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The Teachers’ Standards in Primary Schools: Understanding and Evidencing Effective Practice
by Joy Carroll Genea N. AlexanderEvery primary school teacher needs to ensure that they meet the criteria set out in the Teachers&’ Standards. However translating what this means in the classroom isn&’t always easy, especially when you're starting out. This book directly looks at the standards, providing guidance on how professionalism can be demonstrated and evidenced in primary schools underpinned by practical examples. This second edition introduces two new features: - voices of experience spotlights which explore the perspectives of teachers, parents and other professionals - additional reading and resource suggestions that allow you to find out more about relevant topics. Little light bulb moments and practice examples have been updated to show you how to translate theory into practice, in the classroom and wider learning environments.
Teacher's Skills Tests For Dummies
by Colin Beveridge Andrew GreenIf you’re preparing for the newly revised Numeracy and Literacy Skills Tests, Teacher’s Skills Tests For Dummies is your one-stop for both exams, providing you with subject-matter review, revision and practice tests you need to tackle the tests with confidence and succeed. Written by expert authors in Maths, English, and Education (with the credentials to prove it), Teacher’s Skills Tests For Dummies provides you with: - A review of the key maths and English concepts you need to know to do well - Full length practice tests and tons of additional practice questions - Online accessible audio tests for spelling and mental arithmetic — to better prepare you for the actual test - Tips and tricks (along with mistakes to avoid) to become a better test taker With this book — and a bit of work on your part — you’ll be positioned to pass your skills tests and gain that coveted place on a teacher-training course.
Teacher's Skills Tests For Dummies
by Colin Beveridge Andrew GreenIf you’re preparing for the newly revised Numeracy and Literacy Skills Tests, Teacher’s Skills Tests For Dummies is your one-stop for both exams, providing you with subject-matter review, revision and practice tests you need to tackle the tests with confidence and succeed. Written by expert authors in Maths, English, and Education (with the credentials to prove it), Teacher’s Skills Tests For Dummies provides you with: - A review of the key maths and English concepts you need to know to do well - Full length practice tests and tons of additional practice questions - Online accessible audio tests for spelling and mental arithmetic — to better prepare you for the actual test - Tips and tricks (along with mistakes to avoid) to become a better test taker With this book — and a bit of work on your part — you’ll be positioned to pass your skills tests and gain that coveted place on a teacher-training course.
The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series #8)
by Robyn M. Gillies Adrian Ashman Jan TerwelCooperative learning is widely endorsed as a pedagogical practice that promotes student learning. Recently, the research focus has moved to the role of teachers’ discourse during cooperative learning and its effects on the quality of group discussions and the learning achieved. However, although the benefits of cooperative learning are well documented, implementing this pedagogical practice in classrooms is a challenge that many teachers have difficulties accomplishing. Difficulties may occur because teachers often do not have a clear understanding of the basic tenets of cooperative learning and the research and theoretical perspectives that have informed this practice and how they translate into practical applications that can be used in their classrooms. In effect, what do teachers need to do to affect the benefits widely documented in research? A reluctance to embrace cooperative learning may also be due to the challenge it poses to teachers’ control of the learning process, the demands it places on classroom organisational changes, and the personal commitments teachers need to make to sustain their efforts. Moreover, a lack of understanding of the key role teachers need to play in embedding cooperative learning into the curricula to foster open communication and engagement among teachers and students, promote cooperative investigation and problem-solving, and provide students with emotionally and intellectually stimulating learning environments may be another contributing factor. The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom provides readers with a comprehensive overview of these issues with clear guidelines on how teachers can embed cooperative learning into their classroom curricula to obtain the benefits widely attributed to this pedagogical practice. It does so by using language that is appropriate for both novice and experienced educators. The volume provides: an overview of the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of cooperative learning pedagogy; outlines how specific small group experiences can promote thinking and learning; discusses the key role teachers play in promoting student discourse; and, demonstrates how interaction style among students and teachers is crucial in facilitating discussion and learning. The collection of chapters includes many practical illustrations, drawn from the contributors’ own research of how teachers can use cooperative learning pedagogy to facilitate thinking and learning among students across different educational settings.
