, the fostering of an academically-industrious self-concept in members of historically underachieving minority groups and hence, second, the closing of the achievement gap "from the bottom up"—one classroom at a time.

- by Brian D . Earp
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- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory

This paper is about educational policy in England. It explores the Coalition Government's key policies about localism, decentralisation and education, and assesses whether these present opportunities for a radical school to apply for state funding as a Free School. A case study from the independent sector-a democratic school which is run by students as well as teachers-is used as an example. Following this, the conclusion is drawn that the Coalition Government has given mixed messages in terms of its commitment to decentralisation, and that, in fact, they would be challenged by an application for a radical Free School.

- by Max A Hope
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- Democratic Education, Alternative Education, Free Schools

A century of education and education reform, along with more than three decades of high-stakes testing and accountability, reveals a disturbing paradox: education has a steadfast commitment to testing and grading. This commitment persists despite ample research, theory, and philosophy revealing the corrosive consequences of both testing and grading in an education system designed to support human agency and democratic principles. This revised edited volume brings together a collection of updated and new essays that confronts the failure of testing and grading. The book explores the historical failure of testing and grading; the theoretical and philosophical arguments against testing and grading; the negative influence of tests and grades on social justice, race, class, and gender; and the role that they play in perpetuating a deficit perspective of children. The chapters fall under two broad sections. Part I, Degrading Learning, Detesting Education: The Failure of High-Stake

- by Katie Zahedi and +1
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- Democratic Education
- by Audrey Osler
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- Education, Sociology of Education, Democratic Education, Human Rights

Desde la sanción de la Ley Nacional de Educación (Ley Nº 26206/06) la enseñanza secundaria reviste carácter obligatorio. Consecuente con el mandato legal, el Ministerio de Educación comenzó a trabajar en pos de producir las condiciones para su cumplimiento de modo de garantizar la universalización de la enseñanza secundaria. También por iniciativa del Ministerio de Educación, durante el año 2009 se presentó
el Programa de Expansión de la Educación Superior con la finalidad de incrementar las oportunidades de acceso a la educación superior extendiendo la cobertura territorial preservando la calidad y la pertinencia de las ofertas educativas. Nos proponemos en esta comunicación realizar un análisis de los desafíos que
implica la obligatoriedad del nivel secundario y la promoción de la expansión del sistema con relación a las políticas de acceso a la educación superior. Para ello, en primer término presentamos los modos y las lógicas que ha adoptado la expansión de las ofertas de carreras universitarias y las lógicas que han presidido las decisiones del Ministerio de Educación y las universidades respecto del acceso a la educación superior, para luego comparar ambas con el propósito de observar su relación o la falta de ellas. Es decir observar si las lógicas de expansión de las ofertas de educación superior incorporaban, de
manera sistemática o no, mecanismos o dispositivos orientados a dar respuesta a los problemas diagnosticados sobre el acceso a la educación superior. En un segundo momento se describen los desarrollos en países de América Latina sobre políticas de expansión de la educación superior para dar un marco de entendimiento a
las nuevas concepciones que sobre el tema están vigentes. Es en ese marco que cobran relevancia las principales características del “Programa de regionalización” que desde la Secretaría Ejecutiva de los CPRES se implementa con el propósito de expandir los servicios de educación superior. En este apartado se describe, también, el marco sobre el que se implementa la obligatoriedad del nivel secundario. Ambas estrategias tienen en común el hecho de que promueven una democratización del acceso a sus niveles respectivos, propiciando la incorporación de nuevos públicos, tradicionalmente excluidos
de uno u otro nivel o de ambos. Finalmente, se realiza un cierre del trabajo estableciendo un conjunto de recomendaciones de política que den cuenta del desafío que implica para el sistema de educación superior garantizar, en condiciones de calidad y con criterio de pertinencia social, la satisfacción de una demanda creciente por educación superior que incorporará, por lo menos hasta un mediano plazo, no solo una mayor cantidad de aspirantes sino nuevos públicos que estarán expectantes por las oportunidades que abren la obligatoriedad del secundario y la expansión de las ofertas.

