Books by Douglas Yacek
Post & Lintel Books, 2024
An epidemic of boredom is spreading through our nation’s schools and colleges. Students across ... more An epidemic of boredom is spreading through our nation’s schools and colleges. Students across America are disengaged at depressingly high levels; they are continually distracted; and they often see their education as a series of dull and uninspiring classes that they simply must endure. Is there any hope for this bored and distracted generation? Can teachers turn the tide of the boredom epidemic by making their classrooms places of excitement and inspiration?
Yes, they can. This book offers teachers a straightforward and intuitive approach to increase student engagement in the classroom. Drawing on the latest research and several decades of experience in teacher education, this book shows how teachers can make their classrooms inspiring and transformative places of learning. This guidance comes in the form of a simple four-step framework that teachers can begin immediately applying in their classrooms. The four step framework is not just effective instruction—it’s teaching that transforms.
Routledge, 2021
Transformative approaches to teaching and learning have become ubiquitous in education today. Res... more Transformative approaches to teaching and learning have become ubiquitous in education today. Researchers, practitioners and commentators alike often claim that a truly worthwhile education should transform learners in a profound and enduring way. But what exactly does it mean to be so transformed? What should teachers be transforming students into? Should they really attempt to transform students at all?
The Transformative Classroom engages with these questions left open by the vast discussion of transformative education, providing a synthetic overview and critique of some of the most influential approaches today. In doing so, the book offers a new theory of transformative education that focuses on awakening and facilitating students’ aspiration. Drawing on important insights from ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of education, the book provides both conceptual clarity and concrete practical guidance to teachers who hope to create a transformative classroom.
This book will be of great interest for academics, K-12 teachers, researchers and students in the fields of curriculum and instruction, teaching and learning, adult education, social justice education, educational theory and philosophy of education.
Kohlhammer, 2021
Dürfen Lehrer ihre Meinung sagen? Inwieweit sind sie im Unterricht zu (partei-)politischer Neutra... more Dürfen Lehrer ihre Meinung sagen? Inwieweit sind sie im Unterricht zu (partei-)politischer Neutralität verpflichtet? Wie sollen sie im Unterricht mit kontroversen und polarisierenden Themen, z.B. Migration, Klimawandel, COVID- 19 Pandemie etc. umgehen? Wie sollen sie sich zu extremistischen, illiberalen und antidemokratischen Äußerungen von Schülern verhalten? Diese Fragen sind nicht allein von akademischer Relevanz. Die Kontroverse über den angemessenen pädagogischen Umgang mit kontroversen Themen ist in den letzen Jahren wieder zu einem gesellschaftlich brisanten Topos der Auseinandersetzung geworden. Der Band beschäftigt sich mit der pädagogischen Kontroverse über Kontroversitätsgebote und den Folgerungen, die sich daraus für die Praxis des Unterrichtens in unterschiedlichen Fächern ziehen lassen.
Routledge, 2018
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical legacy for education is a source of enduring conflict among s... more Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical legacy for education is a source of enduring conflict among scholars. For some, Nietzsche’s seemingly radical ideas about perspectival knowledge and authentic self-creation appear to encourage the individual to cast aside all social, moral and epistemic constraints. Nietzsche seems to offer an educational vision that is inimical to organized education. Others maintain that Nietzsche endorses an elitist political order which openly militates against democratic values. Nietzsche must therefore be an enemy of democratic education, it seems. In this book, we argue that both of these interpretations of Nietzsche’s educational legacy are seriously mistaken. Nietzsche advocates neither licentious individualism nor radical elitism, but rather advocates a compelling and coherent vision of human flourishing which aims to promote the excellence of all individuals. Not only can Nietzsche serve as a crucial source of educational inspiration for modern democratic societies, but his educational philosophy offers four powerful educational ideas—perspectivism, self-overcoming, ressentiment and noble culture—which yield four compelling educational aims for the modern democratic school: empathizing with the perspectives of others, learning to think controversially, cultivating a disposition of gratitude, and creating a culture of emulation. Hence, this book is a committed effort to determine Nietzsche’s true legacy for democratic education.
