Democratic teacher education: From theory to praxis.
Abstract
Schroeder, S. (2017). Democratic teacher education: From theory to praxis. Professing Education, 16(1), 10-24.
Since the founding of the United States, many Americans have recognized the “fragility and rarity” of democracy (Michelli & Keiser, 2005, p. 246). As a result, many have called for schools to inculcate the values of democracy in American youth (Barber, 1994). As one would expect, the nature of these calls has shifted over time as the perceived needs of the nation have fluctuated. This paper is yet another call for democratic education, an education that is as Ayers (2009) argues “eye-popping and mindblowing” (p. 3), an education that not only promotes and inspires democratic dispositions, knowledge, and values in students, but leads students through and engages them in the deliberative and collaborative processes of democracy. While contemporary scholars have called for democratic education at the K-12 level in order to increase civic participation (Apple & Beane, 2007; Ayers, 2009; Collins, 2009; Mitra & Serriere, 2015), I join the ranks of those scholars who call for the democratization of teacher education programs as a means to that same end. Soder (1996) explains that while “much has been said about the importance of schools in a democracy…many of those very same people…lapse into uncharacteristic silence as to the education of educators in these matters” (p. 249). In the twenty years since Soder made this claim, more has indeed been written, but arguably the silence around democratic teacher education has been raised to barely a whisper.
This paper is an attempt to bridge the divide between the scholarship calling for democratic education in our K-12 schools and the scholarship calling for the democratization of the institutions that educate and prepare our nation’s teachers. More specifically, I argue that any attempt to promote democratic education in K-12 schools must first begin by engaging teachers in the process of democratic education (Apple, 2000; Michelli, 2005), a shift that requires a drastic turn from the status quo and more mechanistic or methods-oriented models of teacher education. Indeed, “if democratic principles are to become an integral part of public education, such understanding must be incorporated into teacher education programs” (Pearl & Pryor, 2005, p. x). Incorporating democratic pedagogies and redesigning teacher education to be more democratic, then, is necessary if we wish to develop democratic citizenship in K-12 students. To foster a move towards democratic teacher education, I offer in this article both a philosophical framework for democratic teacher education and, tied to this framework, examples of democratic pedagogies, structures, and content that democratic teacher education programs may wish to implement to live up to the demands of a thriving democracy
Abstract
Schroeder, S. (2017). Democratic teacher education: From theory to praxis. Professing Education, 16(1), 10-24.
Since the founding of the United States, many Americans have recognized the “fragility and rarity” of democracy (Michelli & Keiser, 2005, p. 246). As a result, many have called for schools to inculcate the values of democracy in American youth (Barber, 1994). As one would expect, the nature of these calls has shifted over time as the perceived needs of the nation have fluctuated. This paper is yet another call for democratic education, an education that is as Ayers (2009) argues “eye-popping and mindblowing” (p. 3), an education that not only promotes and inspires democratic dispositions, knowledge, and values in students, but leads students through and engages them in the deliberative and collaborative processes of democracy. While contemporary scholars have called for democratic education at the K-12 level in order to increase civic participation (Apple & Beane, 2007; Ayers, 2009; Collins, 2009; Mitra & Serriere, 2015), I join the ranks of those scholars who call for the democratization of teacher education programs as a means to that same end. Soder (1996) explains that while “much has been said about the importance of schools in a democracy…many of those very same people…lapse into uncharacteristic silence as to the education of educators in these matters” (p. 249). In the twenty years since Soder made this claim, more has indeed been written, but arguably the silence around democratic teacher education has been raised to barely a whisper.
This paper is an attempt to bridge the divide between the scholarship calling for democratic education in our K-12 schools and the scholarship calling for the democratization of the institutions that educate and prepare our nation’s teachers. More specifically, I argue that any attempt to promote democratic education in K-12 schools must first begin by engaging teachers in the process of democratic education (Apple, 2000; Michelli, 2005), a shift that requires a drastic turn from the status quo and more mechanistic or methods-oriented models of teacher education. Indeed, “if democratic principles are to become an integral part of public education, such understanding must be incorporated into teacher education programs” (Pearl & Pryor, 2005, p. x). Incorporating democratic pedagogies and redesigning teacher education to be more democratic, then, is necessary if we wish to develop democratic citizenship in K-12 students. To foster a move towards democratic teacher education, I offer in this article both a philosophical framework for democratic teacher education and, tied to this framework, examples of democratic pedagogies, structures, and content that democratic teacher education programs may wish to implement to live up to the demands of a thriving democracy