The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook: Becoming an Extended Professional through Capturing Evidence-Informed Practice
by Paula Zwozdiak-MyersWhat do we mean by reflective practice? What does it involve? How can it help you develop as a teacher? The Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is an essential source of advice, guidance and ideas for both student and practising teachers. Helping you to translate pedagogical knowledge into practice, this Handbook guides you through studying your own teaching for personal development, evaluating your lessons through classroom research, and enhancing the quality of pupil learning. It offers an innovative framework which serves to prepare you for the challenges and complexities of the classroom environment, and supports the continuing improvement of your teaching. Underpinned by key theoretical concepts and contemporary research within the field of education, chapters help you to: systematically evaluate your teaching through classroom research procedures question personal theories and beliefs, and consider alternative perspectives and possibilities try out new strategies and ideas to maximise the learning potential of all students enhance the quality of, and continue to improve, your teaching. Including a range of reflective tasks, links to online resources, exemplification material and further reading to help you develop your own thinking, The Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is an accessible guide which supports the facilitation of reflective practice through self and peer assessment, problem-based learning and personal development planning. The multi-dimensional framework enables you to build a meaningful, personally relevant portfolio of evidence-informed practice.
The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook: Becoming an Extended Professional through Capturing Evidence-Informed Practice
by Paula Zwozdiak-MyersWhat do we mean by reflective practice? What does it involve? How can it help you develop as a teacher? The Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is an essential source of advice, guidance and ideas for both student and practising teachers. Helping you to translate pedagogical knowledge into practice, this Handbook guides you through studying your own teaching for personal development, evaluating your lessons through classroom research, and enhancing the quality of pupil learning. It offers an innovative framework which serves to prepare you for the challenges and complexities of the classroom environment, and supports the continuing improvement of your teaching. Underpinned by key theoretical concepts and contemporary research within the field of education, chapters help you to: systematically evaluate your teaching through classroom research procedures question personal theories and beliefs, and consider alternative perspectives and possibilities try out new strategies and ideas to maximise the learning potential of all students enhance the quality of, and continue to improve, your teaching. Including a range of reflective tasks, links to online resources, exemplification material and further reading to help you develop your own thinking, The Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is an accessible guide which supports the facilitation of reflective practice through self and peer assessment, problem-based learning and personal development planning. The multi-dimensional framework enables you to build a meaningful, personally relevant portfolio of evidence-informed practice.
The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook: Becoming an Extended Professional through Enacting Evidence-Informed Practice
by Paula Nadine Zwozdiak-MyersThe Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is based on a multi-dimensional framework of reflective practice designed by the author to guide and support student, early career and experienced teachers to develop high-quality teaching and maximise pupil learning. This second edition combines the intent to preserve the integrity of seminal contributions advanced by eminent scholars and practitioners over the years, with that of broadening its reach to reflect key changes in policy discourse, teacher education, school and curriculum reform underpinned by evidence-informed research on what constitutes effective teaching and learning, across the national and international landscape. Chapters invite you to engage in descriptive, comparative and critical reflective conversations across nine dimensions of reflective practice which enables you to: Question personal theories, beliefs and assumptions about teaching and consider alternative perspectives and possibilities Systematically evaluate your own teaching through classroom research procedures Try out new strategies and ideas to appropriate new knowledge and to tailor inclusive provision for all your learners Enhance the quality of and continue to improve your own teaching Including a range of reflective tasks, links to online resources, exemplification material and further reading to develop and challenge your own thinking, The Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is an essential and accessible guide which supports the enactment of reflective practice through self- and peer-assessment, solution-focused learning, professional development and improvement planning to build a meaningful portfolio of evidence-informed practice.
The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook: Becoming an Extended Professional through Enacting Evidence-Informed Practice
by Paula Nadine Zwozdiak-MyersThe Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is based on a multi-dimensional framework of reflective practice designed by the author to guide and support student, early career and experienced teachers to develop high-quality teaching and maximise pupil learning. This second edition combines the intent to preserve the integrity of seminal contributions advanced by eminent scholars and practitioners over the years, with that of broadening its reach to reflect key changes in policy discourse, teacher education, school and curriculum reform underpinned by evidence-informed research on what constitutes effective teaching and learning, across the national and international landscape. Chapters invite you to engage in descriptive, comparative and critical reflective conversations across nine dimensions of reflective practice which enables you to: Question personal theories, beliefs and assumptions about teaching and consider alternative perspectives and possibilities Systematically evaluate your own teaching through classroom research procedures Try out new strategies and ideas to appropriate new knowledge and to tailor inclusive provision for all your learners Enhance the quality of and continue to improve your own teaching Including a range of reflective tasks, links to online resources, exemplification material and further reading to develop and challenge your own thinking, The Teacher’s Reflective Practice Handbook is an essential and accessible guide which supports the enactment of reflective practice through self- and peer-assessment, solution-focused learning, professional development and improvement planning to build a meaningful portfolio of evidence-informed practice.
