The Centennial Conference on Democracy and Education

April 7-8, 2016

Washington, D.C.

                               

THURSDAY, April 7

The Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage

1816 12th St NW, Washington, DC 20009

(First Day Location: See map below)

9:00am-9:30am

Welcome/Opening General Session

Gymnasium

Leonard Waks, JDS President and Conference Director

AG Rud, JDS President Elect and Program Director

9:30am-10:45am

Concurrent Session 1

Gymnasium

Interactive Symposium, Sponsored by AERA Division B

Revolutionizing and Decolonizing “Democracy”

in Transcultural Contexts:

Reflections on East/West Dialogues

William Schubert, University of Illinois, Chicago

Namrata Sharma, Independent Scholar

Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University

Gonzalo Obelleiro, DePaul University

Dinny Risri Aletheiani, Yale University & Arizona State University

Jason Goulah, DePaul University

Discussant: Jim Garrison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Chair: Isabel Nuñez, Concordia University Chicago

Conference Room 1

Presentation: What the #FergusonSyllabus

Taught Me about Teaching

Marcia Chatelain, Georgetown University

Conference Room 2

Public Philosophy Workshop:

Following Dewey‘s Example Today

Eric Weber, University of Mississippi

Steven Fesmire, Green Mountain College

11:00am-12:15pm

Keynote General Session 1

Gymnasium

Creating Schools for Democracy

Deborah Meier

12:30pm-1:45pm

Roundtable and Poster Session

Gymnasium (Box Lunch Provided)

Roundtable 1

Beyond learning to learn? On Democracy and Education and “Dewey’s Modern Authority”

Stefano Oliverio, University of Naples

“Democracy and the Industrial Imagination in American Education” (The Living Ideas in D&E)

Steven Fesmire, Green Mountain College

Connected Learning: Technologies for Democracy and Education in the 21st Century

Craig Cunningham, National-Louis University

Roundtable 2

Reconstructing the educational discourse in and through Democracy and Education

Maura Striano, University of Naples

Community (Re)Making: Mindful Curricular Enactment’s Democratic Modes of Being

Margaret Macintyre Latta & Leyton Schnellert, University of

British Columbia Okanagan; Kim Ondrik & Murray Sasges,

Vernon Community School

Democracy and Education as a primary text for an Educational Psychology course?

Ron Sheese and Grace Xinfu Zhang, York University, Toronto

Roundtable 3

Celebrating Dewey: Remembering Historical Contributions and Imagining New Possibilities for Curriculum Development

Daniel Castner, Bellarmine University

The Enduring Significance of Dewey‘s Democracy & Education for 21st Century Education

Lance Mason, Indiana University – Kokomo

Growth into Citizenship: John Dewey’s Philosophy and Pluralist Contexts in East Africa

Jane Blanken-Webb and Katariina Holma, University of Eastern Finland

Roundtable 4

Democracy and Education in the 21st century: Interest as web of trails

Michael Glassman, The Ohio State University

Deepening Democracy, Re-envisioning Public Education: Four Pathways towards Engaging a Broad and Diverse ‘Public’

Ruthanne Kurth-Schai, Macalester College

Designing a Dewey School for 2016

David Nicholson and students, Stevenson University

Roundtable 5

A Pragmatic Approach to Utopia

Barbara Morgan-Fleming, Texas Tech University

Can Dewey’s Pedagogy Be Realized Through Competency-Based Education?

Jessica Horohov, University of Kentucky

Deweyan Democracy and Schools: Why Hasn’t It Happened? How Would Dewey the Pragmatist Respond Today?

Aaron Schutz, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

Posters

The soul of democracy: taking Dewey’s invitationfor a step back

Priscila Carmargo-Ramalho, Teachers College, Columbia University

Dewey and the Undergraduate Scholar. Experimentations with Comic Books, Art, School Kids, Graphic Novels, Parties, and much more.

Cristina Cammarano and Timothy Stock and students, Salisbury University

Curriculum Ideology Balance for a Critical Learner Centered Environment (CLCE): Recitation and Self-Activity

Aaron Griffen, Sierra High School, Colorado Springs, Colorado

100 years of Democracy and Education in China

Grace Xinfu Zhang and Ron Sheese, York University, Toronto

Championing Deweyan and Freirean Education in an Ideologically Social Efficiency Educational Climate

Elena Venegas, Baylor University

2:00pm-3:15pm

Concurrent Session 2

Gymnasium

Panel, Sponsored by AERA Division G

The Power in Dewey: Considerations of Race, Economics and Engagement

Dewey and White Supremacy

Timothy J. Lensmire, University of Minnesota

Democracy requires voice: Enabling young people to make a difference

Dana Mitra, Ph.D., Penn State University

What we are about: The development of researcher positionality toward educative meaning for black youth

Brian D. Lozenski, Macalester College

Power, democracy, and the struggle over urban schools: How is Dewey relevant today?

Jessica Shiller, Towson University

Looking behind the curtain: Using an economic lens to promote an active and engaged citizenry and a more equitable democracy

Anand Marri, Teachers College, Columbia University

Conference Room 1

Journal Session: Teacher Education and Practice

Teacher Education for a Democratic Society: Dewey‘s Democracy and Education Revisited

Democracy and Education Revisited: Dewey’s Legacy for Democratizing Teacher Education in an Era of Neoliberalism

Patrick M. Jenlink (Organizer), Stephen F. Austin State University

There is Honor Among Thieves: (Re)teaching Dewey‘s Democratic Ideal in the Neoliberal Era

Mary Catherine Breen, Stephen F. Austin State University

Preparing Teachers for Democratic Schooling: The Potential (and Pitfalls) of Recent Trends in Teacher Preparation

Donna Breault, Missouri State University

Dewey and Democracy, and the Question of the Experience, Engagement and Perceptions of Pre-service Teachers: Examining the Neoliberal Context in Relation to the Influence of Non-formal Education on Formal Education

Paul R. Carr, Université du Québec en Outaouais

Dewey’s Conception of Growth in Democracy and Education: Supporting Teacher Growth, Problem Solving Together

Cara Furman, University of Maine, Farmington

Dewey’s Educational Values for Teacher Practice in the 21st Century

Charles L. Lowery, Ohio University

Dewey’s The Nature of Method and The Nature of Subject Matter as Applied to Teacher Development and Curricular Understanding

Chance Mays, Mt. Enterprise Independent School District

Dewey, Democracy, and Teacher Education: What do people in a democracy need to learn and how do teachers need to be educated?

Elizabeth Meadows, Roosevelt University

Democracy and Education and Reconstructing Teacher Education so Experience Matters

Peter Nelsen, Appalachian State University

Democracy for All? John Dewey, Teacher Education, and Young Children with Disabilities

Leigh M. O’Brien, State University of New York at Geneseo

From a Pedagogical/Teaching Community to a Democratic One Borrowing from Dewey: Theory and Practice related to an Education for Democracy Movement

Gina Thésée, University of Quebec à Montreal

Conference Room 2

Journal session: Journal of Curriculum Studies

Rethinking John Dewey‘s Democracy and Education on its Centennial

The Peculiar Status of Democracy and Education

Robert Boostrom, University of Southern Indiana

On Moral Education Through Deliberative Communication

Tomas Englund, Örebro University, Sweden

Exploring an East-West Epistemological Convergence of

Embodied Democracy through Cultural Humanism in Confucius-Makiguchi-Dewey

Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University

Rethinking Dewey‘s Democracy: Shifting from a Process of Participation to an Institution of Association

Lynda Stone, The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

The Importance of Cultivating Democratic Habits in Schools: Enduring Lessons from Democracy and Education

Carmen James, Teachers College, Columbia University

Historic Lounge

Democratizing Work in Education

A Working Session with Harry Boyte and Kathleen Knight-Abowitz

3:30pm-4:45pm

Concurrent Session 3

Gymnasium

Workshop: Ethics, Aims, and the Political Classroom

Paula McAvoy, Center for Ethics & Education, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Diana Hess, Center for Ethics & Education, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Ayo Magwood, Maret School

