Since the 1940s research has suggested that higher education has a liberalizing influence on sociopolitical orientation, although none has demonstrated how this might occur. In the U.S. there is an increasing trend among conservative politicians and media to depreciate the value of a college education, by alleging that college turns people into…

What is democracy? We asked this of our pre-service teachers but, instead of soliciting a response via more traditional methods, we assigned them a collage and artist's statement. The overarching goal was to model curricular applications of art that they may carry into their own p-6 classrooms to enable engagement with complex concepts. In…

The current study aims to investigate whether pre-service teachers' tolerance tendencies and democratic tendencies vary significantly depending on gender and mother and father's education level and the relationship between their tolerance tendencies and democratic tendencies. A total of 417 second-year students from the departments of Turkish…

The purpose of the article is to address the decline of democracy in adult education that was identified in the 2021 UNESCO report. Embedding an Indigenous perspective into the adult education curriculum is suggested for a reconstruction of democracy. The Métis perspective aligns with Western intrinsic motivational philosophy as well as…

Worldwide crises, including a global pandemic, have exposed deep divisions, democracy's fragility, and humanity's vulnerability. Educators are called upon to help students grapple with these crises and strengthen democracy through teaching controversial issues. How can teachers be prepared for this highly demanding, often avoided set of practices,…

According to the American Library Association, book censorship is on the rise. While many censored books are adolescent novels, some titles for younger children are challenged as well. Books dealing with difficult social issues have been targets for censors historically, but recent attacks have focused on books portraying members of the lesbian,…

This report examines the relationship between authoritarianism and postsecondary education, including liberal arts education. This analysis rests on the idea that authoritarianism is part of human nature, but its influence waxes and wanes according to circumstances. Having entered a new era defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, the evidence suggests…

Following a foreword by Derek W. M. Barker, "Deliberation as Public Judgment: Recovering the Political Roots of a Democratic Practice," contents of this issue include: (1) Beyond Adversary Democracy (Jane Mansbridge); (2) What Is Political Judgment? (Ronald Beiner); (3) The Bumpy Road from Mass Opinion to Public Judgment (Daniel…

In May 2017, yet another South African university became a site of hate speech. Three students chose to display Nazi-inspired posters, which advertised an 'Anglo-Afrikaner student' event, under the motto 'Fight for Stellenbosch'. That the posters provoked the response which it so obviously sought, was evident in the student outrage, and the swift…

Given the increasing power and prominence of political figures in the United States who openly espouse xenophobic, misogynistic, white nationalist positions, it is only natural to anticipate encountering students who express these views in our libraries and classrooms. This essay uses a classroom encounter with a student expressing xenophobic…

The modernization theory contends that there is a link between education and democracy. Yet few empirical studies have been done to investigate the role of higher education on promoting democratic values in the Chinese context. Using China General Social Survey 2006, this paper generates several findings which are not completely consistent with…

This paper examines the role of schools in slowly Islamizing Indonesian society and politics. Why is this Islamization happening and what does it portend for the future of democracy in Indonesia? The research is mostly qualitative and done through field experience, interviews, and data collection. It is concluded that radical madrasahs are not the…

The aftermath of 9/11 and the current surge of revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East have caused Muslim Americans to be either demonized or forgotten altogether, despite the significance of their everyday navigation of both Islamic and democratic values and unique efforts toward identity construction. The neglect of the Muslim American…

The politics of the airwaves should be of vital concern to critical democracy, given the expanding realm of neoliberalism and its deeply homogenizing impact on social, political and economic relations everywhere. In light of the privatizing forces that control the media today, the article considers the manner in which community radio can provide…

Jeremy Waldron, a professor of social and political theory at University of Oxford and also a professor of law at New York University, contends that laws against hate speech deserve further consideration, even if he doubts they "will ever pass constitutional muster in America." He contends that "The Harm in Hate Speech," as his…