- by Javier Araujo and +2
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- Democratic Education, Expansión de la educación superior
- by Amy Rector-Aranda
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- Democratic Education, Practitioner Action Research

This study examined leadership styles and staff performance in sports organizations. Five hundred and thirty two management staff were purposively selected from five states Sports Councils. The “ Management Staff Response Questionnaire ” (MSRQ) was administered to measure the level of performance of staff of the councils, identify the leadership styles in operation and the extent to which leadership styles enhanced performance of the staff of the councils. The leadership styles most often used by leaders of the councils were autocratic, democratic and pseudo-democratic. The finding also revealed that, there was a high level of job performance of Sports Councils’ staff of South-eastern Nigeria and that leadership styles significantly influenced the job performance of staff. The study concluded that among the several organizational factors which could enhance job performance of Sports Council workers, the style employed by the leader of the Sports Council most of the time play a signi...

- by Joseph Alla
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- Psychology, Sport Psychology, Democratic Education, Educational Administration

Talking politics online is not exclusively reserved for those spaces dedicated to politics, particularly the everyday political talk crucial to the public sphere. However, past net-based public sphere research has focused mostly on political spaces thereby neglecting an array of other genres. The aim of this article is to move beyond politically oriented communicative spaces by investigating political talk within the British reality TV discussion forum Wife Swap. The purpose is to see whether a forum dedicated to reality TV provides the communicative space, content, and style for politics that extends the public sphere. The central question is whether it fulfils the requirements of rationality and ‘decent’ deliberation. Moreover, the analysis moved beyond a formal notion by investigating how expressives influence the more traditional elements of deliberation. The findings revealed that Wife Swap participants engaged in political talk that was often deliberative. Moreover, it was a space where the use of expressives played a key role in enhancing such talk.

- by Todd Graham
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- Media Studies, New Media, Media and Cultural Studies, Political Participation

The aim of this article is to explore the practical meaning of John Dewey's claim that democracy has to be continuously recreated, by applying it to the preschool context. It takes its starting point in the notion of everyday democracy and, drawing on interviews with teachers who attempt to work democratically, points to the main challenges that arise in the course of this process. They include the need to constantly redefine the key concepts of freedom and equality, to confront and reconstruct the notions of the child and the teacher, and to avoid the risk of an instrumental use of seemingly democratic practice as classroom management technology.

- by Katarzyna Gawlicz
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- Democratic Education, Early Childhood Education, Wczesna Edukacja

RESUMO O objetivo deste trabalho é abordar o papel do coordenador pedagógico para a garantia da participação das crianças pequenas durante a elaboração do Projeto Político Pedagógico (PPP) nos Centros de Educação Infantil. O motivo para esta defesa está no protagonismo das crianças nas decisões políticas e sociais, conquistado nas últimas décadas. Concepções de infância no campo da sociologia e os documentos oficiais acerca da gestão democrática norteiam este trabalho. São apontados elementos da presença das crianças na construção do PPP a partir dos documentos oficiais que versam especialmente sobre a gestão democrática e, por fim, discute-se formas de escuta, registro e interpretação das falas das crianças para a elaboração do PPP. É uma pesquisa qualitativa, de base bibliográfica e documental. Para a coleta dos dados, utilizou-se de levantamento de estudos acadêmicos sobre a temática, bem como o estudo de PPPs encontrados na internet. Utiliza-se Friedmann (2013), Corsaro (2002) e Brougère (2016) para os conceitos sobre infância e cultura lúdica, e Libâneo (2010, 2013) e Paro (2016) para o campo da gestão escolar e gestão democrática. Percebe-se que a participação das crianças pequenas na elaboração dos PPPs na etapa da Educação Infantil ainda carece de atenção para que as experiências nos Centros de Educação Infantil sejam eficientes e consigam incluí-las nesses documentos oficiais das escolas. Nota-se a necessidade de compreensão conceitual sobre essas transformações acerca da infância e criança e é necessário que haja disponibilidade de escuta por parte dos profissionais que trabalham nestes espaços.
Palavras-chave: Educação infantil; Projeto Político Pedagógico; Gestão democrática; Participação de crianças pequenas.

