This book contains a revised collection of previously published articles spanning a period of five years (2004-2009) during which my original thoughts on democratic citizenship education have been developed. Central to this book is the notion that democratic citizenship education ought to be deliberative, compassionate and friendly in order that teachers and students (learners) may respect one another and take risks in and through their pedagogical encounters. In this way, hopefully, students and teachers may become more critical, explorative and engaging. - Yusef Waghid

Dewey's Democracy and Education Revisited focuses on democratic schools/democratic education and the work of teacher and leader practitioners in the new millennium, taking into consideration the complex and dynamic nature of preparing leaders for changing roles in schools amidst the challenges of standards and accountability, the No Child Left Behind Act, licensure/certification issues, increasing diversity, issues of social justice, shifting demographics, and the myriad of social issues that make democratic leadership necessary. The book presents a collection of contemporary discourses that reconsider the relationship of democracy as a political ideology and American ideal (i.e., Dewey's progressivist ideas) and education as the foundation of preparing democratic citizens in America. Jenlink takes the reader into a reflective and critical examination of Dewey's ideas on democratic education, set forth in the classic philosophy text, Democracy and Education. Each chapter draws the reader into a discussion of the salient and relevant points Dewey argued, and juxtaposes Dewey's points with the issues challenging educators today, in particular focusing on the challenge of fostering democratic education and leadership for America's schools.

In this book Yusef Waghid considers an African philosophy of education guided by communitarian, reasonable and culture dependent action in order to bridge the conceptual and practical divide between African ethnophilosophy and ‘scientific African philosophy. Unlike those who argue that African philosophy of education cannot exist because it does not invoke reason, or that reasoned African philosophy of education is just not possible, Waghid suggests an African philosophy of education constituted by reasoned, culture-dependent action.

This edited collection explores how democratic citizenship education manifests across the African continent. A recognition of rights and responsibilities coupled with an emphasis on deliberative engagement among citizens, while not uniquely African, provides ample evidence that the concept can most appropriately be realised in relation to its connectedness with experiences of people living on the continent. Focussing on a diverse collection of voices, the editors and authors examine countries that have an overwhelming allegiance to democratic citizenship education. In doing so, they acknowledge that this concept, enveloped by a certain Africanness, has the potential to manifest in practices across the African continent. By highlighting the success of democratic citizenship education, the diverse and varied contributions from across this vast continent address the malaise in its implementation in countries where autocratic rule prevails. This pioneering volume will be an invaluable resource for researchers and students working in the fields of education and sociology, particularly those with an interest in education policy, philosophy of education and global citizenship initiatives.

Many fear that democracies are suffering from a legitimacy crisis. This book focuses on 'democratic deficits', reflecting how far the perceived democratic performance of any state diverges from public expectations. Pippa Norris examines the symptoms by comparing system support in more than fifty societies worldwide, challenging the pervasive claim that most established democracies have experienced a steadily rising tide of political disaffection during the third-wave era. The book diagnoses the reasons behind the democratic deficit, including demand (rising public aspirations for democracy), information (negative news about government) and supply (the performance and structure of democratic regimes). Finally, Norris examines the consequences for active citizenship, for governance and, ultimately, for democratization. This book provides fresh insights into major issues at the heart of comparative politics, public opinion, political culture, political behavior, democratic governance, political psychology, political communications, public policymaking, comparative sociology, cross-national survey analysis and the dynamics of the democratization process.

This book examines the issues of theorizing citizenship education research in non-Western societies that have embarked on democratic development after the fall of authoritarianism and colonialism. Despite a proliferation of studies on citizenship and citizenship education in non-Western contexts, there has been limited theorization of this research and little discussion of the applicability to such contexts of Western theoretical frameworks. This volume addresses these issues through empirical case studies of citizenship conceptions, practices, and education in South and West Africa, Latin America, Central Europe, and the Middle East. The contributors to the volume call into question the uncritical application of Western theoretical frameworks to non-Western societies and advocate for the development and wider application of new paradigms rooted in local processes and indigenous knowledge to better understand and theorize citizenship and citizenship education in such societies. This volume will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and practitioners working in the field of comparative and international citizenship education. It was originally published as a special issue of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education.

The focus of this book is to offer a humane rocesponse to dealing with violence. An interpretive analysis is presented in order to think differently about violence in schools and about how a citizenship education of becoming can deal with the unpredictable consequences of violence in its own potentiality. It seems to the authors that, given the confident onslaught of violence, there is nothing left to do but to offer insight into the nature of violence itself and, by so doing, to search for unexplored ways of humane response and being. The authors are not pretending to hold a magic wand that will sanctify schools into the safe zones that they ought to be and as which they should serve in any society. This would be both presumptuous and misleading. What one is looking and hoping for, however, is a renewed engagement, a slight tilting of the perspective, so that something other than how we have always responded to violence perhaps will emerge. The authors are confident that such a deconstructive approach to violence in schools through the lens of a reconsidered view of citizenship education can assist them and others to wrestle with its potential for destruction that can be changed into options for co-belonging of a non-violent, if not peaceful, kind.