Realizing Democratic Practices and Relations in Classrooms

• In Event: 43.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Six - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 43.080-7 - Knowledge in Tension: Dissident Experiences in Relation

Abstract

Contemporary efforts to realize democratic practices and relations within U.S. schools are enacted within a historical context of state sanctioned cultural suppression and erasure. Richard Bernstein (2010) faults Dewey for undertheorizing both this context and the forms of practical action that might help to realize what Bernstein terms a pragmatic pluralist vision. Aligning ourselves with Bernstein’s purposes, we respond with a consideration of Critical Exploration in the Classroom (Duckworth, 2006), a radically democratic—and therefore often transformative—pedagogical approach. Based upon the pragmatic pluralist commitments Bernstein develops, we argue that CEC provides an ideologically open and accepting space wherein students grow more able and inclined to reveal, explore, and rethink human differences and tensions as these are encountered within schools.

Authors

• Susan Jean Mayer, Critical Exploration Press

• Mary Kay Delaney, University of Denver