- by Marcos Machado
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- Democratic Education, Early Childhood Education
- by Paul R Carr and +1
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- Environmental Education, Democratic Education, Social Justice in Education

Kapitola se věnuje vztahu mladých lidí ke zpravodajství: jakou pozornost věnují zpravodajským médiím, jakou roli hraje zpravodajství v jejich životě a jak si tuto roli vysvětlovat. V první části jsou blíže představeny studie poukazující na rostoucí nezájem současné mladé generace o mediální zpravodajství a hledající příčiny této skutečnosti. Podle výzkumů, které tezi o rostoucím nezájmu mladých lidí o zpravodajství dokládají, nemají dnešní teenageři a mladí dospělí narozdíl od starších generací vytvořeny návyky pravidelného sledování zpravodajských médií a konzumace zpráv je tak pro ně pouze příležitostnou a velmi okrajovou činností. Druhá část kapitoly seznamuje čtenáře s odlišnou perspektivou, jež se v posledních letech v oblasti studií mladých lidí a jejich vztahu ke zpravodajství objevuje: s perspektivou zaměřenou na alternativní způsoby, jimiž se zprávy o aktuálním dění dostávají k mladým lidem. Podle zastánců této perspektivy nejsou dnešní mladí lidé programově lhostejní k dění ve společnosti ani nejsou neinformovaní, spíš jsou informovaní jinak: jinými cestami, s jinou intenzitou, jiným stylem. V závěrečné části práce jsou obě představené perspektivy zasazeny do rámce současných diskusí o proměnách občanství a občanské angažovanosti v pozdně moderní společnosti.
The chapter explores the relationship between young people and the consumption of news. Based on review of the literature, it discusses two main perpectives concerning the changes in news consumption patterns. The "sceptical" perspective underlines the apathy and indifference to news media among young people and the lost of "news habits" which are typical for older generations of news consumers. The "optimistic" view puts stress on alternative ways of getting news used by young people and on their active handling with the news content. Both perspectives are discussed in relation to changing patterns of citizenship and civic engagement.

- by Marek Šebeš
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- Journalism, Democratic Education, Civic Education, Media Literacy

Each of these quotations takes seriously the idea that schools are essential for democracy. Yet Bennett, Freire, Shanker, and Bush each provide their own sense of what democracy requires and how schools can help us to strengthen their respective—and often competing—visions of a democratic society. When educators, policymakers, politicians, and community activists pursue democracy, they do so in many different ways and toward many different ends.

- by Joel Westheimer
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- Democratic Education, Service Learning
- by Dr. Matthew Crosston
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- History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Geography

Following the 2005 London bombings, there is widespread public debate about diversity, integration, and multiculturalism in Britain, including the role of education in promoting national identity and citizenship. In response to official concerns about terrorism, a review panel was invited to consider how ethnic, religious and cultural diversity might be addressed in the school curriculum for England, specifically through the teaching of modern British social and cultural history and citizenship. The resultant Ajegbo report proposes a new strand on "identity and diversity: living together in the UK", be added to the citizenship education framework. While the report gives impetus to teaching about diversity, it does not strengthen the curriculum framework proposed in the Crick report. It fails to adopt a critical perspective on race or multiculturalism or adequately engage with young people's lived experiences of citizenship within a globalised world. I analyse how the review panel conceptualises identity, democracy and diversity. I then consider its assumptions about racism, human rights, and citizenship education, concluding with reflections on how citizenship education might be developed in the task of re-imagining the nation and meeting the needs of emergent cosmopolitan citizens.

- by Audrey Osler
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- Education, Sociology of Education, Democratic Education, Terrorism

The democratic school should provide students with rights, such as freedom, justice, equal opportunity, autonomy, participation in the decision making process and build up social and political skills, such as undertaking of responsibilities, collaboration, sociability, fellow feeling, empathy, free expression of opinions and democratic decision making.
The pedagogic perceptions of the School of Work, which as an instructive method rejects the passive attitude of students, ensures their self-activity and leads them more effectively to self- education and self-government, inspired Alexandros Delmouzos, who in 1923 undertook the administration of Marasleio Didaskaleio and attempted to apply the principles of the School of Workinto his teaching practice and to organise the first School Community in Greece. In 1982/86 the Regulation rules for Student Communities in the Secondary Education were put in effect. However, their practical application differs vastly from the aims and the will of the legislator and the pioneer educators of Progressive Education. New Greek national curricula (2002/2003) are turned to the creation of a more democratic of school.
The creation of a modern democratic, pedagogic model of SchoolCommunities, that would be
based on the insuperable example of Marasleio Didaskaleio, and its correct application in our school is a objective that leads to the equality of opportunity and social justice.

