Tuesday, November 27, 2018

The Ethics of Memory: What Does it Mean to Apologize for Historical Wrongs - New Call for Papers

NEW CALL FOR PAPERS
Volume 14
Journal of Educational Controversy

Theme: The Ethics of Memory: What Does it Mean to Apologize for Historical Wrongs

To apologize for a wrong committed can imply any number of things: that one has committed a wrong against another, that the wrong was done intentionally, that one committed the wrong with malice, that one is consciously aware of doing the wrong, that one has remorse, that one is seeking to right the wrong, that one feels a sense of guilt over committing the wrong,  and/or that one is seeking redemption and reconciliation.  But what does it mean for a state to apologize for an historical wrong that was committed long before its present members were born, but who may still continue to derive benefits from that wrong? Recently, a university chancellor apologized for her university's role in past racial injustices and acknowledged the “profound injustices of slavery” as she sought to reconcile the past with the present and the future. College protests around confederate statues stir conflicts between arguments over historical injustices and historical heritage. 

Historical figures who laid the foundation for the enlightenment principles embedded in the founding documents are found wanting in the ethics of historical memory and identity. And the Supreme Court’s current reconsideration of affirmative action brings the issues back into the legal domain, as courts grapple with how to redress the effects of slavery and Jim Crow on educational opportunity. Alternatively, authors may find that the conceptual framework that embeds our question carries certain assumptions that ignores a framework that would center experiences like the Japanese-American internment camps or the Native American Boarding Schools rather than foregrounding them.  Would placing the experiences of those who have been wronged central to our inquiry change the very way we pose the problem.  How does the very notion of apology even look from the perspective of those who have suffered these wrongs? Words and their meanings have histories and continue through lived experiences that are named and experienced differently.  For instance, racialized and other marginalized communities often refer to ‘wronged’ as historically and generationally traumatic—perhaps a different metaphor that communicates suffering is needed?   In the midst of what is often highly contentious confrontations, this issue of the journal is seeking articles that can bring moral clarification and rigorous discernment to the topic.

Deadline for Manuscripts: June 30, 2019
https://cedar.wwu.edu/jec/

Lorraine Kasprisin
Editor, Journal of Educational Controversy

Monday, October 1, 2018

Dewey in/and China: Cultural Transformation & Progressive Education in International Settings Today (CFP)

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
John Dewey Society Panel on Dewey and Philosophy

2019 Theme — Dewey in/and China: Cultural Transformation & Progressive Education in International Settings Today

Due: November 30, 2018

The John Dewey Society calls for paper proposals for its panel on Dewey and Philosophy to be held at its annual meeting in conjunction with the American Educational Research Association meeting in Toronto in April 2019.

2019 marks the centennial of the start of John Dewey’s stay of two years and two months in China. He arrived in China at a time of cultural transformation and upheaval. There was the spread of a new vernacular called Paihua that signaled a ferment of thought. The New Culture movement and the May Fourth (1919) student uprising focused on Western science amidst a new found nationalism and populism.

Today, Dewey’s influence in China is broad and deep, though it underwent a number of shifts since that time. His early influence peaked in the decade following his visit, and he was later savagely criticized by the Communist regime shortly after his death in 1952. For many scholars, this criticism indicated the depth that Dewey’s influence still had on Chinese culture. At present there is a resurgence of Dewey in China, evidenced in part by the recent translation of the collected works of Dewey into Chinese, published in 2015, and the work of the Dewey Center at Fudan University (see the research note in the spring 2018 issue of Dewey Studies).

One of the main reasons that Dewey had such a profound influence on China was due to his pragmatism and its relation to Confucianism, which emphasizes thought for its usefulness in social situations and for living a good and proper life. Dewey’s philosophy fit with traditional Chinese culture, even though Confucianism was under attack as an old tradition during the New Culture movement at that time in China. 

However, the 20th century was a time when Chinese culture changed dramatically with the influence of Marxism and Communism. Dewey had warned against a wholesale acceptance of Marxism and Communism, and later was condemned for this way of thinking. Dewey did not call for the general rejection of Chinese culture or complete adaptation of Western culture, but for a new culture that would come about through a careful evaluation and reflection upon both cultures. He asks in his critical review of Bertrand Russell’s The Problem of China: "…what is to win in the present turmoil of change: the harsh and destructive impact of the West, or the internal recreation of Chinese culture inspired by intercourse with the West” (MW 15:218).