Teachers' Professional Lives
by Ivor F. GoodsonFirst published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Teachers' Professional Lives
by Ivor F. GoodsonFirst published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Teachers' Professional Learning Communities in China: A Mixed-Method Study on Shanghai Primary Schools
by Jia ZhangThe book investigates how Chinese professional learning communities (PLCs) shape the professional practice of teachers and their psychological well-being. Adopting a mixed research approach, the author explores the influence of PLCs on teachers’ self-efficacy, commitment and job satisfaction in a number of schools in Shanghai, China. The study contributes to our understanding of PLC outcomes from the Chinese perspective, enriches our knowledge of how PLCs promote teachers’ psychological well-being, and also sheds light on how the practices of PLCs can be influenced by various institutional and socio-cultural forces. The book will be of interest to academics and students studying professional learning communities, teacher professional learning and professional development, school effectiveness and school improvement, and Chinese schooling.
Teachers' Professional Learning Communities in China: A Mixed-Method Study on Shanghai Primary Schools
by Jia ZhangThe book investigates how Chinese professional learning communities (PLCs) shape the professional practice of teachers and their psychological well-being. Adopting a mixed research approach, the author explores the influence of PLCs on teachers’ self-efficacy, commitment and job satisfaction in a number of schools in Shanghai, China. The study contributes to our understanding of PLC outcomes from the Chinese perspective, enriches our knowledge of how PLCs promote teachers’ psychological well-being, and also sheds light on how the practices of PLCs can be influenced by various institutional and socio-cultural forces. The book will be of interest to academics and students studying professional learning communities, teacher professional learning and professional development, school effectiveness and school improvement, and Chinese schooling.
Teachers’ Professional Development on Problem Solving: Theory and Practice for Teachers and Teacher Educators
by Judit Orgoványi-GajdosSince teaching is a practical activity, efficient problem-solving skill is one of the fundamental competencies teachers need to possess. All teachers face challenging school situations during teaching-learning process no matter where they teach or since when. Despite similarities appearing on the surface, every school situation is unique and depends on several internal and external factors that should have been taken into account. Therefore, in many problematic cases it is not enough to deal with the symptoms, but teachers need to go deeper. This book provides a theoretical and practical background for this step-by-step problem solving-oriented thinking process. The practical activities can help teachers to frame and identify their challenges, to analyse the cause and effect of their situation, and also to find their own solutions and strategies. The material in this book can be used in pre-service or in-service teacher training that deal with pedagogic cases, or challenges of teaching and learning processes. However, most of the tools can also be used individually by teachers at any stage of their career, including any type of compulsory education, thanks to the clear description of each technique.
Teachers' Professional Development and the Elementary Mathematics Classroom: Bringing Understandings To Light (Studies in Mathematical Thinking and Learning Series)
by Sophia CohenThis book illustrates the experiences of elementary school teachers across one year's time as they participated in a teacher development seminar focused on mathematics, and as a result changed their beliefs, their knowledge, and their practices. It explores these experiences as a means of understanding the learning that takes a teacher from a more traditional teaching practice to one that is focused on the ideas and understandings that students and teachers have of the subject matter. The work emerges from and reports on a unique data set from a two-year study of teacher learning that was funded by the Spencer and MacArthur foundations. The teachers, whose work is at the center of this study, were participants in the Developing Mathematical Ideas seminar (DMI), a mathematics teacher development seminar for elementary school teachers. This seminar is one example of intensive, domain-specific professional development. In this seminar teachers study elementary mathematics content to deepen their own understanding of it, they study the development among children of the ideas central to elementary mathematics, and they experience a teaching and learning environment consistent with the pedagogy envisioned by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics' Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The seminar is a nationally available teacher development curriculum, thus interested educators can gain access to the resources necessary to offer similar seminars in their own communities. Teachers' Professional Development and the Elementary Mathematics Classroom: Bringing Understandings to Light will be widely interesting to a broad audience, including mathematics teacher educators, teacher education researchers, policymakers, and classroom teachers. It will serve well as a text in a range of graduate courses dealing with teacher cognition/knowledge for teaching, mathematics methods, psychology of learning, and pedagogical theory.
