The struggle for democracy in education: lessons from social realities

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1: The Struggle for Democracy in Education -- Seeing Contradictions -- Democracy and a Transformative Education -- The State and Official Knowledge -- Where We Stand -- Real School and Real Struggles -- References -- Chapter 2: The Contradictions of a Critically Democratic School -- Introduction -- The Socio-Historical Contexts of Antiracist Schooling -- Understanding Democratic Schools -- Building a Collaborative, Community School -- Building Multicultural Antiracist Education -- What Happened to Race? -- Class Conversion Strategies at Work -- The Absent Presence of "Race" -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 3: Struggling for the Local: Money, Power, and the Possibilities of Victories in the Politics of Education -- Introduction -- Hegemony, Money, and Power -- Kenosha, Wisconsin -- Economic Crisis Meets Education Reformer -- Kenosha's Education Reformer and the Neoliberal State -- Ideological Clash in School Board Elections -- Curriculum Control in Colorado -- Jeffco versus Kenosha -- What Is to Be Learned? -- Note -- References -- Chapter 4: How "Democracy" Can Lead to Inequality: Class Relations and the Realities of Educational Reform -- Introduction -- The Recontextualization of School Choice in China -- Decentralization and Financial Diversification of Education: The Rise of the Neoliberal Approach to Chinese Educational Reforms -- The Chinese Government's Insufficient Investment in Education -- The Key School System in China -- China's Educational Examination System -- Social Class Changes in Contemporary China -- The Rearticulation of Global Education Markets and Chinese Education Markets -- The Discourses of the Internationalization of Education and the Cultivation of "International Talents".

"The Struggle for Democracy in Education extends the insightful arguments Michael Apple provided in Can Education Change Society? It provides detailed examinations of both local and system-wide struggles around conflicting versions of democracy. Grounded in a key set of ethical and political responsibilities for those who care deeply about education, Apple and his co-authors interrogate conflicting models of democratic education, one interested in the common good and the creation of critical citizens, the other market-oriented and meant to meet a set of more conservative economic needs. Through a series of powerful international case studies, this volume explores the contested terrain, combining powerful theory with the "stuff" of schools, political and pedagogical actions, and the lives of individuals. These detailed examinations provide the reader with a more nuanced understanding of how policy, history, and varied actors with varied agendas come together, and the very real people and systems that are impacted by these conflicts. The Struggle for Democracy in Education asks us to face and understand these myriad forces and actors--both progressive and retrogressive--and to ask what we can do to ensure that the education that is created is worthy of its name. In the process, the book gives us real examples of critically democratic education and what we can learn from these struggles" --