Education and Democratic Theory: Finding a Place for Community Participation in Public School Reform

Product Description A ground-breaking look at how access to decision making in the public schools can be extended to all, even previously excluded segments of the community. From Library Journal Can participation and inclusion be part of school reform? University of Illinois professors Fields (political science) and Feinberg (educational policy studies) believe so. In this detailed study, they analyze the process by which an educational reform group the Project for Educational Democracy attempted to increase awareness as well as access to decision making in the public school system to render it more democratic and more inclusive of racial groups that have hitherto been neglected. Drawing upon interviews and observations conducted over four years, the authors challenge the reader to consider such significant concepts as participation, representation, democracy, and the especially challenging concept of authority. Fields and Feinberg ought to be praised for not glossing over the very sticky problems associated with bringing members of previously excluded segments of the community into educational decision making. Teachers, administrators, educators, and parents seeking dialog on public school reform will find much here for reflection and mutual analysis. Recommended for education reform collections in both public and academic libraries and an essential title for colleges of education. Leroy Hommerding, Fort Myers Beach P.L., FL Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review “Fields and Feinberg ought to be praised for not glossing over the very sticky problems associated with bringing members of previously excluded segments of community into educational decision making.” ― Library Journal“This is an important story about an issue of deep concern to educators and citizens alike, told in a way that is vivid and compelling―the problem of public participation and the future of our public schools and democratic life. The authors include many elements of good story-telling: the creation of tension, the attention to character and detail, an understanding of the flow of narrative energy. Ed City is a case that will be referred to for a long time in the discussion of democratic school change.” ― William Ayers, author of A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court“…a very comfortable and competent consideration of the potential for democratic governance of education using a particular case study. The calmness of the book is refreshing in contrast to many highly ideologically charged works that know all the answers before the study begins. This book is also unusually responsible in its unwillingness to pin blame on any single ‘devil,’ instead considering the world as viewed by those in different positions interacting with one another.” ― Eric Bredo, coeditor of Knowledge and Values in Social and Educational Research About the Author A. Belden Fields is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He is the author of Trotskyism and Maoism: Theory and Practice in France and the United States and Student Politics in France: A Study of the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France.Walter Feinberg is Professor of the Philosophy of Education at the University of Illinois, Champaign. He is the author of Common Schools/Uncommon Identities: National Unity and Cultural Difference and On Higher Ground: Education and the Case for Affirmative Action.