THE PARADOX OF DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

This article begins by tracing the history of higher education in the United States from its origins in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century in private, elite, church‐related institutions to the large‐scale mass higher education situation of today in which well over half the total enrollment is in public secular institutions. The author feels that the State and the Federal governments overly favoured the public sector during the period of massive expansion which began in the 1950's. More importantly, he is very much concerned about the decline in academic standards which set in once total enrollments exceeded 15% of the available college‐age cohorts. The process of decline continues, he argues, as public demand for equal access to higher education has led to equally strident demands for equal results. As results cannot in fact be made equal, given differences in the human condition, the solution to the dilemma has been the adulteration of certification which has as its result the undermining of an essential base of democracy, an educated citizenry.     

ON THE PUBLIC AND CIVIC PURPOSES OF EDUCATION

A bstract .  In this review essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz discusses three recent books related to democratic public life and schooling: Susan H. Fuhrman and Marvin Lazerson's The Public Schools , Walter C. Parker's Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life , and Kevin McDonough and Walter Feinberg's Education and Citizenship in Liberal-Democratic Societies . Abowitz details how each text is inspired by meanings of liberal democracy that evolved during the Enlightenment era, in which individual rights were constitutionally coded and equality came to be a powerful social and educational ideal, and how each book also takes up different sorts of Enlightenment traditions of public life and education, attempting to revitalize their meanings for public education today. Yet while these books are inspiring and instructive in numerous ways, they are also notable for the issues they fail to take into theoretical account, particularly the colonization of public spheres by the private and market-based spheres of commerce, and the ways in which increasing ecological crisis calls for new ways of conceiving our political and educational frameworks.     

DEWEY'S THEORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PUBLIC AND THE PUBLIC CHARACTER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS

In this essay, Leonard Waks reconsiders the issue of the public character of charter schools, that is, schools funded through public taxation but operated by non‐state organizations such as nonprofit and for‐profit educational corporations and nongovernmental public interest organizations. Using John Dewey's conception of a democratic public as a framework, Waks examines the following questions: (1) Are schools chartered and funded by government, but operated by nonprofit nongovernmental organizations, ever appropriate instruments of a democratic public? (2) If so, what criteria might distinguish those that are appropriate from those that are not? (3) How might public education be re‐institutionalized so as to include the charter schools that are appropriate? Waks concludes that Dewey's theory of democratic publics can play a useful role in thinking about how to balance the democratic benefits of charter schools for the various subcommunities of our society with the democratic requirement of broad public discourse and intergroup education.     

A PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVE ON THE STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

This article explores the relationship between higher education research and the study of public administration, the concpetual perspectives of which are useful for understanding the links between government policy‐making and higher education. A short introduction to the study of public administration is followed by the presentation of six newly evolved concepts of public administration which are labeled as follows: comprehensive rationality, the community action approach, the public choice approach, political systems theory, policy sciences, and contingency and inter‐organizational approaches. All of these have contributed to the eclecticism and the conceptual pluralism of the discipline of public administration as a whole. Having been adapted to the theoretical underpinnings of the administration of higher education, these six concepts have stimulated the development of four theoretical models for the analysis of decision‐making processes in higher education: the analytical or rational actor model, the garbage can or organized anarchy model, the collegiality model, and the political model. Specific problems in higher education administration have been addressed, as they have arisen, with reference to one or more of the six concepts and the four decision‐making models. For the future, the public administration approach to higher education will be most likely to draw upon the study of co‐ordination mechanisms in collective decision‐making processes and the comparative analysis of the external functions and performances of government.     

POWER AND TRUST IN THE PUBLIC REALM: JOHN DEWEY,SAUL ALINSKY,AND THE LIMITS OF PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION

Throughout the twentieth century, middle‐class progressives embraced visions of democracy rooted in their relatively privileged life experiences. Progressive educators developed pedagogies designed to nurture the individual voice within egalitarian classrooms, assuming that collective action in the public realm could be modeled on the relatively safe small‐group interactions they were familiar with in their families, schools, and associations. Partly as a result, they remained blind to (and often denigrated) the democratic aspects of working‐class organizations, such as unions and community action groups, which found strength in solidarity. In this article Aaron Schutz argues that progressives must integrate into their models the often brutal lessons about power learned by those with less privilege. Until they do so, their approaches to democratic education will continue to have limited capacity to support social transformation and empowerment in the world as it is.     