We call for papers that not only may take up an explicit study of Dewey in/and China, but that also deal with the themes of cultural transformation and progressive education more broadly in other worldwide contexts and in other countries, including North America. In considering Dewey together with Chinese and other cultures, we can ask a number of questions that are specific to Dewey in/and China but can be extended to other contexts elsewhere, such as: 
How has Chinese or other cultures been changed or transformed by Deweyan influence?
Was Dewey’s philosophy affected by his stay in China?
What are current manifestations of Deweyan philosophy in China, and other countries? 

How is it demonstrated in pedagogy, curriculum, and school planning and leadership?
This list is in no way exhaustive regarding Dewey in/and China, and Dewey’s influence more broadly in the world. Accepted submissions will also be considered for publication in one of the journals sponsored by the John Dewey Society, including Education & Culture, Journal of School and Society, and Dewey Studies.

How to Submit 

Submit all proposals (prepared per instructions below) for individual papers via email with an attachment as a Word document. All proposals are due by midnight Eastern time November 30, 2018, via email to Sarah Stitzlein, John Dewey Society President-Elect, Professor, University of Cincinnati, Sarah.Stitzlein@uc.edu; Any questions - contact Sarah Stitzlein directly via email.

Proposals accepted for presentation in this panel of the John Dewey Society will be notified by January 15, 2019. Full papers of up to 5000 words (excluding references) will be due no later than March 15, 2019 for the discussant to prepare remarks.

Proposal guidelines

Part 1 (submit in the body of your email message with the subject line JDS Proposal)

(1.) Title of your paper and theme your proposal addresses
(2.) Your name, title, institutional affiliation (if any)
(3.) Your address, phone, email
(4.) An abstract of up to 100 words

Part 2 (in an attached Word document with all identifying information removed for anonymous review)

(1.) Title of your paper
(2.) A descriptive summary of your paper (maximum length 1000 words), explaining your paper and its significance, especially in relation to the selected theme. List several references to place your contribution in the broader scholarly conversation.

About The John Dewey Society (http://www.johndeweysociety.org)

Founded in 1935, the purpose of the Society is to foster intelligent inquiry into problems pertaining to the place and function of education in social change, and to share, discuss, and disseminate the results of such inquiry.

Monday, September 17, 2018

Imagining Dewey: Artful Works and Dialogue about Art as Experience



We invite you to consider contributing a chapter in an edited book under contract with Brill/Sense entitled: 

Imagining Dewey: 
Artful works and dialogue about Art as Experience 

Edited by: 
Patricia L. Maarhuis, PhD & A.G. Rud, PhD 



This book will be an edited companion text to Art as Experience (AaE) by Dewey (1934/2005) that is designed as an aesthetic learning experience through an integrated doubled focus of (1) text-based narrative on philosophical analysis of themes and (2) arts-integrated analysis with interpretation of themes through artful works. Authors may contribute either #1 or #2 as a single chapter or both #1 and #2 as a single chapter. 

Books by Dewey are used as texts in university and some AP high school courses; however, AaE has not been widely accessed. The study of philosophy and arts within the AaE text can be difficult for readers to understand and pragmatically apply. The difficulty comes about when one combines the task of grappling with Deweyan philosophy and themes together with the task of envisioning and enacting artful meaning-making of those philosophical ideas in a present-day context. 

Our book purposefully takes on this doubled task by putting philosophers and artists-researchers in dialogue and on equal footing in an academic text. This meets the needs of a young university and high school audiences, who are accustomed to learning about challenging ideas through multi-media and aesthetic experience, not just through narrative text.

 Benefits of our book design: 
  • Can assist educators/instructors who have assigned the AaE text to their class, with examples of philosophical and artful perspectives and contemporary interpretations of Deweyan themes. 
  • Multi-media teaching and learning: Students and instructors can grow their own understanding and aesthetic experiences through engagement in various philosophical perspectives and interpretations via verbal discussion, creation of their own artful expressions, or responsive narrative text. 
  • Accessibility: Themes are presented in both narrative academic text and in artful multi-media interpretations. This will increase the dissemination and accessibility of Deweyan philosophy to a broader and more diverse audience within and outside of the academy. 
Layout/Design


This text will feature 5-10 selected themes based on Deweyan ideas found in AaE that are organized into sections with multiple chapters and contributors. The text-based narrative and the arts-integrated analysis with interpretive works of art will be presented either in an integrated dialogic manner in a single chapter or as separate but theme-related chapters. Each theme section will have a collection of chapters that are briefly introduced and summarized by the editors. Additionally, chapters will conclude with potential classroom and/or community projects, discussion guides or questions, links, & resources provided by the author.

