A Call for Papers

Guest Editor: Bertram (Chip) Bruce

Editor of Schools: Andy Kaplan

In an age of climate disasters, extreme income inequality, conspiracy theories, anti-democratic movements, segregated schooling, pandemic, and more, the need for democratic education has never been greater, but it may also seem less viable than ever. Classics such as John Dewey’s Democracy and Education are still relevant but invite us to re-invent education for today.

Schools: Studies in Education, published by the University of Chicago Press, plans to host a symposium on this topic to celebrate Schools’ twentieth anniversary of publication. The mission of Schools is to present inquiry into the subjective experience of school life. Unique among academic journals of education, Schools features articles by and about the daily life of classrooms, descriptions and reflections on the meaning of what happens when learning actually occurs. 

To celebrate our twentieth year of publication, we propose a symposium on how to think about democratic education in today’s world, and how we should plan for the future. How should issues such as indigenous people’s rights, racism, women’s rights, authoritarian governments, the concentration of wealth, and more make us analyze, discuss, and work to create democratic education?

We highly encourage submissions from classroom educators at all levels, from educators outside the United States, and from educators associated with alternative schools or informal learning.

Interested authors should submit a one-page prospectus describing what their project entails. This is to determine appropriateness and balance for the special issue. Completed manuscripts will undergo the usual Schools: Studies in Education review process before final acceptance. There is a possibility of a follow-on book publication based on revised versions of the articles, once the symposium has been published in Schools. 

Articles should be a maximum of 7500 words (25 double-spaced pages). We anticipate a mix of empirical and theoretical contributions.

Send a one-page prospectus describing your proposed article for the symposium to chipbruce@mac.com by November 15, 2021. All work for the symposium should be composed in Microsoft Word.