Conference Room 1

Workshop: Dewey and Philosophy for Children

Megan Laverty, Teachers College, Columbia University

Maughn Gregory, Montclair State University

Conference Room 2

Panel: Dewey‘s Democracy and Education in the Classroom

 Combining the Personal and the Historical

Jon Acheson , Park School of Baltimore

Teaching Mathematics with Democracy in Mind

Marshall Gordon , Park School of Baltimore

An Ounce of Experience‘: Connecting the World to Student Learning

Patti Porcarelli , Park School of Baltimore

On the Virtues of Naiveté

Lou Rosenblatt , Park School of Baltimore (Retired)

Historic Lounge

Journal session: Educational Theory

Democracy and Education and the Curriculum Wars

 “Reconstructing Social Justice Education: Critical Pedagogy and Deweyan Democratic Education”

Peter Nelsen, Appalachian State University

“Deweyan Democratic Agency and School Math: Beyond Constructivism and Critique”

Kurt Stemhagen, Virginia Commonwealth University

“Democratizing Children’s Computation: Learning Computational Science as Aesthetic Experience”

Amy Voss Farris, Vanderbilt University

Pratim Sengupta, University of Calgary

Chair: Leonard J. Waks, Temple University

5:00pm-6:15 pm

Concurrent Session 4

Gymnasium

Panel: Dewey and Issues-Centered Education

Walter Parker, University of Washington

Nel Noddings, Teachers College, Columbia University

Ronald Evans, San Diego State University

Diana Hess, University of Wisconsin – Madison

William Gaudelli , Teachers College, Columbia University

Moderator: Gregg Jorgensen , Western Illinois University

Conference Room 1

Interactive Symposium, Sponsored by AERA Division B

Education for a Democratic and Diverse Public:

Toward a Praxis of Ikedean Dialogue for Value Creation and Harmonious Coexistence

Melissa Bradford, DePaul University

Tameka Carter-Richardson , DePaul University

Rhonda Stern, DePaul University

Kendrick Johnson, DePaul University

Discussant: William Ayers , Former Division B VP,

Deinstitutionalized Activist/Scholar

Chair: Pamela Konkol, Concordia University Chicago

Conference Room 2

Panel: Learning from Youth Participatory Action Research

How to Facilitate Democratic Education (Urban Research Based Action Network)

 Building Sociopolitical Analysis Skills Through

Participatory Action Research

Dana Wright, Connecticut College

Examples of students’ experiences in learning climate science: A YPAR guide for science teachers

Deb Morrison, TREE Educational Services

The Role of Ethnodrama/Drama in Youth-led Organizing and Data Analysis

Sarah Hobson, SUNY Cortland

Minority youth responses to the lack of diversity in selective enrollment high schools in the south

Sophia Rodriguez, College of Charleston

The Social Justice Education Project: Transforming Second Sight into Critical Consciousness through YPAR

Julio Cammarota, Iowa State University

Historic Lounge

Journal session: Educational Philosophy and Theory

Dewey‘s Democracy and Education in an Era of Globalization

Empathy and Imagination in Education

Andrea English, University of Edinburgh

Why Should Scholars Keep Coming Back to John Dewey?

Mordechai Gordon, Quinnipiac University

Globalization, Democracy, and Social Movements: Activism as the Point

Kathy Hytten, University of North Carolina – Greensboro

Complexity and Reductionism in Educational Philosophy – John Dewey’s Critical Approach in “Democracy and Education” Reconsidered

Jim Garrison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

6:30pm-7:30pm

Wine and Cheese Reception

Gymnasium

April 7 First Day Only Location: The Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage is located at 1816 12th Street between “S” and “T” Streets in Northwest Washington, D.C., just a few blocks from the U Street – African-American Civil War Museum – Cardozo Metro Station (Green and Yellow Lines).