浅谈思想政治教育评价的机警度问题

做好思想政治教育活动评价,必须把握好思想政治教育的机警度.机警度适度会对思想政治教育评价产生积极作用.反之,则会对思想政治教育产生消极影响.个人或群体行为危及社会与他人利益的严重程度、教育者的价值观和判断力、思想政治教育系统的自我意识、思想政治教育所处的社会环境等因素都会制约思想政治教育评价的机警度.因此,保持思想政治教育的机警度适度,必须不断加强思想政治教育机警度的理论研究,提高教育者的素质,增强教育者的机警意识,妥善处理好各种关系,改进思想政治教育工作方法,营造良好的思想政治教育环境.     

论教育改革方案的可接受性与可行性:公共选择的观点

教育改革已成共识 ,但是 ,困难在于人们如何选择和实施什么样的方案。本文从公共选择理论出发 ,认为教育改革的方案设计不仅必须反映现代教育理念、理论 ,作为一种现实政策 ,还必须充分考虑利益调整与冲突所带来的方案可接受性问题 ,以及方案实施所需要的条件是否充分的可行性问题。只有经受住了可接受性与可行性的拷问 ,一项教育改革方案才会有生命力 ,才有可能取得成功。     

教育支出在公私之间的分担-美国、日本、韩国、法国、德国、英国比较

本文利用了经济合作与发展组织(OECD)2003年统计数据,以美国、日本、法国、德国、英国、韩国为比较对象,从公立与私立教育机构经费来源和成本、公共资金在公立与私立教育机构的分配等多个角度归纳和总结出各国公立、私立教育的特征和决定因素。     

I THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION FOR PEACE

This group of four articles is offered to our readers as a contribution to the theme of the spring conference of the Association. It hardly needs to be said that the authors leave many problems untouched and that they suggest no final solutions for the problems dealt with. Individuals and groups concerned with the issues of the conference as outlined in the September‐October number of this magazine may find here material to stimulate further thinking

The Editor     

INFORMATION ON SOME NON‐TRADITIONAL FORMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

Non‐traditional forms of higher education in the German Democratic Republic are mainly directed towards adult students.

We give below information on the planning, organization and role of this form of study within the GDR's higher education system.     

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NEW INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

The below information concerns the establishment of a new university level institution in the German Democratic Republic ‐‐ the Technische Hochschule in Leipzig.     

ENGAGING DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION IN THE NEOLIBERAL AGE

A bstract .  For the democratic tradition to return to a vanguard position in education requires a thorough exploration of the problems of democratization in education and an inventory of possible new forms. In this essay, Simon Marginson reviews five books concerned with democracy and education: Michael Apple's Educating the "Right" Way , Denis Carlson's Leaving Safe Harbors , A. Belden Fields and Walter Feinberg's Education and Democratic Theory , Trevor Gale and Kathleen Densmore's Engaging Teachers , and Klas Roth's Democracy, Education and Citizenship . While these authors imagine democracy in somewhat different ways, they have a common interest in the role of public schooling in the formation of democratic agents and practices. The books do not offer a definitive account of the problems of democratization, nor do they embody a major breakthrough in democratic educational thinking, but they all provide helpful explorations of these issues. Marginson concludes with some thoughts on commodification and neoliberal economism in education, a contemporary focus of discussion in democratic educational circles.     

COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARDS OF EDUCATION: THE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE GAP

This investigation was designed to determine the knowledge and opinion of the public about locally elected community college area boards of education. Research questions included the extent to which the public was aware of both composition and activities of the boards, how the public believes the board works, public's sources of information, general public opinion, and extent of public involvement. The population included adults living in a selected midwest state geographically divided into subpopulations for each technical community college area of the state.

The information indicated that community college boards need to take a serious look at their public image and do a much better job of communicating to their constituents.     

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ONTARIO

What is happening to college students in terms of “the things that matter most,” the goals and purposes apart from which everything else they do loses its point? How are colleges and universities deliberately or indirectly influencing these “values”? These are crucial questions for American education on which some light is cast in the following articles.