Interests, Not Rights: A Deweyan Reframing of Parent Activism

• In Event: Critical Pragmatism, Tensions, Limits, and Activism: Contemporary Expressions of Deweyan Scholarship

Abstract

In recent years, conservative activists have advanced “parental rights” challenges and policies that stress the primacy of parents in making decisions about children’s education. These challenges have particularly targeted equity-oriented and anti-racist curricula, as well as policies about gender and sexual diversity. This philosophical paper draws on resources from John Dewey to reframe rights-based activism. Dewey simultaneously critiques individualistic accounts of rights while emphasizing the central place of individual growth and freedom in democratic life. This account of democracy does not dismiss diverse interests and potential conflicts about public education; instead, it emphasizes the need to invest in robust and creative democratic practices to protect—and reassert—the vital public role played by school boards, and local decision-making groups.

Author

• Terri S. Wilson, University of Colorado - Boulder