Potential themes (from AaE, with reference to other Deweyan texts as needed):

o Objects of art as language                                            o Meaning in Art
Love/loving                                                                   o Permanence and change 
o The work of art                                                              o Art is not experience 
O Resistance                                                                    o Reflection & dissonance 
Nature                                                                          o Space & time (Spatial & temporal) 
Communication (listening, viewing, expression, etc)   o Harmony/disharmony
Imagination                                                                  o Representation/re-presentation/imitation 
Memory/memories                                                       o Other: As submitted by author(s) 
 
Chapters:

  • We invite unpublished chapters and transactional/ekphrasic works of art that address one of the above listed theme areas.
  • Works of art can be in a variety of forms and media including performative, literary, or visual (e.g. painting, drawing, animation, printing, poetry, music scores and performance, sculpture, photography, video, fabric arts, etc.). Performative works will be presented via links to a YouTube video, still photos, or music scores.
  • Chapter submissions should be no longer than 5000 words including references (Word documents only, APA 6th ed., Brill typeface) Please double-space your entry and references. Footnotes will be used, not endnotes.
  • All chapters will include a list of illustrations. Images must be 300 dpi minimum with 600 dpi preferred, drawing must be 600 dpi, .TIF files only. All photos, graphics and illustrations need to be numbered and submitted as a file separate from the narrative text. Clearly mark in text where each illustration needs to be inserted.
  • Please include permission letters if applicable, credit and source lines, and captions for images, audio, and performance videos.
  • If accepted, please be prepared to edit your submission as required.
  • A Brill/Sense Author Guide will be provided for detailed submission instructions to all authors upon acceptance of their abstract/chapter for inclusion in the book.


Abstract submission:

• Email your proposed submission title, chosen theme, and an abstract that includes a brief description of proposed artwork (250-350 words not including references) to maarhuis@wsu.edu by November 1, 2018.

• Selected chapter authors will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by no later than December 1, 2018.

• Final chapter submission and all artwork are due no later than June 1, 2019.

We look forward to receiving your submission!

Sincerely,

Patricia Maarhuis, PhD                                                A.G. Rud, PhD
maarhuis@wsu.edu                                                      ag.rud@wsu.edu

Friday, January 5, 2018

Journal of School & Society: Autonomy, Public Civility, and Social Justice on Higher Education Campuses

The John Dewey Society 
and the 
Journal of School & Society 
announce: 
A Call for Public Scholarship

Issue #5.1: Student Autonomy, Public Civility, and 
Social Justice on Higher Education Campuses. 

SUBMISSION DEADLINE May 1, 2018 

The John Dewey Society, founded in 1935, created the Journal of School & Society in order to meet one of its central aims: to support a vibrant public education system by fostering intelligent inquiry into problems pertaining to the place and function of education in social change, particularly among teachers, parents, and community activists. 

We invite all those interested in engaged public 
scholarship to contribute to this exciting new 
venue!

Colleges and universities are struggling to maintain civic dialogue and mobilize our collective energy to create meaningful democratic change. Whether negotiating rules for civil exchange or boundaries of acceptable speech and dialogue, faculty, students, administrators, staff, and outside parties are struggling to talk and work together across difference, while resisting fundamental injustice. 

As concerned citizens, teachers, students, parents, faculty, administrators, and politicians, we look to institutions of higher learning as centers of our civic life. Today, we are struggling with some of the most basic and difficult questions of democracy. 

Which campus speakers support an educational experience and are interested in dialogue, and which wish to instigate conflict and further ideological entrenchment? Which speakers cause such a degree of unsafety for portions of the community as to be unwelcome on campus? What are effective expressions of solidarity? 

Who gets decide what degree of distress is acceptable? What kinds of dissent against dialogue are acceptable? What does rational speech look like in the midst of crises that are often the product of social media? 