FRIDAY, April 8

Walter E. Washington Convention Center (the site of AERA 2016)

Level One, Rooms 103A and 103B

8:00am-9:15am

Concurrent Session 5

Convention Center, Level One, Room 103A

Panel, Sponsored by the AERA Dewey Studies SIG

Centennial Reflections

Deron Boyles, Georgia State University

Jim Garrison, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

William Wraga, University of Georgia

Peter Hlebowitsh, University of Alabama

Discussant: Craig Cunningham, National-Louis University

Chair: Susan Meyer, Independent Scholar

Convention Center, Level One, Room 103B

Presentation/Workshop: Dewey and the Role of the Arts in Education and Culture

Jeff Poulin, Americans for the Arts

9:30am-10:45am

Concurrent Session 6

Convention Center, Level One, Room 103A

Panel, Sponsored by AERA Division F

Democracy and Education in History and Social Studies Education

Wayne Urban, Moderator, University of Alabama

“Lab High: Where New Ideas Meet Encouragement”

Sharon Pierson, Ramapo College

Dewey and the Institute of Child Study, Toronto

Theodore Christou, Queen‘s University, Ontario

“Democracy and Education as a Founding Document for Social Studies”

Benjamin M. Jacobs, George Washington University

“Dewey: Historic Film Footage”

Craig Kridel, University of South Carolina

Discussant: Susan F. Semel, The City College of New York

Convention Center, Level One, Room 103B

Panel, Sponsored by AERA Philosophical Studies of Education SIG

Agency and Activism: Reframing Teaching through Dewey’s Democracy and Education

“First Among Equals: The Roles of Teachers in Educational Publics”

Kathleen Knight Abowitz, Miami University

“The Politics of Civic Agency and Education for Democracy”

Harry Boyte, Augsburg College

Margaret Finders, Augsburg College

“Using Dewey to Support Agency and Activism in Teachers”

Sarah M. Stitzlein, University of Cincinnati

“Teacher Intelligence in the Face of Fidelity”

Doris A. Santoro, Bowdoin College

Session Chair: Terri S. Wilson, University of Colorado -Boulder

11:00am-12:20pm

Keynote General Session 2

Convention Center, Level One, Room 103A

Dewey Lives! Big Picture, the Met, and College Unbound

Dennis Littky, Big Picture Learning and College Unbound

John Dewey Society Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

We Were the Lucky Ones: Students from the Progressive

Schools of the 1930s Speak Out

Jane Roland Martin, Emerita, University of Massachusetts

John Dewey Society Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

12:20pm

The Centennial Conference ends

12:30pm

John Dewey Society Annual Meeting begins

Convention Center, Level One, Room 103A

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Centennial Conference is co-sponsored by the following organizations:

AERA Division B, AERA Division F, AERA Division G, AERA Dewey Studies SIG, and the AERA Philosophical Studies SIG. 

In particular we thank these individuals from our co-sponsors and affiliated groups: Donna Breault, Gregg Jorgensen, Pamela Konkol, Elizabeth Moje, Isabel Nuñez, Susan Semel, Wayne Urban, Bryan Warnick, and Terri Wilson.

The following individuals took the lead in developing parts of this program: Michele Moses (program sessions) and Katherine Jo (journal sessions).

Shannon Gleason assisted with final editing.

Finally, we thank Paula McAvoy for guidance in preparing our grant to the Spencer Foundation.

The John Dewey Society 2016 D&E Centennial

The John Dewey Society will be celebrating the Centennial of the publication of John Dewey’s magisterial Democracy and Education in Washington DC on April 7 and 8, 2016. Please plan to participate in this historic celebration. Take out your calendars and mark these dates: April 7 and 8, 2016.

The Centennial Conference will take place the historic Thurgood Marshall Center - where Thurgood Marshall and his NAACP colleagues developed the legal strategies for victory over school segregation in Brown v. Board. The center is located at: 1816 12th St NW, Washington, DC 20009

We want everyone interested in democratic education to participate. The meeting will be free and open to the public, and will take place immediately prior to the annual meeting of the John Dewey Society and the American Educational Research Association. 

But space is limited: reserve your spot today! (See below for how to reserve your spot!)

Why Celebrate the Centennial of Democracy and Education?

Democracy and Education is the most important book on education in the twentieth century, and is the bible of democratic education worldwide. Democracy and Education is cited more frequently each year that all other classics of American educational studies - those by G. Stanley Hall, Alfred Binet, Edward Thorndike and others - combined!

Democracy and Education has been translated into every major world language and has inspired innovations and experiments in democratic education - in public schools and private experimental schools - in the United States and throughout the world - for one hundred years. Democracy and Education is more relevant today than ever. We need to come together to celebrate its centennial, and to renew our commitment to democratic education. Please join us!

