Democracy and Democratization: Ideals of Change in Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium offers three papers to explore how varying conceptions of “democracy” and “democratization” are taken up in educational spaces, drawing attention to what is meant when these frames are invoked, and the political stakes of “democratizing” as a process. This symposium begins with a conceptual piece that surveys the ways democracy and democratization are conceptualized through the case of teacher education. The second piece develops a conceptual framework of teacher political agency, drawing on an empirical study of civics teachers. The third paper draws on a multiple case study of district-level professional learning partnerships to develop an anti-oppression conception of equity, identifying this conception as a tool and a means for reaching the democratic aims of schooling.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Section 1: Governance, Politics, and Intergovernmental Relations

Chair

• Emily M. Hodge, Virginia Commonwealth University

Papers

• Democracy as a Floating Signifier: Clarifying a Theory of Democracy and Democratization in Teacher Education - Maya Kaul, University of Pennsylvania; Nora Reikosky, University of Houston

• Making Civics: Teacher Discretion and Political Agency in Civic Education Policy Implementation - Abigail Dym, Providence College

• Realizing the Democratic Aims of Schooling: Adopting an Anti-Oppression Conception of Equity in Policy - Meghan Comstock, University of Maryland