Articles by Douglas Yacek
Creating Green Citizens. Bildung, Demokratie und der Klimawandel (J.B. Metzler)
The extent and urgency of climate change raises several pressing questions about how we teach, an... more The extent and urgency of climate change raises several pressing questions about how we teach, and have been teaching, about the environment. In response to the lack of progress that Western societies have made towards counteracting climate change, theorists and environmental educators have recently suggested drawing on what might be called the “darker side” of environmental consciousness. On this view, to motivate needed climate action we should induce or leverage students’ anxiety about the future of our planet, inspire guilt about their environmentally destructive habits and decisions, and encourage an activist commitment to immediate political action. Programs of climate change pedagogy are increasingly pointing to the potential usefulness of these three psychological elements for motivating climate action, and they have been shown to be increasingly present in students’ responses to climate change. In this paper, I explore the ethical implications of this new pedagogical direction in environmental education. My position is that while there is in fact important motivational promise in the psychology of anxiety, guilt and activism for making environmental progress, drawing upon these psychological states in climate change pedagogy is a precarious pedagogical undertaking. If students’ consciousness of the climate threat thereby becomes divorced from affirmative and compelling visions of ecological flourishing, then this will not only tend to undermine students’ psychological well-being; it is likely to be counterproductive towards the effort to improve our climate predicament.
Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 2021
Im Lichte wachsender gesellschaftlicher Polarisierung werden klassische Formen liberaler Demokrat... more Im Lichte wachsender gesellschaftlicher Polarisierung werden klassische Formen liberaler Demokratieerziehung, die auf Konsens-und Kompromissbildung abzielen, zunehmend in Frage gestellt. Als Antwort auf die Schwächen solcher Erziehungsformen wurden jüngst von Theoretiker_innen der deutsch-und englischsprachigen Erziehungswissenschaft Grundzüge eines agonistischen Zugangs zur Demokratieerziehung formuliert. Diesem Ansatz zufolge soll eine politische Form von Wut kultiviert werden, damit Lernende auf die Austragung unvermeidlicher politischer Konflikte vorbereitet sind. In diesem Aufsatz sondiere ich die psychologischen, pädagogischen und politischen Implikationen eines agonistischen Ansatzes zur Demokratieerziehung, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rolle politischer Wut. Die Analyse legt nahe, dass, obwohl Wut verschiedene politische Funktionen erfüllen kann, sie wegen beunruhigender psychologischer Risiken nicht aktiv in der Demokratieerziehung gefördert werden sollte. Abschließend werden die Vor-und Nachteile eines transformativen Umgangs mit politischer Wut in der Demokratieerziehung erörtert.
Educational Theory, 2020
One of the enduring mysteries of the human experience is our capacity to undergo profound changes... more One of the enduring mysteries of the human experience is our capacity to undergo profound changes in the values, modes of thought, self-conceptions, and guiding ideals that have given shape to our lives. Moved by an encounter of sublime beauty in a piece of music, thrust into a new way of life after immigrating to a foreign country, inspired by the courage of a character in a novel, or impelled by the example set by a trusted teacher, we decide to follow a new path for ourselves
— one that, just a short time before, was either unforeseeable or seemingly unforgeable for us. We call these experiences transformative, and we often look back on them with gratitude for the person they have made us into and even a bit of awe at the obscurity of their inner workings. . .
Theory and Research in Education, 2020
This paper argues for the thesis that epiphanies are a central means for transformative moral and... more This paper argues for the thesis that epiphanies are a central means for transformative moral and intellectual growth. Drawing on recent work on this concept in moral education, the paper develops a conception of epiphany as a genre of transformative experience with three distinct phenomenological dimensions: a disruption of our everyday activity, a realization of an ethical good or value, and an aspiration to integrate this value more fully into our lives. After presenting this conception of epiphany, the paper turns to some of its educational implications. We argue that transformative educational aims are best advanced when an ethos of epiphany is created in the classroom.
