Teacher education (TE) in Finland is based on strong university autonomy, including the right to decide the curriculum content and the teaching methods. Democracy and its values are generally seen as central principles for TE, and the normative basis for education promoting democratic culture is strong. However, in practice, education for…

The author--in the role of one teacher observing another--documented a spring 2021 remote introductory art history course during the COVID-19 pandemic when graduate student teaching assistants called a campus-wide strike. Forced to improvise, the professor replaced formal analysis papers and exams with an ungraded journal. Drawing from the content…

This study investigates the hopes of a group of Finnish of ninth-graders and how hopeful they are. This study also explores how to teach in a way that promotes hope. The theoretical framework of this study combines two different theories of hope, C. R. Snyder's psychological hope theory and Paulo Freire's philosophy of hope. This study holds that…

This article follows Mary Hebron's journey alongside Patricia F. Carini for more than 30 years. The journey begins with the author's first visit to the Prospect School and Center in North Bennington, Vermont, and continues across her work alongside Pat Carini in the Mamaroneck School District and in the Art of Teaching Graduate Program at Sarah…

This article reports findings from an ongoing study that examines the experiences and engagement of pregnant and parenting youth (PPY) attending an alternative school in Chicago and the sorts of instructional approaches and activities that can promote their social justice-oriented advocacy and leadership skills. This project used Youth…

In a time of for-profit schooling, continuing segregation, racism, book banning, unconscionable inequality, and antiquated approaches to pedagogy, the prescription for democratic schooling seems daunting. Yet the path is clear: We need to change society to enable democracy in schools; we need democratic schooling to bring the public out of its…

This piece describes how the faculty of City-As-School used Descriptive Inquiry to generate shared educational principles during the 2020-21 school year during the coronavirus pandemic. City-As-School is a public experiential learning school in New York City serving older adolescents seeking an alternative to traditional high school. Descriptive…

This article describes through six brief stories or illustrative examples the impact of Patricia Carini's work on the practice of two maestras bilingües at a large urban school in the Southwest. Carini supported the school's community for several years in apprenticing descriptive inquiry, as they developed a stance of attending to children and…

In this tribute to Patricia Carini's lifework and her influence on our work, we wrestle with a challenging question: How do we understand and hold onto a focus on the individual as a key practice of education as liberation, given the ways that a radical centering of the individual has buoyed systems of racial oppression? We end with the kind of…

Patricia Carini (1932-2021) was a progressive educator and thinker who was among the key figures of open education. This article reflects on her work, illuminating its quality as an art of listening. The idea of listening has been of primary importance within the tradition of progressive education in the United States and internationally.…

This article discusses the ways that labeling students can contribute to epistemic injustices. The harms of labeling are discussed, and Patricia Carini's practice of descriptive review, along with her general philosophical approach to teaching and education, are offered as ways of mitigating against these harms. The main goals of this article are…

At King's College, Nepal, the "Integrated Course" is an experimental project-based learning program, which aims to integrate learning and action in the community with classroom-based education. Connecting classroom learning with the world beyond academia can increase motivation for students, provide familiar examples for study, open the…

I begin with my experience, with the importance of words during my early years, then as a teacher. Through the Prospect Center's Summer Institutes, I learned a descriptive process, Reflection on a Word, based in the work of Pat Carini at the Prospect School. I write about learning this process, the ways it entered my teaching life, and how it is…

During the 2020-21 school year, remote instruction due to COVID-19 significantly limited children's access to school-based social interactions. As schools return to in-person instruction, we ask: Can poetry and metaphor be used to develop theory of mind (ToM)/reflective functioning and emotional literacy in the early elementary setting? This…

In this scholarly article, teacher researchers explore the disparity between modern classroom pedagogies and the almost complete absence of a key component of identity. It advocates for religious language inclusion, examines students' religious engagement during the study of Anne Frank and the Holocaust, and serves as a practical support for…