Middle-class progressives in the early 20th Century wanted to transform a corrupt and chaotic industrial America into an "authentic" democracy. But they were led astray by their privilege. Focused on enhancing the voices of individuals, generations of progressives remained blind to the rich culture of "democratic solidarity" infusing labor unions and organizing in poor communities. This book traces the problematic evolution of progressive democracy in America, focusing on schools as a key site of progressive practice. At the same time, it examines alternative strategies for developing more empowering approaches to democratic education and collective action.

- by Aaron Schutz
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- Sociology, Social Movements, Social Theory, Sociology of Culture
- by Nikolaos Zahariadis
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

In an era when democracy is claimed to be in crisis, citizens are portrayed as increasingly distrustful of politicians and political institutions, and change, if any, is expected to be coming from extra-institutional spaces, Albert Dzur invites us to seek and find the seeds of democratic change within the existing institutions of representative democracy. Dzur's work captures the difference 'democratic professionals' can make in these spaces and tells us about the fresh approach they bring to their everyday routines in schools, community centers, government agencies, and even prisons. What links 'democratic professionals' in different institutions is their aspiration to create power-sharing arrangements and collaborative thinking skills in places that are usually characterized as hierarchical and non-participatory. Dzur explains how 'democratic professionals' transform the way institutions function and find solutions to collective problems. Yet such transformative practices often elude the attention of democratic theorists as they fall outside of the established notions of democracy and democratic change. The following interview focuses on the relationship between democratic theory and practice, the difference between social movement actors and 'democratic professionals', and the challenges of bringing democratic change and sustaining it in existing institutions, organisations and work places.

La literatura de la imaginación, al contrario de lo que creería el crítico literario Harold Bloom, comprendía la unidad inseparable, como en el caso de la personalidad de Lincoln, de la conciencia estética y moral, permitiendo que la ética literaria y la experiencia estética de las 'Perspectivas democráticas' resultaran afines. Las 'Perspectivas democráticas' de Whitman representan a la perfección el significado de la escritura como un acto de independencia que refleja indistintamente tanto al individuo como a la sociedad, en una clara muestra de fe en la democracia. El valor democrático de las páginas de Whitman es emancipador para el lector. Se trata, en conclusión, de una experiencia estética afín a la ética literaria que ha fundado una nación, los Estados Unidos de América.

The central question in the political theory of education—How should citizens be educated, and by whom?—has become even more prominent since the first edition of Democratic Education appeared ten years ago. The question has become more prominent in practice and in theory. Education tops the list of politically salient issues in American politics, ranking above even the economy, employment, and crime. Many more political philosophers are now addressing the most salient issues in the politics of education: the content of educa- tion, its distribution, and the distribution of educational authority.
As societies have become more interdependent than ever, educa- tional issues have become increasingly international. Debates abound about whether the content of education should be more multicultural and whether schools should try to cultivate cosmopolitan rather than patriotic sensibilities among students. At the same time, the demand for less public control and more parental control over schooling has also become more prominent, especially in the United States.

- by Joseph Chandler
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- Education, Democratic Education

Co-authored with Kim Pinkerton and Pernille Ripp, The Students’ Right to Read provides resources that can be used to help discuss and ensure students’ free access to all texts. The genesis of the Students’ Right to Read was an original Council statement, “Request for Reconsideration of a Work,” prepared by the Committee on the Right to Read of the National Council of Teachers of English and revised by Ken Donelson. The current Students’ Right to Read statement represents an updated second edition that builds on the work of Council members dedicated to ensuring students the freedom to choose to read any text and opposing “efforts of individuals or groups to limit the freedom of choice of others.” Supported through references from text challenges and links to resources, this statement discusses the history and dangers of text censorship which highlight the breadth and significance of the Students’ Right to Read. The statement then culminates in processes that can be followed with different stakeholders when students’ reading rights are infringed.