Teachers' Professional Development and the Elementary Mathematics Classroom: Bringing Understandings To Light (Studies in Mathematical Thinking and Learning Series)
by Sophia CohenThis book illustrates the experiences of elementary school teachers across one year's time as they participated in a teacher development seminar focused on mathematics, and as a result changed their beliefs, their knowledge, and their practices. It explores these experiences as a means of understanding the learning that takes a teacher from a more traditional teaching practice to one that is focused on the ideas and understandings that students and teachers have of the subject matter. The work emerges from and reports on a unique data set from a two-year study of teacher learning that was funded by the Spencer and MacArthur foundations. The teachers, whose work is at the center of this study, were participants in the Developing Mathematical Ideas seminar (DMI), a mathematics teacher development seminar for elementary school teachers. This seminar is one example of intensive, domain-specific professional development. In this seminar teachers study elementary mathematics content to deepen their own understanding of it, they study the development among children of the ideas central to elementary mathematics, and they experience a teaching and learning environment consistent with the pedagogy envisioned by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics' Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The seminar is a nationally available teacher development curriculum, thus interested educators can gain access to the resources necessary to offer similar seminars in their own communities. Teachers' Professional Development and the Elementary Mathematics Classroom: Bringing Understandings to Light will be widely interesting to a broad audience, including mathematics teacher educators, teacher education researchers, policymakers, and classroom teachers. It will serve well as a text in a range of graduate courses dealing with teacher cognition/knowledge for teaching, mathematics methods, psychology of learning, and pedagogical theory.
Teacher's Professional Development: Assessment, Training, and Learning (The Future of Education Research #0)
by Daniel Tröhler Matthias Böhmer Sabine Glock Sabine Krolak-SchwerdtA central aspect of teachers’ professional knowledge and competence is the ability to assess students’ achievements adequately. Giving grades and marks is one prototypical task in this context. Besides giving grades, assessments for school placements or tracking decisions belong to these tasks. Relevant students’ characteristics which influence teachers’ assessments do not only involve academic achievement but also students’ responses to different task demands as well as non-academic characteristics such as learning motivation or school anxiety. Closely associated with the investigation of teachers’ assessment competences and, more specifically, the investigation of conditions associated with high quality of assessments is the development and evaluation of teacher training programs to improve professional competences. In recent years, there has been considerable progress in the domain of professional teacher training; however, only a very limited number of studies are dedicated to the question to what extend training programs might offer valuable approaches to improve the quality of assessments and to implement high assessment competences. Another important field which is closely related to teachers’ competences concerns the question how teachers’ professional development is linked to students’ learning and learning outcomes. In recent years, the societal demand for evidence that teachers’ professional development will result in improved student learning outcomes is increasing. This volume brings together questions on assessment, training, and learning in the professional development of teachers which have not been fully discussed yet. The identification of these research gaps was the reason for dedicating a series of lectures given at the University of Luxembourg 2012 to the topic of professionalization of teachers in these domains. Therefore, this book contains contributions from outstanding international scholars in different academic disciplines to present ideas about open research questions concerning the domains of assessment, training, and learning in the professional development of teachers.
A Teacher’s Playkit for Knowledge Building: Creative Ways to Make Students’ Ideas Come Alive
by Chew Lee TeoDelving into the journey of teachers and students in the knowledge building classroom, Teo’s playkit offers practical approaches to making classrooms a place of knowledge creation.Teo highlights the potential and possibility of idea-centric discourse and interactions in Singapore’s high-performing education system while offering a trilogue among researchers, teachers and students: the agents of a knowledge building environment in classrooms. Documenting case examples of knowledge building lessons in relation to the curriculum design and pedagogical decisions and moves, as well as the formative assessment, the book focuses on those 21st-century practices embedded within the knowledge building process. It comprises a series of teachers’ journeys in different subjects and grades, demonstrating the depth and breadth of projects that students are capable of pursuing in class when they are entrusted to work with their own ideas and questions. It also offers a collection of concrete tools and strategies for teachers to use to support knowledge building work. The different case examples support teachers in their design effort and will encourage the community of researchers and educators to continue to imagine the possibilities of pedagogical educational reform.Written for practitioners, this playkit aims to engage the wider community of teachers to play with their own lesson ideas as they engage their students in knowledge creation.
A Teacher’s Playkit for Knowledge Building: Creative Ways to Make Students’ Ideas Come Alive
by Chew Lee TeoDelving into the journey of teachers and students in the knowledge building classroom, Teo’s playkit offers practical approaches to making classrooms a place of knowledge creation.Teo highlights the potential and possibility of idea-centric discourse and interactions in Singapore’s high-performing education system while offering a trilogue among researchers, teachers and students: the agents of a knowledge building environment in classrooms. Documenting case examples of knowledge building lessons in relation to the curriculum design and pedagogical decisions and moves, as well as the formative assessment, the book focuses on those 21st-century practices embedded within the knowledge building process. It comprises a series of teachers’ journeys in different subjects and grades, demonstrating the depth and breadth of projects that students are capable of pursuing in class when they are entrusted to work with their own ideas and questions. It also offers a collection of concrete tools and strategies for teachers to use to support knowledge building work. The different case examples support teachers in their design effort and will encourage the community of researchers and educators to continue to imagine the possibilities of pedagogical educational reform.Written for practitioners, this playkit aims to engage the wider community of teachers to play with their own lesson ideas as they engage their students in knowledge creation.
