Elementary Schooling for Critical Democracy

Jesse Goodman is Associate Professor of Education at Indiana University. Since 1986, his research of teacher socialization has received four national awards for distinguished scholarship.

"We believe that educators should be on the front lines of a reform movement to make critical democracy and citzenship a primary aim of American education. Goodman's study of a school that attempts to promote democratic ideals, values, and actions, with all its strengths and shortcomings, has far reaching implications for educators, cultural workers, and those who are responsible for school policy at all levels. Most importantly, it provides a multiplicity of democratic images for those educators who, against great odds, have not ceased in the struggle to transform the project of schooling into the search for a world less burdened by oppression and human suffering. Goodman's book is not about false optimism, but about radical hope." — Henry A. Giroux and Peter L. McLaren"This book brings critical theory alive. It brings the important issues raised by the critical theorists to elementary classrooms and creates a picture of schooling for critical democracy that teachers will be able to understand. The book is enriched by the many vivid examples that help clarify the meaning of theoretical recommendations and that support the conclusions drawn in the study."This outstanding book is one I will want to read and reread and one I want to share with my students and former students. I have been searching for a book like this and am excited to find it." — Dorene Ross, University of Florida

• Acknowledgments Credits Foreword (by Giroux and McLaren) Preface 1. Elementary Education and Democracy Critical DemocracyIndividuality and CommunityThe Rise of Individualism in the United StatesIndividualism and Elementary SchoolingCritical Democracy and Radical Educational ReformReflections: Learning From Experience 2. Learning from Reality: Harmony School Theoretical Considerations in a Postpositivist EraDecoding Social RealityHarmony's Elementary SchoolSpending a Year at Harmony 3. Power and Participation: Teachers and Administrators Distribution and Manifestation of AuthorityWritten PolicySocial ControlSocial CostsReflections: Teacher Empowerment 4. Power and Participation: Adults and Children Social BondingTeacher AuthorityPower SharingDisciplineReflections: Towards Connectionist Power Dynamics in Elementary Schools 5. Curriculum and Instruction Building a Connectionist RationaleTeacher-Centered CurriculumCollaborative LearningExpansive Knowledge BaseSocial ValuesSocial Action and Community Service ProjectsVoiceReflections: Critical Thinking, Feminist Pedagogy, and Democracy 6. Creating an Elementary Pedagogy for Critical Democracy: Conclusions and Suggestions Towards an Educational Language of Democratic ImageryStrategies for Promoting Critical Democracy through Elementary Education Notes References