This article argues that curriculum work can benefit from signifiers of Bildung to promote democracy in public education. The argument is built on the premise that cultural and intellectual traditions that value Bildung presume a link between the inner cultivation of the individual and the development of better societies (Horlacher 2017). I start…

This article uses a critical analysis of liberal democracy and its ties to a re-emergent fascism to call for a Marxist feminist pedagogy of anti-fascism.

According to Thomas Falk, an authoritarian insurgency against the institutions of liberal democracy operates along both political-economic and phenomenological axes. By corrupting language and stimulating vigilance, this insurgency endeavors to diminish the perceptual and communicative capacities that allow us to articulate a shared reality and…

Universities play an indispensable role within modern democracies. But this role is often overlooked or too narrowly conceived, even by universities themselves. In "What Universities Owe Democracy," Ronald J. Daniels, the president of Johns Hopkins University, argues that--at a moment when liberal democracy is endangered and more…

In response to the contemporary problematic of populism and associated reactionary right-wing politics, this paper argues for a greater analytic focus on the role of schools and teacher expertise in understanding the social relations of populism. This conceptual paper builds a conjunctural conceptualisation of populism that understands it as an…

This article attempts to conceptualise the relationship between the individual (professional) and the structural in a period of relatively radical changes in society. The challenging and revealing dialectic of such relations is analysed through the combination of auto-ethnographic reflections and archival documents showing the changes in the…

Moral philosophy in early American collegiate education founded its understanding and pursuit of virtue on the theological truth that humans are made in God's image. Therefore, to fulfill our purpose, we need to acquire creaturely analogues of God's virtues. Later American moral philosophy scholars and texts, however, began to use a different…

This article utilizes feminist and postcolonial scholarship to shed light on the affective governmentality that takes place in the context of both liberal democracy and right-wing populism. In particular, it articulates a political grammar of feelings that makes visible in democratic education how affective modes of governing operate and what…

I argue that Rawlsian liberals should consider cardinal virtue habituation as a legitimate form of moral education and citizenship education in publicly funded schools. In "Political Liberalism," Rawls acknowledges that a liberal government can and should promote certain virtues or traits of moral character in citizens, but only those…

This article determines which education enables the perpetuation of diverse ways of life and the liberal democracy that accommodates this diversity. Liberals like John Rawls, Stephen Macedo, and William Galston have disagreed about the scope of civic education. Based on an analysis of toleration--the primary means for maintaining a pluralist…

This essay examines conservative Christian schools through the lens of democratic education theory in order to understand how these educational institutions might or might not be consistent with the principles of a liberal democracy. I identify four key characteristics of conservative Christian schools, including the way they attempt to withdraw…

Our democracy is in crisis. Both political trust and a shared standard of truth are broken. In this book, Walter Parker shows why and how civic education can help. Offering a centrist approach suitable for a polarized society, Parker focuses on two linked curriculum objectives: disciplinary knowledge and voice. He illustrates how classroom…

In the context of global debates regarding the purpose of higher education, many national governments have adopted 'cost-sharing' mechanisms. Yet in 2017 the Philippines introduced legislation to provide 'Universal Access' to higher education by subsidizing tuition fees for all Filipino students in public institutions, partial fee subsidies…

"Education, Liberal Democracy and Populism: Arguments from Plato, Locke, Rousseau and Mill" provides a lucid and critical guide shedding light on the continuing relevance of earlier thinkers to the debates between populists and liberals about the nature of education in democratic societies. The book discusses the relationship Rousseau…

In this article, Bianca Thoilliez draws on pragmatist notions of fallibilism and pluralism to develop proposals for possible educational interventions to address the problem of "post-truth" conditions. Post-truth, she contends, is not only a political danger for liberal democracies, but it also poses a serious threat of extinction for…