John Dewey's Democracy and Education at 100: Provocations and Conversations
13th Annual Educational Policy Studies Conference
March 31-April 1, 2016
#EPS16
A joint conference of the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Center for Ethics and Education.
2016 EPS Conference Agenda (PDF)
Join the conversation on Twitter: #EPS16
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Town Center Forum, Wisconsin Institute of Discovery
4:00-6:00 PM: Welcome and Keynote Address
Private Choices, Public Interests: Does Educational Decision-making Produce Democratic Outcomes?
School policy makers sit at the precarious intersection between responding to the interests of diverse parent groups, attending to the developmental and educational needs of children, and supporting an institution that is essential for maintaining a democratic society. What challenges do policy makers face as they weigh private choices and public goods? How much latitude should policy makers give to private (parent, student, other) interests? How can they address minority concerns within majoritarian governance structures? (How) can the “public good” prevail in today’s school politics? Panelists will address these questions from three vantage points: the central office, the school board, and the community.
Chair: Diana Hess, Dean of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin
Speakers:
-Rob Asen, Professor, University of Wisconsin
-Carl Cohn, Executive Director of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and former Superintendent of Long Beach and San Diego school districts
-Linn Posey-Maddox, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin
Friday, April 1, 2016
Wisconsin Idea Room, Education Building (Room 159)
In tribute to Dewey’s deliberative commitments, the format for the sessions will be as follows:
1. Two speakers have been given a provocative question related to the conference theme, Democracy and Education.
2. Each speaker will have 12-15 minutes to offer an answer to the question as it relates to their work and experiences.
3. The audience, working in small groups, will have 15 minutes to discuss their answers to the question and their reactions to the two presenters.
4. The remaining time will be spent in large group discussion with the panelists.
Note: the graduate panels will follow a more traditional conference paper session format.
9:00-9:15 AM: Welcome by Professor Adam Nelson, Chair of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin
9:15-10:30 AM: Have the requirements for civic education changed in the last 100 years?
Chair: Dan Pekarsy, Emeritus Professor, University of Wisconsin
Speakers:
-Sigal Ben-Porath, University of Wisconsin
-Fran Schrag, University of Wisconsin
10:45 AM-12:00 PM: Is there a place for a common curriculum (or state/national standards) in progressive education?
Chair: Bill Reese, Professor, University of Wisconsin
Speakers:
-Lauren Gatti, University of Wisconsin
-Li-Ching Ho, University of Wisconsin
12:15-1:45 PM: Lunch and Graduate Student Panels
(Box lunches will be provided free of charge to conference attendants on a first come, first serve basis)
Concurrent Panel 1
EPS Conference Room, Education 298
Chair: Lesley Bartlett, University of Wisconsin
Panelists:
-Amato Nocera, Adult Education Forums in Harlem during the Interwar Years
-Jennifer Otting, Citizenship Anxieties in a Fragile Nation-State: A Case Study of Citizenship Education Reform in Kosovo
-Keith McNamara, William Torey Harris and the Issue of Integration in St. Louis, 1868-1880
-Colin Rohm, The German-English Academy: 19th Century Private Schooling in Milwaukee
*Each speaker's talk will be followed by discussion
Concurrent Panel 2
ELPA Conference Room, Education 290
Chair: Michael Apple, University of Wisconsin
Panelists:
-Glen Water, Citizenship Education in Teach for America
-James Gleckner, Race Conscious Parenting: a Case Study of White Parents, Racial Justice, and Racial Socialization
-Emily Young, Quintilian and Citizenship Education in America: Where's the Rhetoric?
-Ann Herrera Ward, Agree to Disagree: Political Polarization and Disagreement in Social Studies Discussion
*Each speaker's talk will be followed by discussion
Wisconsin Idea Room, Education 159
2:00-3:15 PM: Does a Democratic approach to education necessarily undermine minority culture?
Chair: Stacey Lee, University of Wisconsin
Speakers:
-Harry Brighouse, University of Wisconsin
-Paula McAvoy, University of Wisconsin
3:30-4:45 PM:
Should Education for Democracy support religiously fundamentalist schools?
Chair: Erica O. Turner, University of Wisconsin
Speakers:
-Robert Kunzman, Indiana University
-Simone Schweber, University of Wisconsin