Democracy and Education Today

Despite the efforts of thousands of dedicated educators and parents, schools in the United States today are still suffering under the domination of top-down standardized education: compulsory curriculum standards, pre-determined learning objectives, and high stakes standardized tests. This standardization regime is sold as ‘preparing all learners for the global economy’. In fact, it merely traps young people in a rat race for high test scores and endless competition for slots in competitive colleges. Children from elite families win; the rest struggle to survive.

The standardization regime compels teachers to abandon their hard-won practical knowledge, ignore the strengths of individual learners, and teach for the tests; It compels learners to give up their own passions and goals to conform to a system where their own interests and aims count for nothing. Instead of ‘no child left behind,’ this regime should be called ‘no child left alive,’ as it has a deadening effect hostile to individual passions and group aspirations. Instead of moving ahead - growing - young people are all too often trapped in isolation, boredom, frustration, and rigged competition. 

The message of Democracy and Education - its challenge to the standardization regime - needs to be re-stated, critically digested, re-interpreted for today’s educational situation, and disseminated for today’s teachers, parents and young people. 

It’s core message is clear: 

• that education of young people is not preparation for adult life but life itself,
• that the only aims worth pursuing in education are the aims of the learners themselves, as individuals and as members of groups,
• that teaching consists primarily in structuring learning environments that engage learners in pursuing their aims - alone or in cooperative groups, 
• that school lessons, however necessary to convey abstract and general relations, are a peripheral, and often dangerously overused component of schooling,
• that democracy is built through cooperation and communication across racial, ethnic, gender, class, religious, political and philosophical differences as learners work together to achieve practical aims. 

Why Participate in the Centennial Event?

Through presentations and workshops, the Democracy and Education Centennial in Washington on April 7-8 2016 will offer you a chance to renew your appreciation of this great work, to exchange ideas with other educators, to think through its message for today, and to renew your commitment to democratic education. 

How to Participate?

The conference will feature invited presentations by leading scholars and democratic educators. The program committee will soon be finalizing its selection of invited speakers and workshop presenters, and you will hear exciting information about them in the months ahead. Meanwhile, all of your suggestions are welcome. 

Please mark your calendar and join us in Washington on April 7-8, 2016.

To reserve a spot, simply send an email to Kyle Greenwalt, JDS Secretary-Treasurer, at greenwlt@msu.edu and put the term ‘reserve’ (without the quotes) in the subject line. 

You can reserve for yourself and a colleague in one email by providing the name and email address of yourself and your colleague. But if you want to assure more reservations, please promote the meeting to others and make sure that they send emails to reserve their spaces. Requesting a space indicates that you have placed the centennial event on your calendar and plan to attend. We want to assure a lively and enthusiastic participation, but space is limited.

Call for Papers: 10th Year Anniversary Issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy

10TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL CONTROVERSY FEATURES AN OPEN ISSUE

 CALL FOR PAPERS

In previous issues of the Journal of Educational Controversy, we have defined a contemporary controversy and asked our authors to examine the issue. For our 10th year anniversary issue, we have decided to have an open issue where authors can define their own controversy. We ask authors to consider the following points:

1. Define an educational controversy – formal or informal education, K-12, college or university, adult education, secular or religious education, or larger philosophical issues in the educational ethos of a society or a culture. The issue can be a contemporary one or a perennial one that is revisited.

2. Explain the significance of the problem.

3. Provide an historical and philosophical framework for the controversy.

4. Lay out the different arguments surrounding the controversy.

5. Examine the underlying assumptions and resulting implications of the different positions.

6. Provide suggestions to resolve the issues raised and provide supporting arguments.

We remind authors that we publish controversies that are deeply embedded in our conceptual frameworks. The journal tries to distinguish between surface controversies and latent or depth controversies.

For example, schools engage students in controversies all the time and are embedded themselves in controversies. Most of these controversies engage us in disagreements on a surface level. That is not to say that these discussions are unimportant – only that they take place with assumptions that remain unstated and beliefs that remain largely hidden or submerged. And so we talk about learning outcomes, required competencies, and the kind of rubrics we should be using to assess student outcomes. The journal tries to go deeper by examining the very frameworks in which all these surface controversies arose – to get at our underlying assumptions and beliefs.

