Description
Book SynopsisHow can education protect and strengthen democracy?In an era when democracy is at critical risk, is it reasonable to expect the education systemalready buckling under the ordeal of a global pandemicto solve the converging problems of inequality, climate change, and erosion of trust in government and science? Will more civics instruction help? In Can Schools Save Democracy? Michael J. Feuer offers a new approach to addressing these questions with a strategy for improving the process and substance of civic education. Although schooling alone cannot save democracy, it must play a part. Feuer introduces a framework for educator preparation that emphasizes collective action, experiential learning, and partnerships between schools and their complex constituencies. His proposed reform aims to equip teachers with an appreciation of the paradoxes of pluralismin particular, the tensions between individual choice and social outcomes. And he offers practical suggestions for how to bring those co
Table of ContentsIntroduction [Prolog]
1. Free to Bruise: Political Economy and the Limits of Liberty
2. Civics as Process and Product: Origins and Opportunities
3. Curricular Options: Contents and Discontents
4. Beyond the Schoolhouse: A Collective Responsibility
Epilog: "Commons" Sense for Civic Education
References
Acknowledgments
Index
