Democratic Education Stretched Thin

David J. Blacker is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Legal Studies at the University of Delaware and the author of Dying to Teach: The Educator's Search for Immortality.

"Democratic Education Stretched Thin enriches and modifies through intricate and convincing argumentation the liberal approach to citizenship education. It is a very well-written text that avoids extremes and undoes binarisms in ways that bring together in a harmonious whole very many important Anglo-American philosophical standpoints. In its mediating aspirations, it manages to reconcile universalist and contextualist-communitarian sensibilities, and in its original educational scope it offers political pedagogy a wide spectrum of new directions and orientations." — British Journal of Educational Studies"Democratic Education Stretched Thin represents both the current state of public education and a refined vision of political liberalism. In addressing both of them Blacker adds considerably to our understanding of education and liberalism. This richly textured, subtly argued book views public education as the site for the development of civic friendship and democratic renewal. Blacker has developed a powerful and controversial vision for public education and in doing so has provided both critics and supporters of public schools with much material for a thoughtful reexamination of their own commitments." — Walter Feinberg"I have read some of Blacker's articles in the past with admiration, but this book represents a breathtaking work of consolidation. To my knowledge, it is the first sustained attempt to work out a philosophy of democratic education based on Walzer's magnum opus, Spheres of Justice. It is destined to become one of the central points of reference in the scholarly discussion around liberal theories of education, a discussion that is at the center of philosophy of education today." — René Vincente Arcilla, author of For the Love of Perfection: Richard Rorty and Liberal Education"David Blacker is one of the leading voices in educational theory with a social/political focus, and this book will be acclaimed and widely discussed." — A. G. Rud, coeditor of The Educational Conversation: Closing the Gap

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction Part One: Politics and Policies 1. The Impasse: Proceduralism Versus orthodoxy Proceduralism and OrthodoxyThe Labels "Liberal Proceduralism" and "Religious Orthodoxy"Religious Orthodoxy and Liberal Proceduralism as Educational OutlooksStudents’ Rights and the Demise of In Loco ParentisLiberal Worries: Reactions and Overreactions2. Complex Equality and the Educational Sphere The Other Kind of PluralismSpherical Pluralism and Complex EqualityComplex Equality ModifiedComplex Equality and EducationThe Case of Proposition 1873. Education’s Institutional Autonomy The Question of Institutional AutonomyNoninstrumentalism, Instrumentalism, and BeyondEducational Autonomy in ContextTwo Objections Considered4. Accountability in Context Accountability as Selective Preference SatisfactionLiberal Contextualism and Democratic EducationLiberal Contextualism’s Three Realms of Accountability A Contextualist Picture of Educational AccountabilityPart Two: Persons and Passions 5. Cartesian Inwardness: Doubting Democrats Autonomous ChoosersCartesian DoubtingDoubt and Democratic EducationSummary and Conclusion6. Humean Outwardness: Reasonableness as Civic Friendship The One-timer Problem and Doubt’s Social DimensionThe Case for Hume’s Notion of ReasonablenessReasonableness as Civic Friendship: The Rawlsian ViewCivic Friendship Applied7. The Educated Prejudices of Liberal Contextualism Educational, Not MetaphysicalArticulation and the Giving of ReasonsThe Aesthetic Preference for ComplexityNotesReferencesCourt Cases CitedIndex