Reflections on contemporary challenges and possibilities for democracy and education

ABSTRACT

This paper is one of two which bring together leading educational researchers to consider some of the key challenges facing democracy and education during the twenty-first century, including rising social and economic inequality, political instability, and the existential threats of global pandemics and climate change. In this paper, key educational scholar–activists respond to the challenges and possibilities for democracy and education, with consideration of the importance of reimagining education as being for democracy. The questions asked in this paper have particular salience for educational leaders, who must be at the centre of any commitment to democratic education.

KEYWORDS:

• Democratic values
• public education
• social justice
• educational values

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael W. Apple

Michael W. Apple is John Bascom Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Professorial Fellow at the University of Manchester. He is a former teacher union president. Among his recent books are: Can Education Change Society?; The Struggle for Democracy in Education: Lessons from Social Reality; and Disrupting Hate in Education: Teacher Activists, Democracy, and Global Pedagogies of Interruption.

Gert Biesta

Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Professor of Educational Theory and Pedagogy at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Recent books include: The Rediscovery of Teaching (Routledge 2017); Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction (Bloomsbury 2020); and World-Centred Education: A View for the Present (Routledge 2021).

David Bright

David Bright is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His research investigates how educational practices are mediated by perceptions of social, cultural and linguistic difference, and explores how difference can be re-imagined to create new possibilities for democratic education. David has a particular interest in the cultural politics of English language teaching, international schooling, and international student programmes.

Henry A. Giroux

Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His most recent books include The Terror of the Unforeseen (Los Angeles Review of books, 2019), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury, 2020); and Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021), and Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022).

Amanda McKay

Amanda McKay is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research explores the contemporary challenges of principals’ work and how we can better attract, support, and keep school leaders within the profession.

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, The Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University where he serves as Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice of the The Paulo Freire Democratic Project. He is Co-Founder of Instituto McLaren de Pedagogía Crítica, Ensenada and Professor Emeritus, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles. Professor McLaren is the author and editor of 45 books and his writings have been translated into 25 languages. His forthcoming book is called Critical Theory: Rituals, Pedagogies and Resistance (Brill).

Stewart Riddle

Stewart Riddle is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Southern Queensland. His research examines the democratisation of schooling systems, increasing access and equity in education and how schooling can respond to critical social issues in complex contemporary times.

Anna Yeatman

Anna Yeatman is an emeritus professor in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University as well as an adjunct professor in Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania.