Education, Democracy and the Moral Life

The essays in this book explore the interconnections between democracy, education and the moral life. The authors discuss such questions as the responsibility of education and its institutions to cultivate socially responsible and critically literate citizens.

This volume has its origin in the Francis T. Villemain Memorial lectures at San Jose State University – a lecture series established in 1992 to honor the memory of 1 Dean Francis T. Villemain. All the essays in this volume, with the exception of those by Gert Biesta, Susan Verducci, and Michael Katz, were developed from l- tures given as part of the series. The general rubric of the lectures was “democracy, education, and the moral life” – a title reflecting Villemain’s lifelong love of the work of John Dewey whose preface to his famous work in 1916, Democracy and Education, suggested that the purpose of education was to develop democratic ci- zens, citizens infused with the spirit of democracy and the capacity to think and act intelligently within democratic settings. Of course, for Dewey, democracy was not to be conceived of as merely a political form of government, but as a shared form of social life, one that was inclusive rather than exclusive and one that was capable of adapting to the changing features of contemporary social and political reality. Francis T. Villemain’s appreciation for the intersections of the values of dem- racy, education, and the moral life was heightened by his doctoral work at Teachers College, Columbia University in the 1950s – where Dewey’s legacy remained a powerful one. But it also continued during his career at Southern Illinois University where he collaborated in compiling and editing the collected works of John Dewey.