Ira Shor, Professor, City University of New York; Author of When Students Have Power, Empowering Education, Pedagogy for Liberation
"A must-read book on education for democracy. This volume not only shows how Goddard College is a uniquely experimental place in American higher education, but is also serves the cause of democratic learning for our country's schools and campuses. The issue of democracy in education and society is too urgent to ignore, so this is the right book at the right time to teach us lessons about the road ahead."

Nancy Schniedewind, Professor, SUNY New Paltz; Co-author of Open Minds to Equality and Cooperative Learning, Cooperative Lives
"A diverse array of classroom-based narratives by educators at Goddard College who describe teaching approaches that foster the development of students as responsible members of a democratic society. Their accounts are both practical and inspirational for all who seek to keep alive the progressive vision that personal and social change can be integrated in the educational process."

George Wood, Co-founder, Institute on Democracy in Education; Author of Schools That Work and A Time to Learn
"The challenge to build postsecondary education programs into incubators for democracy is seldom understood, let alone undertaken. Steven Schapiro and his colleagues have lived this challenge and share with us all the promise, problems, and possibilities of building democratic communities of higher education. The story is inspirational as well as instructive, and the work at Goddard can inform the work of not only other colleges, but schools and communities as well."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This collection of essays describes recent experiments at Goddard College (Vermont), which for 60 years has been developing programs based on the ideals of democracy and the principles of progressive education. Higher Education for Democracy draws on that rich history as well as on the legacy of the progressive movement in the 1930s and 1940s (which held education for democracy as one of its central tenets), while exploring the principles and practices needed to confront the new challenges to democracy that society is now facing.

SYNOPSIS

This collection of essays describes recent experiments at Goddard College (Vermont), which for 60 years has been developing programs based on the ideals of democracy and the principles of progressive education. Higher Education for Democracy draws on that rich history as well as on the legacy of the progressive movement in the 1930s and 1940s (which held education for democracy as one of its central tenets), while exploring the principles and practices needed to confront the new challenges to democracy that society is now facing. Chapters describing experiments in both residential education and short-residency distance-learning programs include discussion of such topics as teaching as a reciprocal and emancipatory relationship, democratic organizational models, spirituality and forbidden knowledge, narrative and autobiography as a means to empowerment, experiential approaches to reading and writing, interdisciplinary study in the arts, dialogical uses of new technologies, and Freirian and feminist approaches to the pedagogy of the "oppressed" and the "oppressor." A concluding chapter explains how the concept of "education for democracy" can once again bring together, in new ways, the progressive goals of fostering individual development within diverse democratic communities. This volume includes contributions by Eduardo Aquino, Ken Bergstrom, Katherine Jelly, Carl Glickman, Kathleen Kesson, Geraldine and Gus Lyn-Piluso, Nora Mitchell, Steven A. Schapiro, Richard Schramm, and Shelley Vermilya.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews

Schapiro (education and psychology, Goddard College, Vermont) is joined by several colleagues to examine and review the recent educational experiments at Goddard College which follow in a 60- year history of developing programs intended to enhance democracy through progressive education. Essays explore topics such as teaching spirituality, using the memoir as a way to empower marginalized students, combining Freirian and feminist approaches in anti-sexist education for men, and incorporating experiential approaches to reading and writing. No index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A must-read book on education for democracy. This volume not only shows how Goddard College is a uniquely experimental place in American higher education, but is also serves the cause of democratic learning for our country's schools and campuses. The issue of democracy in education and society is too urgent to ignore, so this is the right book at the right time to teach us lessons about the road ahead. — (Ira Shor, Professor, City University of New York; Author of When Students Have Power, Empowering Education, Pedagogy for Liberation)

A diverse array of classroom-based narratives by educators at Goddard College who describe teaching approaches that foster the development of students as responsible members of a democratic society. Their accounts are both practical and inspirational for all who seek to keep alive the progressive vision that personal and social change can be integrated in the educational process. — (Nancy Schniedewind, Professor, SUNY New Paltz; Co-author of Open Minds to Equality and Cooperative Learning, Cooperative Lives)