Here in Boston, Spring is in the air, daylight savings has arrived and we celebrated International Women’s Day!
I’m delighted to share this news with you: Building Democratic Schools and Learning Environments: A Global Perspective, (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024) has been published. You can download the entire book (or any individual chapters) for free!
This has been an exciting two year journey of working with 38 contributing authors from vastly different backgrounds, experiences, and countries, and an extraordinary editorial team (Gustavo Rojas Ayala and Jonathan Mendoca), two former HGSE graduate students of mine.
The book addresses these central questions:
- What does democratic schooling mean in various global contexts?
- How do schools actualize liberty, equity, community, and collaboration in their local contexts?
- How do schools
- manage and evolve to meet the moment;
- reflect the voice, values, and goals of their communities;
- draw on community resources and funds of knowledge?
- How does democratic schooling prepare students for an unpredictable future?
As we wrote and edited, the world became increasingly more polarized and violent and a book about democratic schooling appeared more urgent. We don’t refer to “big D” Democracy as in a parliamentary or governmental context, but rather democratic schools as opportunities for teachers, students and families to be key decision makers in their communities. We offer this book for all of us to learn, reflect and imagine new possibilities to build the schools our children need and deserve across the globe. We hope that you, too, can find inspiration there as we face seemingly intractable challenges.
Read on and let us know your reactions!
