The Significance of How Educators Experience Democracy, and the Potential for Democratic Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

There is general agreement that democracy is, or should be, an important component to the educational project. However, it is difficult to ascertain what democracy is, and how it should be understood, developed, cultivated and implemented. The research presented in this session takes the posture that how educators experience democracy themselves, especially in and through education, may have a significant impact on how they actually do democracy in schools. Based on studies of teacher-educator students in Canada, the USA and Australia, the presenters highlight the potential for transformative, critical, democratic educational change. Seeking how to extend critical engagement and political literacy toward thicker democracy is problematized within the strictures of neoliberalism, globalization and colonization.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Democratic Citizenship in Education

Chair

• Paul R. Carr, Université du Québec en Outaouais

Papers

• Can We Teach What We Preach? Examining Teachers and Their Experiences With Democracy - Paul R. Carr, Université du Québec en Outaouais

• Critical Pedagogy and the Understanding of Democracy Among Teacher-Education Students in Quebec - Gina Thesee, University of Quebec - Montreal

• U.S. Preservice Teachers’ Views and Experiences of Democracy: Promoting Passive Citizenry in Teacher Education - Bradley J. Porfilio, California State University - East Bay

Discussant

• E. Wayne Ross, The University of British Columbia