Education and Hope in Troubled Times ─ Bold Visions of Change for Our Children's World

"Progressive educators have always been better at critique than at possibility. This book promises not to ignore critique, but to favor possibility. It is most rare and greatly welcomed."
Richard Quantz, Miami University

"The editor argues that in a material world, depicted by consumerism, spiritual nihilism and conspicuous consumption, there is need to offer a new vision and direction in education that would promote a more harmonious, holistic values-oriented schooling that transforms persons into moral beings, who care for others…. In terms of innovative ideas and approaches to pedagogy and theorizing about schooling, this volume is at the top of pedagogical discourses and thinking."
Joseph Zajda, Australian Catholic University (Melbourne Campus)




Education and Hope in Troubled Times brings together a group of the best and most creative educational thinkers to reflect on the purpose and future of public education. These original essays by leading social and educational commentators in North America attempt to articulate a new vision for education, especially public education, and begin to set an alternative direction. This is a time of crisis, but also of renewed possibility—one that offers the opportunity to radically reconsider what is the meaning of education for a generation that will bear the brunt of grappling with the extraordinary dangers and challenges we confront today. At its core this volume questions what will it mean to be an educated human being in the 21st century compelled to confront and address so much that threatens the very basis of a decent and hopeful human existence. Carrying forward a project of redefining and reshaping public discourse on education in the U.S., it is a critical catalyst and focus for re-thinking public policy on education.

H. Svi Shapiro is Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Author or editor of a number of books on education and has also published more than 70 articles in national and international journals and writes on education matters for the national magazine, Tikkun. His professional interests include critical and liberatory pedagogies; the moral and spiritual dimensions of education; education and social policy as these relate to social justice, human rights and democracy; global social change and peace education; and qualitative forms of educational inquiry. He is a member of the advisory board of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, a member of the steering committee of Triangle Tikkun, has been actively engaged in interfaith efforts, and has a special interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Preface

Contributors

1. Introduction: Education and Hope in Trouble Times
H. Svi Shapiro


2. Education and Schooling in the 21st Century: The Role of the Profession
David E. Purpel

3. Is There a Place for Education in Social Transformation?
Michael W. Apple

4. What Is to be Done? Toward a Rationale for Social Movement Building
Jean Anyon

5. Mechanics of Unfairness: How We Undercut Poor Children’s Educational
Opportunity
Sue Books

6. The Moral and Spiritual Poverty of Educational ‘Leadership’…and a Hope for the
Future
Ulrich C. Reitzug and Deborah L. West

7. Fear versus Possibility: Why We Need a New DEEL for Our Children’s
Future
Steven Jay Gross and Joan Poliner Shapiro

8. Capitalism’s Continuing Attempts to Dominate Civil Society, Culture, and
Schools: What Should Be Done?
Richard A. Brosio

9. Education After the Empire
Ron Miller

10. Education for a Partnership World: Building Cultures of Peace
Riane Eisler




11. Critical Thinking in Religious Education
Nel Noddings


12. The Cultivation of Children’s Bodies Toward Intricate Thinking and Sensitive
Behavior
Don Hanlon Johnson

13. To Touch and Be Touched: The Missing Discourse of Bodies in Education
Mara Sapon-Shevin

14. Worlds of Change: A Vision for Global Aesthetics
Sherry B. Shapiro

15. Teaching Like Weasels
Hephzibah Roskelly

16. Transforming Status-Quo Stories: Shifting from ‘Me’ to ‘We’ Consciousness
AnaLouise Keating

17. Disposable Futures: Dirty Democracy and the Politics of Disposability
Henry A. Giroux

18. Unplaguing the Stomach: Curing the University of California Admission Policy with
An Ethic of Communal Care and Justice
Jenifer Crawford, Nana Gyamfi and Peter McLaren

19. No Child Left Thinking: Democracy At-Risk in American Schools and What We Need to Do About It

Joel Westheimer