Educating citizens for participatory democracy: A case study of local government education policy in Pelotas,Brazil

A case study was undertaken of Pelotas, a large town in southern Brazil, where a recent government of the Workers’ Party (PT) implemented a range of social policy reforms. The study draws on interviews with key members of the Municipal Secretariat of Education and policy documents, analyzing them in relation to theoretical literature on citizenship and education. The Pelotas approach is seen to be distinctive for its emphasis on active political participation as a citizen's right and as a means to social justice for all. The local government also places a higher value on critical and autonomous attitudes towards the authorities than on cultivating allegiance to the municipality or nation-state.     

Educating for innovation

In the last several decades many of the world's most developed countries have shifted from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, one based on the creation of knowledge, information, and innovation. Educational researchers have paid very little scholarly attention to this economic shift, although it has substantial implications. After all, educational historians have repeatedly shown how today's schools were designed in the first half of the 20th century to meet the economic needs of the industrial economy; if that economy is a thing of the past, then many features of contemporary schools may become obsolete. In today's knowledge society, creativity always occurs in complex collaborative and organizational settings. Teams and organizations innovate using open-ended, improvisational group processes. I argue that education should be structured around disciplined improvisation, and I advocate the use of situated, collaborative knowledge-building activities. I argue that creative collaboration in classrooms aligns with the social nature of innovation in today's economy.     

Educating for diversity

A noted scholar explains why achieving cultural diversity on campus requires nothing less than a complete transformation of our institutions of higher learning. This means reinventing everything, from the canon to the classroom and beyond.     

Teaching for democracy in Spain

As part of the process of re-establishing democracy, Spain is reforming its educational system to promote democratic values. This article describes an experiment in education for democracy that was carried out among 86 pupils, between 12 and 14 years old, in the Spanish region of Murcia. A teaching programme was developed, in which students were encouraged to study how power is exercised in the home, the school, the community, the nation and the world. Results have been generally positive in arousing pupils' interest in democracy and helping them to understand democratic processes.

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Zusammenfassung Als Teil seiner Maßnahmen zur Wiedereinführung der Demokratie reformiert Spanien sein Bildungssystem, um demokratische Werte zu fördern. In diesem Artikel wird ein mit 86 Schülern zwischen 12 und 14 Jahren in der spanischen Region Murcia durchgeführtes Experiment zum Thema Erziehung zurDemokratie beschrieben. Hierzu wurde ein Lehrprogramm entwickelt, in dem Studenten herausfinden sollten, wie Machtstrukturen in der Familie, der Schule, der Gemeinschaft, der Nation und der Welt funktionieren. Mit einem deutlich gesteigerten Interesse und Verständnis der Schüler für die Demokratie wurden die Resultate allgmein als positiv beurteilt.

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Résumé La réforme du système éducatif espagnol visant à la promotion des valeurs démocratiques s'inscrit dans le processus de rétablissement de la démocratie. Cet article décrit une expérience d'apprentissage de la démocratie réalisée avec 86 élèves de 12 à 14 ans, en Espagne, dans la région de Murcia. Il s'agit d'un programme éducatif incitant les élèves à prendre conscience de l'exercice du pouvoir au foyer, à l'école, dans la communauté, la nation et dans le monde. Les résultats se sont révélés globalement positifs dans la mesure où cette expérience a éveillé l'intérêt des élèves pour la démocratie et les a aidés à comprendre les processus démocratiques.

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Sumario Un aspecto del proceso de restablecimiento de la democracia en España es la reforma del sistema educativo con miras a promover los val ores democráticos. Este artículo describe un experimento de educación para la democracia que se realizó con 86 escolares, de 12 a 14 años de edad, en la provincia española de Murcia. Se elaboró un programa para motivar a los escolares a analizar cómo se ejerce el poder en el hogar, la escuela, la comunidad, la nación y el mundo. Sus resultados han sido generalmente positivos, despertando el interés de los escolares por la democracia y ayudándolos a entender los procesos democráticos.

     

Educating citizens for changing economies

While economic factors play a crucial role in determining election outcomes, the place of economic understanding in educating citizens is neither widely recognized nor substantially articulated in the literature. Although economic educators have frequently asserted that economic understanding is important to citizens’ education, they have not set out their case by engaging with the wider literature on citizenship education. This paper identifies two dimensions of an economic education that enable it to contribute to a ‘maximalist’ citizenship education.     

Educating for Character in France

Thousands of teachers across the nation have sought and achieved National Board Certification, which expires after 10 years. Prior to the expiration of the certification, teachers must decide whether they plan to renew. Many teachers choose to renew their certification. The intent of this research was to examine the data regarding why some teachers choose not to renew their certification.     

Educating Who for What?

This article suggests that basic differences among appropriate methods of counselor education are directly related to one's model of man. Two models of man, the behavioristic and the phenomenological, are discussed. Four major differences among counselor educators are described, and, in each case, the relationship to a particular model of man is examined.     

Educating for Intellectual Humility and Conviction

It is argued that two plausible goals of the educational enterprise are (i) to develop the intellectual character, and thus the intellectual virtues, of the student, and (ii) to develop the student's intellectual self-confidence, such that they are able to have conviction in what they believe. On the face of it, however, these two educational goals seem to be in tension with one another, at least insofar as intellectual humility is a genuine intellectual virtue. This is because intellectual humility seems to require that one does not have conviction in one's beliefs. It is argued that this tension can be avoided so long as we have the right account of intellectual humility in play. This enables us to understand what educating for intellectual humility might involve, and how it might co-exist with the educational development of a student's intellectual self-confidence.     

Markets or democracy for education 1

Abstract

This paper critically evaluates the effect of introducing markets into the institutional system of education and promotes the claim of a learning democracy to underpin a richer conception for developing the powers and capacities of all citizens.     

Educating for competence in professional practice

In educating for the professions, teachers seek to enable students to engage in professional practice as competent practitioners. In this paper we question the adequacy of traditional approaches for promoting competent practice. These traditional approaches typically view competence in terms of attributes, such as knowledge, skills and attitudes. Competence development is then seen in terms of acquiring the necessary attributes. From an alternative view of competence as based on ways of experiencing practice, we argue that competence development focus on enriching experience of practice. More specifically, we point out that competence development involves change in the structure of the meaning for practice. Change in meaning structure for practice involves both a significant shift from one way of experiencing practice to another, as well as refinement and elaboration of the way of experiencing practice. Implications of this view of competence development for professional education are discussed. In particular, we deal with implications relating to the teaching-learning relation and the form the educational programme takes. In summay, we argue that enabling students to develop competence through experience of engaging in practice is most closely directed to the aims of education for the professions.     

The Rationality of Educating for Wisdom

Sternberg's call for an educational focus on teaching wisdom can be viewed as part of a nascent trend to reorient educational psychology away from exclusive focus on the so-called algorithmic level of analysis. The thrust of his research program on wisdom, like those emphasizing rationality as a critical construct in educational psychology, is on aspects of cognition heretofore backgrounded: the goals and beliefs of the learner, thinking dispositions, values, morality, cognitive styles, and the evaluation of cognition in terms of normative criteria.