Democracy, Education, and Multiculturalism: Dilemmas of Citizenship in a Global World [Paperback]

This important book looks at developments that are changing our understanding of the role of education in citizenship and the possibilities of democratic participation. The first chapter reviews theories of citizenship and education based on the classical contributions to political theory of C.B. MacPherson and T.H. Marshall. The second chapter challenges educators to think more politically about education. It is based on a seminal analysis that shows the role education plays in the liberal, neoliberal, and neoconservative state, incorporating critical perspectives from neo-Marxism, postmodernism, and feminism. In chapter three Professor Torres analyzes the transition from the welfare state to the neoliberal state, including the role of international organizations in promoting educational reform and privatization policies. In the concluding chapter Torres draws on Hobbes, Locke, Jefferson, Kant, Hegel, Marx and other writers such as C. Mouffe and C. Pateman to outline contemporary approaches to multiculturalism in education and citizenship.Carlos Alberto Torresis professor in the Graduate School of Education and director of the Latin American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Carlos Torres is one of the most perceptive critical scholars in education in the world. This book shows why. He synthesizes an immense amount of theoretical and empirical material and advances new and challenging ways to connect the struggles for democracy with those involving citizenship and multicultural education. This is a work of lasting value. Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison; author,
This is a critical book that reclaims the importance of the political in educational life while at the same time expanding its meaning and importance in a rapidly changing world. Anyone concerned about the role of education in deepening and expanding the meanlã$