Here is our statement from the journal's introductory page:

The purpose of this peer reviewed journal is to provide a national and international forum for examining the dilemmas and controversies that arise in teaching and learning in a pluralistic, democratic society. Because many of the tensions in public school and university policies and practices are deeply rooted in the tensions inherent in the philosophy of a liberal democratic state, many of the value conflicts in public schools and universities can only be understood within the context of this larger public philosophy. In effect, the conflicting assumptions underlying our public philosophy frame our questions, define our problems and construct the solutions that shape our practices, policies, and research agendas. This journal will try to help clarify that public debate and deepen an understanding of its moral significance. 

PUBLICATION DATE: FALL 2015

DEADLINE FOR MANUSCRIPTS: JANUARY 1, 2015

NOW ONLINE: Vol. 8 No. 1 "Who Defines the Public in Public Education" The issue includes an article by Curtis Acosta, the teacher whose Mexican American Curriculum was banned in Arizona. Along with his article are videos from his visit to Western Washington University. We also have an interview with the director of the documentary, “Precious Knowledge.”

Another happy graduate of America's for-profit universities

Amidst the usual pile of comment spam, we recently received the following (depressing) anonymous comment on one of our posts, "Make them wallow in their grief!": More Tales from the For-Profit College Wasteland:

Dear Sir,

With much grief and concern, I write this letter because I find myself corner in a situation which I believe should have never happens in this country of ours. In the year 2005 I, a believer on the advancement of people through education, signed with a local for profit college, EVEREST COLLEGE, and after 8 years of aggravation and false promises, I concluded that only the so call “College” has advance while us, the people whose only sin has been to believe that one can better himself through education, only have a tremendous debt which obviously will not be able to pay during our life time to show for. At the beginning with the promises that upon completion there were good paying jobs, this institution offer their own financing at outrageous interest and later, help to obtain government lending.

I have previous experience in nursing but, wanted to become a Register Cardiac Sonographer, in pursuing that dream, went to Everest College where was told that the prerequisite was an Associate Degree as a Cardiovascular Technician, did that an then signed for the Cardiac Sonography program upon completion.

I have finished all requirements and have taken and obtain all the require licenses, not due to them but by hiring outside tutors. All the promises made of great salaries, employment after completing the program have been false, worse yet, many institution hospitals and private institutions are not willing to hire graduates from this “college” because it is considered a substandard not credited school. Today, I am settled with a 50,000.00 dollars debt in a job that has nothing to do with my Degree.
I have a worthless degree which basically makes me unemployable in the field that I studied since the so call “College” has no state validation.

The institution who lend the funds to study, Sallie Mae, have imposed payments schedules which actually takes fifty percent of my paycheck so, I work as an EKG Technician, I am left with very little to solve my everyday payments and comprises and fine myself working to pay Sallie Mae.

I have looked into continuing my education at local State College but, due to the fact that the “so call College” I attended is not accredited, my credits are not transferable, I will have to start all over again probably ending with a debt over 100,000.00 dollars still making 12 to 13 dollars an hour.

I write this letter as form of complain hoping that this state will finally advocate for us instead of the corporation whose only interest is to fill their pockets with absolutely no concern to the damage they are creating, with the changes made by Congress to the “Bankruptcy Law” making students loans non-dischargeable, the downward spiral of the student’s loan abuse will continue. These schools must be regulated, fine whenever false promises are made, and be obligated that cannot open doors until full accreditation is obtain.

I have repeatedly requested copy of my transcript, professor credentials and course description with no avail, my petition has not been answer situation which does not allow me to at least try to enroll in a reputable institution

I know that for my case, it is too late, but please let’s stop the damage these schools are doing to our fellow Floridians.

I am organizing some past students of this institution and plan in a near future file a Class Law Suit hoping that this action will stop these institutions from keeping creating more damage while getting richer every day. We have launched a complaint before the Florida Better Business Bureau regarding this matter but, have not received any follow ups from them.

I wish the commenter the best of luck, and I hope that his/her tale of woe dissuades other students from falling for the for-profits' slick pitches.