Rediscovering the democratic purposes of education / edited by Lorraine M. McDonnell, P. Michael Timpane, [and] Roger Benjamin

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- Defining democratic purposes Lorraine M. McDonnell -- What the American founders have to teach us about schooling for democratic citizenship Lorraine Smith Pangle and Thomas L. Pangle -- Toward a political economy of citizenship: historical perspectives on the purposes of common schools Carl F. Kaestle -- Why should schools care about civic education? Amy Gutmann -- A political socialization perspective Pamela Johnston Conover and Donald D. Searing -- The two democratic purposes of public education Terry M. Moe -- Democracy and schooling: an institutional perspective James G. March and Johan P. Olsen -- Seeking a new politics of education Lorraine M. McDonnell and M. Stephen Weatherford -- Democratic education and the American dream Jennifer L. Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick.

This volume grew out of our shared concern about the state of education research, particularly the cholarly neglect of schooling's political dimensions. From different vantage points as researchers, university teachers, administrators, and policy advisers, we saw lack of attention to education's democratic purposes in policy, school practice, and research. The economic purposes of eduaction are the ones typically highlighted in policy devates, even as education remains one of the most politicized policy arenas with increasingly diverse (and often divisive) constituencies vying to define what the nation's children should learn and to decide who should bear the costs and receive the benefits of the american educational system.