Educating the Democratic Mind
Walter C. Parker, ed.
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996)
http://www.sunypress.edu

This book is a collection of inquiries, old and new, from John Dewey to Carole Hahn, joined on the central question of our era: What does it mean to educate children in such a way as to fashion them for the demands of an increasingly diverse society that is organized under and struggling, on and off, to realize the democratic ideal? There are four sections. In the first three are seminal works written in the 20th century on the problem of educating democrats. These parts are arranged chronologically, each surveying in turn the early, middle, and recent years of the century. New works prepared for this book compose the fourth part. Each reflects on the work to date, taking stock, providing criticism, and proposing new directions.

PART I The Early Years (chapters 1-4)
1916-1942
...in which John Dewey clarified the meaning of democracy, Harold Rugg attempted to turn the school curriculum toward practical public problems, Wayland Osborn showed how difficult it was to immunize students against propaganda, and Alan Griffin wrote on the proper teaching of history in democracies.

PART II The Middle Years (chapters 5-8)
the 1950s and 60s
...in which Maurice Hunt and Lawrence Metcalf took Rugg's problems approach further--to society's taboo subjects, Shirley Engle proposed decision making education as the heart of democratic education, Hilda Taba and Freeman Elzey narrowed the focus to teaching strategies that would stimulate productive and creative thought, and Donald Oliver and James Shaver widened the focus to building a relationship in students' minds between higher order thinking and enduring public value conflicts.

PART III Recent Years (chapters 9-12)
the 1970s and 80s
...in which Michael Apple argued that the typical avoidance of conflict in the school curriculum cultivates passive spectators, Lawrence Kohlberg proposed that justice can be taught when the subject is a moral dilemma and the group discussing it is diverse, Fred Newmann and his colleagues developed a curriculum for citizen action, and Paul Gagnon turned educators' attention back again to history, arguing that it holds the unique power to educate democrats.

PART IV Reflections And Possibilities (chapters 13-16)
...in which David Mathews points to the unique power of deliberation in the education of democrats, Jane Bernard-Powers points to the transforming power of inclusion, Tony Whitson and Bill Stanley re-define mind and, with it, the place of values in democratic reasoning, and a cross-cultural perspective is provided by Ann Angell and Carole Hahn.