The Politics of Progressive Education


Book Description

A chronicle of the collision between educational reformer Paul Geheeb, who founded the Odenwaldschule, and fascist ideology during Hitler's rise to power. By examining one individual's story it shows how education in general, and progressive education in particular, fared in Nazi Germany.




The Politics of Education


Book Description

Lamberti (history, Middlebury College) examines the culture wars that took place in 1920s and 1930s Germany over issues in education. She describes how innovative educators attempted to reform the stratified educational system to foster democracy and social justice. She also shows the relationship between the traditionalists' opposition to school reform and the attraction of certain sections of the teaching profession to the Nazi movement. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




The Death of Progressive Education


Book Description

The first authoritative survey of the changing politics of the classroom since the Second World War. It charts the process by which society moved away from being one in which teachers decided both the content of the school curriculum and how it would be taught towards the present situation in which a host of external influences dictate the nature of the educational experience. The book identifies the key social and political developments which made this transformation inevitable and, at the same time, raises the question of how far the loss of control by teachers has also meant a shift away from progressive, child-centred education. Key issues covered include: The post-war debate on the school curriculum as well as the extent to which it was fiercely contested The Black Paper Movement of the early 1970s The ways in which radical right rhetoric has come to dominate the politics of education and the educational press How the term ‘progressive education’ has been subtly reworked, so that those claiming to reform education now focus on measurable outcomes and the answerability of schools to parental and government pressure An historical analysis of the ways in which the ‘Thatcher revolution’ in schools has been taken forward and developed under both John Major and Tony Blair. This ground-breaking analysis of how we have arrived at the present situation in our schools will be of interest to all students of education and to all those who wish to learn more about the changes that have taken place in our education system over the past sixty years. It helps us understand why they happened and, in so doing, raises profound questions about the aspirations of modern society and the role of the schools in shaping it.




Educational Progressivism, Cultural Encounters and Reform in Japan


Book Description

Educational Progressivism, Cultural Encounters and Reform in Japan provides a critical analysis of educational initiatives, progressive ideas and developments in curriculum and pedagogy in Japan, from 1900 to the present day. Drawing on evidence of both cultural encounters and internal drivers for progressivism and reform, this book re-evaluates the history of Japanese education to help inform ongoing and future debates about education policy and practice worldwide. With contributions from Japanese scholars specialising in the history and philosophy of education and curriculum studies, chapters consider key collaborative improvements to teacher education, as well as group learning, ‘life education’, the creative arts and writing, and education for girls and women. The book examines Western influences, including John Dewey, Carleton Washburne and A. S. Neill, as well as Japan’s own progressive exports, such as holistic Zenjin education, Children’s Villages and Lesson Study, highlighting cultural encounters and progressive initiatives at both transnational and national levels. The chapters reflect on historical and political background, motivations, influences and the impact of Japanese progressive education. They also stimulate, through argument and critical discussion, a continuing discourse concerning principles, policy, politics and practices of education in an increasingly globalised society. A rigorous and critical study of the history of progressive education in Japan, this book will interest an international readership of academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of progressive education, comparative education, social and cultural history, history of education, Japanese studies, curriculum studies, and the history of childhood.




Democracy and Education


Book Description

. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.




A Modern School


Book Description

A part of the Duke Medical Center Library History of Medicine Ephemera Collection.




New Learning


Book Description

Fully updated and revised, the second edition of New Learning explores the contemporary debates and challenges in education and considers how schools can prepare their students for the future. New Learning, Second Edition is an inspiring and comprehensive resource for pre-service and in-service teachers alike.




Critical Curriculum Leadership


Book Description

Although traditional curriculum and instructional leadership frameworks have dominated educational administration training for almost thirty years, it has become increasingly clear that even the most recent frameworks have failed today’s leaders who struggle with the politics of curriculum decisions on a daily basis. Critical Curriculum Leadership is an examination of curriculum leadership in the wake of U.S. testing mandates and school reforms, all of which seem to support a particular set of conservative ideologies. Drawing from her own longitudinal ethnographic study and from existing literature and research in the field, Ylimaki explores the formation of curriculum leadership in relation to broader cultural and political shifts. She shows how traditional leadership frameworks have come up short, and makes the case for an alternative leadership theory at the intersection of educational leadership and curriculum studies. She provides analytical tools that inspire progressive education and offers critical theories, strategies, research examples, problem-posing cases, and research ideas essential for curriculum leadership in the present conservative era. Critical Curriculum Leadership will appeal to the many educational leadership scholars and practitioners who are interested in developing effective and socially just curricula in their schools and districts as well as curriculum scholars who are interested in leadership issues.




Educational Reform and Environmental Concern


Book Description

A crucial component of the New Education reform movement, nature study was introduced to elementary schools throughout the English-speaking world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite the undoubted enthusiasm with which educators regarded nature study, and the ambitious aims envisioned for teaching it, little scholarly attention has been paid to the subject and the legacy that nature study bequeathed to later curricular developments. Educational Reform and Environmental Concern explores the theories that supported nature study, as well as its definitions, aims, how it was introduced to curricula and its practice in the classroom, by focusing upon educational reform in the Australian state of New South Wales. This book explores nature study within the context of broader educational reform movements in a period characterised by a transnational exchange of ideas. It is the only book on nature study available to date that focuses on the history of the movement outside the USA, providing a much-needed alternative perspective. Kass considers nature study as it adapted and changed throughout the twentieth century, addressing the extent to which the nature study idea represented, responded to and even influenced concern about the natural environment. Educational Reform and Environmental Concern will appeal to researchers, academics and postgraduate students engaged in the study of educational and environmental history. Researchers with an interest in a transnational or imperial approach to the history of education will also benefit from the wealth of comparative material that Kass presents.




Education and Democratic Participation


Book Description

Education and Democratic Participation is an important and timely contribution to the emerging debate surrounding the value of educating citizens and communities in order to empower them to participate in democratic change. Responding to the effects of neo-liberal ideology on comprehensive education and public services, this book examines the purposes and conditions for reimagining an educated democracy. Arguing that social divisions and cultural misrecognition have intensified to the point of crisis, Ranson explains that a just society must create opportunities for diverse, cohesive and tolerant neighbourhoods to flourish. In order to achieve this, education will need to reimagine learners as prospective citizens and as cooperative makers of the democratic communities in which they live and work. Showing that participation in public forums, councils and associations can provide a real means of enabling members of different communities to learn how to respect and value one another, this book provides persuasive arguments that a broader pedagogy of democracy is needed to confront the common dilemmas facing society. This work is aimed at researchers, academics and postgraduates, particularly those lecturing and studying in the areas of education, the social sciences and politics. It will also appeal to professional and practitioner communities in school and college teaching, as well as in local authorities and related public services.