The Political Classroom

Helping students develop their ability to deliberate political questions is an essential component of democratic education, but introducing political issues into the classroom is pedagogically challenging and raises ethical dilemmas for teachers. Dr. Paula McAvoy argues that teachers will make better professional judgments about these issues if they aim toward creating "political classrooms," which engage students in deliberations about questions that ask, "How should we live together?"

We will discuss the creation of a political classroom with Dr. McAvoy, along with high school social studies teacher Adeola Tella-Williams .

Episode Segments:

Educviii: Dr. Paula McAvoy Dr. Paula McAvoy is co-author of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education. She is an Associate Program Officer at the Spencer Foundation. She earned her doctorate in philosophy of education from the department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her publications include work in democratic education, cultural and religious accommodation, and the ethics of teaching about politics. These interests were largely formed by her experiences teaching high school social studies in California for ten years.
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Educviii: Adeola Tella-Williams Adeola Tella-Williams has been teaching for over 15 years. She began teaching in East New York (Brooklyn); left Brooklyn and taught in Japan for one semester. Upon returning to the states, she landed a teaching job on Long Island where she has taught for the past ten years. Her love of culture, politics, and fairness drives how she presents events in history to her students. A life long learner, Adeola is constantly in search of new information about teaching, learning, and how she can best link the past to the present.
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