Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Pragmatist Thinking for a Populist Moment: Democratic Contingency and Racial Re-Valuing in Education Governance

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

In what must be one of the larger understatements of the week, Knight-Abowitz and Sellars write, "Educational governance in the U.S. is often a source of frustration among democracy theorists and education reformers alike." Here we consider two articles that consider education governance in the context of Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory (described as a straw man proxy for any discussions of race and equity), Pragmatist Thinking for a Populist Moment, which (to elide a lot) criticizes populist movements for being overly emotional ("Populist expression is the ability of groups to articulate urgent need for reform, but such expression always requires scrutiny"), and Social Movements, Deliberation, and Educational Governance, by Ellis Reid, which responds that "political slogans and other kinds of broad language certainly constitute part of the movement's rhetoric. However, we can't simply assume that this rhetoric exhausts the kinds of conversations going on within the movement. I believe that many affiliated with BLM and other similar movements regularly engage in meaningful deliberation about political issues." I am reminded of the educational movement that sprang up around Occupy Wall Street, and of course there's a longer history of the 'teach-in' movement in generally. Anyhow, save these for a good weekend read. Image: The Week.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 30, 2024 09:42 a.m.

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