Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Reconstructing/Reimagining Democratic Education: From Context to Theory to Practice

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00131940802649110

1532-6993

Robert J. Helfenbein, Nicholas J. Shudak,

Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

Many have suggested that issues of democracy are fundamentally related to school curricula and contexts (Conant, 1948; Dewey, 1944 Dewey, John. 1944. Democracy and Education, New York: Macmillan. [Google Scholar]; Dimitriadis and Carlson, 2003 Dimitriadis, Greg and Carlson, Dennis. 2003. Promises to Keep: Cultural Studies, Democratic Education, and Public Life, New York: RoutledgeFalmer. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; West, 2004 West, Cornel. 2004. Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism, New York: Penguin Press. [Google Scholar]). Current social theorists have suggested that a globalized social, economic, and cultural structure has necessitated a rethinking of the relationships between individuals, communities, and institutions. It follows, then, that the premise that democracy must be reinvented (Dewey [1937] 1964; Foucault 2003 Foucault, Michel. 2003. “Society Must be Defended”: Lectures at the College de France, 1975–76, Edited by: Macey, D. New York: Picador. [Google Scholar]; Hardt and Negri, 2000 Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio. 2000. Empire, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]) necessarily leads to new notions of curriculum, schools, and education itself. This article argues that thinking through these notions as ways in which to engage the social studies may prove fruitful for those working within critical approaches to education. This cultural studies approach holds as fundamental to our argument that the shifting nature of the political, as part of a greater social structure, simultaneously affects and requires a reimagining of the pedagogical.