For campus leadership, what does an ethical set of crisis tactics look like? What kinds of managerial thinking are necessary and important in moments of crises surrounding debate and justice on campus? How do we educate for democratic deliberation and mobilization in our campus communities? 

Finally, how do we cultivate civic-minded students that are open to dialogue and committed to action on injustice? 

To further ameliorate this problematic situation, we call for essays that:
  1. Account for the dialogue, mobilization, and justice challenges on our campuses. 
  2. That reflect broadly on the larger meaning of these challenges. 
  3. That offer ameliorative solutions and strategies of response.

Administrators, students, faculty, staff, and other concerned community members, especially those who are veterans of speech conflicts, and experienced managers of well-developed deliberative environments, are all encouraged to propose a piece for this special issue. 

We seek accounts of community-building. That is, we invite writing that narrates instances of pro-activity in creating vital, high-functioning, deliberative communities that value a diversity of perspectives. 

This issue will be anchored by several essays from civic-minded, innovative campuses. These institutions are a part of the Consortium for Innovative Environment in Learning (CIEL). Historically, CIEL programs and campuses have welcomed student initiative and action in efforts to identify and call out local practices that inhibit justice or voice for the economically disadvantaged or underrepresented communities. 

Of late, however, such action, without rich attention to the needs of multiple stakeholders, and without attention to the multiplying external effects of social media, has produced situations that seemingly inhibit the formation of constructive coalition-building or meaningful policy action. These campuses have long histories of practices that leverage student energy and initiative and provide real grounding for civil engagement and authentic deliberation.

Some of these practices need a greater spotlight; others need to be re-evaluated in a political context that often rallies external constituencies with little investment in community well-being. Across our institutional borders, we highly value a vision of student autonomy that prepares for democratic citizenship and simultaneously recognizes that increasing polarization in the public sphere potentially renders this faith naïve and in need of new preparation and contextualization.

How to Contribute to the Issue

We view our work as broadly educative, in that we want to help connect practitioners in public dialogue. To do so, we work closely with a wide range of folks working in higher education, including: teachers, administrators, researchers, parents, and concerned community members. The writing that will be included in each issue includes opinion pieces, experiential accounts, as well as historical and theoretical explorations of the theme as it relates to progressive education in general, as well as the writings of John Dewey in particular.

Based on the theme of each issue, the editorial board will reach out to different actors and invite them to work with us. That said, those wishing to contribute to the journal need not wait for an invitation to do so. They may contact the Editor to communicate their interest, ask questions, and receive feedback.

Please refer to the journal website for formatting guidelines. For manuscript submission, work is accepted via two broad paths:

Invited Pieces 

Work from educators and other community members are welcome. This work may take either standard article form or may be submitted in alternative formats, such as a video interview or presentation. A grounding in scholarship is not necessary, although the author will want to situate their work clearly within the scope of the theme of the issue. Ordinarily, articles in this category will range from 2,000-5,000 words, although both longer and shorter submissions may be appropriate. Authors should expect to work closely with the editorial team to produce their submissions. Therefore, those planning to write for the journal should inform the editor of their intention early in the writing process.

Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Articles 

 Submissions for the peer-reviewed section of the journal are expected to conform to scholarly standards in their use of theory and research literature. Expected article length is ordinarily in the 5,000-8,000 word range, but both longer and shorter pieces can be considered. Reports of original research are appropriate for this journal, though elaborate discussions of research methodologies and intricate reviews of specialized disciplinary fields should be avoided. 

In addition, given the flexibility offered by our online format, supporting files (in both data and audiovisual format) may be integrated with the text. In addition to the Editors, articles in this category will be read by a minimum of two peer reviewers. 

Again, authors should expect to work closely with the editorial team to produce their submissions. Therefore, those planning to write for the journal should inform the editor of their intention early in the writing process—in order to receive feedback on the general approach they plan to take for reaching a broad audience. 

All statements of interest, queries, and submissions should be emailed to the Special Guest Editors for the Journal of School & Society:

  • Eli Kramer, an affiliated researcher at the Department of the Philosophy of Culture, Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, elikramer@siu.edu 
  • James Hall, Executive Director of the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning, jchcms@rit.edu 


Submissions for this issue should be received by MAY 1, 2018.