Teachers' Perspectives on Finnish School Education: Creating Learning Environments
by Eduardo Andere MThis superbly researched study offers a chalk-face perspective on the secret of Finland’s educational success. Providing an intimate and revealing portrait of the Nordic nation’s schools and its teacher training system, it sets out to explain why Finland’s students consistently rank top, with low variance and moderate inputs, among OECD countries across the range of criteria, from reading to mathematics. Alongside the detailed analysis culled from many hours of interviews with teachers and principals and dozens of visits to school throughout the country, the author maps the educational landscape of Finland: the sector’s history, culture and development, its guiding principles, methodologies, and learning environments. The result is a cogent assessment of how and why Finland is universally regarded as a high-grade educational exemplar. The volume provides the hundreds of researchers, teaching professionals, and policy makers who visit Finland in search of inspiration with essential background material on the country’s magic educational ingredients, which include a highly motivated cohort of well-trained teachers, a recognition of the vital importance of early years education and nurture, functional and inviting learning environments, and a rejection of pedagogical dogma in favour of developing methodologies that produce results at the same time as fostering students’ confidence and collegiality. At the same age, Finland’s schoolchildren have roughly one less year of formal schooling than most of their international counterparts, do not consider themselves to be overworked, and rank alongside hot-housed Singaporean or South Korean youngsters in international assessments of achievement. They are the educational equivalent of world-beating sports stars who make success appear effortless. This volume lifts the lid on the hard work and careful planning that underpin their achievements.
Teachers' Participation in Professional Development: A Systematic Review (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Claudia KrilleThis book presents a systematic literature review focusing on studies examining teachers’ participation in professional development (PD) within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland since 1990. It has identified 81 relevant studies and summarizes the results while answering the following research questions: What are teachers’ self-reported reasons participate in formal PD? What barriers do teachers report that prevent them to participate in formal PD? What individual and context characteristics are associated with teachers’ PD behavior? Teachers’ PD is considered to be an important part of the teaching profession. It is seen as a tool for constant further development for teachers to adapt to changing standards in schools and classrooms, requirements for students, and personal challenges associated with the daily work in school. However, it is repeatedly claimed that there is no sufficient research with regard to teachers’ participation in formal PD, as well as of aspects that may influence their PD behavior. In spite of a large number of studies that contribute to this question within Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, only a few of them are cited regularly. Since much of this research is published in German, the results are not accessible for international researchers and comparisons between different countries. This comprehensive review makes these result accessible.
Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill
by Dana Villa2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at “the people” is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when “the people” first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment—the era just before and after the French Revolution—led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people’s seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Focusing on Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill, Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. They therefore felt that “the people” needed to be restrained, educated, and guided—by laws and institutions and a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy’s wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between “teachers” and “taught” in the work of these theorists which generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism.
Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill
by Dana Villa2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at “the people” is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when “the people” first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment—the era just before and after the French Revolution—led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people’s seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Focusing on Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill, Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. They therefore felt that “the people” needed to be restrained, educated, and guided—by laws and institutions and a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy’s wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between “teachers” and “taught” in the work of these theorists which generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism.
Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill
by Dana Villa2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at “the people” is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when “the people” first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment—the era just before and after the French Revolution—led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people’s seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Focusing on Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill, Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. They therefore felt that “the people” needed to be restrained, educated, and guided—by laws and institutions and a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy’s wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between “teachers” and “taught” in the work of these theorists which generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism.
Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill
by Dana Villa2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at “the people” is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when “the people” first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment—the era just before and after the French Revolution—led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people’s seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Focusing on Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill, Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. They therefore felt that “the people” needed to be restrained, educated, and guided—by laws and institutions and a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy’s wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between “teachers” and “taught” in the work of these theorists which generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism.
Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill
by Dana Villa2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at “the people” is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when “the people” first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment—the era just before and after the French Revolution—led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people’s seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Focusing on Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill, Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. They therefore felt that “the people” needed to be restrained, educated, and guided—by laws and institutions and a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy’s wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between “teachers” and “taught” in the work of these theorists which generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism.