It's Not Education that Scares Me, It's the Educators...

"Carr (Univ. du Québec en Outaouais) and Thésée (Univ. du Québec à Montréal) seek to transform education through a participatory understanding of democracy. Advocating for processes that support organizations, teachers, and students who engage in critical citizenship, the authors' vision drives educators to think deeply about issues of social justice, marginalization, and poverty. Carr and Thésée draw on their findings from the Global Doing Democracy Research Project (2008–15) to present a wide range of critical information on how educators can do democracy. Readers familiar with Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968) will identify similar themes in the authors' positions on critical pedagogy and curriculum for democratic engagement, which extend into intriguing applications. Readers new to such conversations may find the range of complex paradigms and theories eye-opening but overwhelming. The tone and style of the text will primarily appeal to academics in the discipline; however, a significant number of charts, tables, and diagrams provide context, making this study accessible to broader audiences. Speaking to the pressing need to address prevalent organizational problems in education, this is an engaging yet audience-specific treatise on education for democracy."  (Advance review in CHOICE connect, September 2020, Vol. 58, No. 1.)

"Democracy and education are commonly used in public discourse. Yet these two grand words are often regrettably misunderstood. Paul and Gina’s timely book offers fresh and critical perspectives on democracy and education and what they can become, particularly for those who have been historically oppressed. Educators, policymakers, researchers, and avid readers genuinely interested in knowing or at least imagining what education for all might look like in a democratic society should not miss this amazing empirical work!"

Pierre W. Orelus, Fairfield University

" “Generation after generation has amassed piles of knowledge and written piles of books,” cries a teacher in Bertolt Brecht’s play The Mother (1931). “And never have we seen such confusion,” he continues. How apt are these words, written almost a century ago, and how timely the topic of Professor Paul R. Carr and Professor Gina Thésée’s book on democracy and its links to education. We desperately need to find the roots for democracy and democratic education anew, and that’s exactly what the authors are looking for."

Juha Suoranta, Tampere University

"Carr and Thésée’s combined talents and life forces pierce our consciousness and awaken our democratic barometers with provocative questions and evoke an urgency to conduct a democratic audit and action plan. During these troubled times, as democracy seemingly..." (read more)

Suzanne SooHoo, Chapman University

"In their book “It’s not Education that Scares me, it’s the Educators...”: Is There Still Hope for Democracy in Education, and Education for Democracy?, Paul R. Carr & Gina Thésée investigate and analyze the possibilities and hopes for a global transformative and democratic education. Any important transformative education must..." (read more)

William M. Reynolds, Georgia Southern University

"Against all odds, Carr & Thésée have created a book that offers hope for the potential of democracy in education. Exhibiting a rare balance of critical scholarship, possibility, and readability, they show how teachers are responsible for the kind of transformative education required for authentic democracy and compassionate global citizenship. In re-imagining how..." (read more)

Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs), Fielding Graduate University

"With our fragile democracy under siege, fake news obfuscating truth at every turn, and a newly invigorated White supremacy on brazen display, this book—more than ever—is required reading. A critically engaged and participatory democracy is our only hope for resistance, resilience, and, ultimately, justice. By interrogating..." (read more)

Marc Spooner, University of Regina

Figures
Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments

Foreword: In Search Of Democratic Education
Antonia Darder

1. Introduction: Who’s Scared of the Classroom? And Can We Talk about It?

2. What’s So Wonderful about Democracy, and Where is the Link To Education?

3. Some Theoretical Voices That Underpin Our Approach To Democracy

4. The Mythology of Democracy and the Quest for a Way Out

5. On the Trail of Signs of Democracy in and around Education: Starting with a Synthesis of the Research and Some Conceptual Thoughts

6. Connecting the Prospect of Democratizing Education with the Experiences of Educators: What Is the Effect?

7. Transforming Educational Leadership without Social Justice? Critical Pedagogy and Democracy

8. Critically Engaged Democracy as a Practice of Resistance and Resilience against Tyranny

9. Some Proposals/Recommendations from Transformative Education

10. A Few More Thoughts on Democracy and Transformative Education

Afterword: If We Cannot Transform Democracy, Then the Paroxysm of Decay That Results from the Disintegration of the Fairy-Tale Will Continue to Prolong Our Free Fall into Infantile Helplessness
Peter McLaren

Notes on the Authors

Index

Paul R. Carr

Paul R. Carr is a Full Professor in the Department of Education at the Université du Québec en Outaouais and the Chair-holder of the UNESCO Chair in Democracy, Global Citizenship and Transformative Education (DCMÉT). He studied for two years in France in the early 1980s, and then undertook the rest of his university studies in Canada in the areas of political science, sociology and education. Professor Carr completed his doctorate in the sociology of education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in 1996, with his thesis examining anti-racism and institutional culture in education. He is also the co-founder and co-director (along with David Zyngier of Monash University in Australia) of the Global Doing Democracy Research Project (GDDRP), which aims to produce a range of studies on the international level on how democracy and education can be more effectively connected. His current research is broadly concerned with social justice, with specific threads related to democracy, media literacy, peace studies, intercultural relations, the environment and transformational change. He is the co-editor of seventeen books, the author of the Does Your Vote Count?: Democracy and Critical Pedagogy (New York: Peter Lang), published in 2011, and a number of articles, book chapters and other publications in English, French and Spanish. For a number of years, before entering academia, he worked as a Senior Policy Advisor on educational policy in the Ontario Government related to anti-racism, linguistic minority rights, Aboriginal education, special education and other diversity-related matters. Professor Carr is also the author and editor of several books of poetry, including with Cuban poets in bilingual projects.

Gina Thésée

Gina Thésée is Full Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and is Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Democracy, Global Citizenship and Transformative Education (DCMÉT). She completed undergraduate and graduate studies in the fields of natural sciences and education in Canada. Her doctorate, completed at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2003, examined the epistemological orientations of teachers of Haitain origin in relation to the sciences at the secondary level. She is the past Director of the Bachelor in Secondary Education program, and recently completed a six-year term as a member of the Committee for Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs (CAPFE), an advisory committee to the Quebec Ministry of Education in Quebec. She is also a researcher in the Research Center for Environmental and Eco-citizenship Education (Centr’ERE) as well as an associate member of the Institute of Sciences, Technologies and Advanced Studies in Haiti (ISTEAH). On a regular basis, she participates in the activities of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (UNESCO). She is interested in the socio-educational contexts related mainly to colonization, culture, ethnicity, gender and race. Her theoretical framework for transformative and emancipatory education is rooted in critical perspectives, and borrows from diverse critical currents, such as anti-colonialism, antiracism, democracy, environmentalism, feminism, indigeneity or transculturalism. In 2006, she was a Laureate for the Montreal Black History Month, which honoured her for her work in the Black community. Professor Thésée has long been involved in community development with the Haitian community in Montréal, and has also supported numerous cultural projects involving dance and the arts. Before entering academia, she was a secondary science teacher for fourteen years in multicultural school in Montreal.