Journal of Moral Education, 2020
It has become commonplace within the educational research community to invoke the transformative ... more It has become commonplace within the educational research community to invoke the transformative power of education. The call to adopt a "transformative" approach to teaching and learning can be heard in fields as different as adult education and school leadership, and as estranged as social justice education and educational psychology. While there is undoubtedly great promise in the idea of transformative education, the fact that it involves deep psychological restructuring on the part of the student requires ethical justification. In this essay, I analyze the three most pressing ethical problems that arise within a transformative educational environment: the problems of transformative consent, controversial direction, and transformative trauma. In the concluding section, I argue that this ethical analysis urges us to adopt an approach to transformative education as a process of initiation.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2020
The term "transformation" and its cognates can be found appended to almost every key term in the ... more The term "transformation" and its cognates can be found appended to almost every key term in the contemporary educational lexicon. In educational psychology, teachers are urged to adopt the methods of "transformational teaching". In adult education, the theory of "transformative learning" defines the current research paradigm. Social justice educators regularly couch their conscious-raising efforts in terms of "transformative pedagogy". And in philosophy of education, pragmatists, phenomenologists, neo-Aristotelians and postmodernists alike point to the special transformative quality of education, both in the Anglo-American as well as the German-language discourses. In this essay, we argue that these various conceptions of transformative education can be organized under two theoretical categories, each with its own distinctive understanding of and approach to creating transformative educational experiences: formalism and moralism. In the first two sections, we discuss the characteristic qualities of these two approaches and point to several problems that arise within them. Drawing on recent developments in the philosophy of language and moral psychology, we then advance a "substantivist" alternative to the formalistic and moralistic approaches, which characterizes the transformative experience as a process of renarrativation with two experiential moments: articulation and aspiration. Substantivism is an attractive approach to transformative education, we argue in the final section, because it avoids the problems that arise in the formalistic and moralistic
Educational Theory, 2019
In light of recent political developments in Western democracies, several political commentators ... more In light of recent political developments in Western democracies, several political commentators and theorists have argued that encouraging anger in citizens may contribute to social justice and should therefore constitute an aim of civic education. In this paper, I investigate these claims in depth. In doing so, I expand on previous work on the political and educational significance of anger – particularly by theorists of a critical and “agonistic” perspective on civic education – in two distinct ways. First, I explore the psychological costs and benefits of cultivating student anger. Second, I examine the effects of anger on the culture of Western democratic societies. While I am sympathetic to the defenses of anger that have been recently offered in political and educational theory, I conclude that we should be cautious about embracing anger in civic education. In particular, I argue that anger involves serious psychological risk, may exacerbate the social problems that it sets out to solve, and can lead to a disposition of adversarial and politically counterproductive closed-mindedness. In the closing sections, I suggest that experiences I call “civic epiphanies” are central to cultivating a politically beneficial form of open-mindedness and argue that they should therefore be encouraged in civic education.
Charles Taylor. Perspektiven der Erziehungs- und Bildungsphilosophie, 2019
The Importance of Philosophy in Teacher Education: Mapping the Decline and its Consequences, 2019
The liberal arts are frequently seen as an important supplement to teachers' professional trainin... more The liberal arts are frequently seen as an important supplement to teachers' professional training. In placing humanistic, philosophical and scientific forms of knowledge in conversation with one another, the liberal arts can offer teachers crucial resources for appreciating the full meaning of their relationships with students in schools. The basic problem with incorporating the liberal arts into teacher education is, however, that such concerns seem to unavoidably compete with the professional components of the teacher education curriculum. Although this has led some to recommend exporting teacher education to the graduate phase so that a liberal arts degree can be acquired beforehand, we suggest in this chapter that teacher education can balance the seeming opposition between liberal education and professional preparation. In particular, we suggest that philosophy can be an important bridge between the professional concerns of teacher education and the general subject matter of the liberal arts. To make this argument, we look to the various roles that philosophy has played in the history of the liberal arts curriculum as well as to the early history of teacher education, in which philosophy played an important part of the curriculum. By thus showing that there are the conceptual resources for wedding teacher education and the liberal arts already embedded in the Western educational tradition, we hope to demonstrate that such a combination is an achievable ideal today.
Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 2019
Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 2018
Being responsive to the experiences, ideas, and stories of others is an essential trait for democ... more Being responsive to the experiences, ideas, and stories of others is an essential trait for democratic citizens. Responsiveness promotes the general welfare, shows respect for others, and allows for what Tony Laden (2012) has called the social practice of reasoning. Political theorists have shown how responsiveness is a middle ground between dominance and acquiescence, where citizens show a willingness to be moved by those around them. Responsiveness is tested, though, when citizens interact with those who hold what are thought to be immoral or unjust beliefs. The key question: Is it possible to engage responsively with those who hold morally suspect beliefs, to be legitimately " moved " by those around us, without necessarily acquiescing to the moral problems? We argue that such engagement is both possible and desirable. There are at least five different ways to be moved by others in a productive, civic sense. We describe these modes, explain their moral depth, and give some examples. Civic educators should be aware of these modes and teach students how they can manifest in democratic life.
Teachers College Record, 2018
Background: In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, state legislatures considered a... more Background: In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, state legislatures considered a flurry of legislation that would allow school districts to arm their teachers. In at least fifteen states such legislation has been signed into law. Parallel to these developments, a lively and at times strident public debate on the appropriateness of arming public school teachers has emerged in the media. Although the two sides of the debate offer illuminating insights into the pitfalls and promises of arming teachers, both tend to focus almost exclusively on the empirical issue of student safety. As a result, the public debate fails to address several central ethical issues associated with arming public school teachers. This article is an effort to pay these issues their due attention.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the ethical implications of arming public school teachers. Specifically, the article analyzes three intersecting domains relevant to the ethics of armed teachers: children’s rights, educational environments and the problem of school violence. In doing so, this article seeks to make clear what is morally and educationally at stake when adopting security policies such as arming teachers. Generalizing from this analysis, the article concludes with a deliberative heuristic for educators and policy makers who would like to address school security in a humane and ethically responsible way.
Research Design: The design of this research conforms to the standards of ethical inquiry and argumentation in education. The article draws heavily on arguments and observations made by teachers, administrators and educational commentators in the public sphere; state and federal legislation; research in social psychology, psychology, and sociology; and ethical theory.
Conclusions: The main conclusion resulting from this analysis is that the ethical grounds for arming teachers lack merit. The first half of the article argues that the empirical idiom in which the public debate is often carried out obscures important ethical issues concerning students’ perceptions of safety and the integrity of the school learning environment. In particular, I show that both sides have overlooked the ways in which armed teachers can undermine students’ developmental rights—i.e. their rights to an autonomy-promoting civic education. The second half of the article argues that armed protection transforms the role of both the teacher and student such that the conditions of democratic teaching and learning are seriously endangered. In the final sections, the argument turns to the issue of public fear surrounding school violence and concludes that efforts to prevent school violence may be counterproductive, especially when they are not coupled with larger scale socio-economic reforms.
Journal of Philosophy of Education, 2018
How should we teach controversial issues? And which issues should we teach as controversies? In t... more How should we teach controversial issues? And which issues should we teach as controversies? In this paper, I argue that educators should heed what I call a " psychological condition " in their practical efforts to address these questions. In defending this claim, I engage with the various decision criteria that have been advanced in the controversial issues literature: the epistemic criterion, behavioral criterion, political criterion and politically authentic criterion. My argument is that the supporters of these various criteria have focused too closely on the socio-political and epistemic qualities of controversial issues in deriving their controversial issues pedagogies and have thereby overlooked the necessary subjective conditions for teaching controversial issues. If our pedagogical efforts to cultivate students' reason by means of controversial issues are to be successful, then we must understand controversy as fundamentally a psychological phenomenon consisting in an intellectual tension in the minds of students. In the final pages, I conclude by recommending several forms of directive teaching that promise to be instrumental for creating such intellectual tension.
Philosophy of Education, 2018
Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbook on Philosophy of Education, 2017
Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory
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Books by Douglas Yacek
Yes, they can. This book offers teachers a straightforward and intuitive approach to increase student engagement in the classroom. Drawing on the latest research and several decades of experience in teacher education, this book shows how teachers can make their classrooms inspiring and transformative places of learning. This guidance comes in the form of a simple four-step framework that teachers can begin immediately applying in their classrooms. The four step framework is not just effective instruction—it’s teaching that transforms.
The Transformative Classroom engages with these questions left open by the vast discussion of transformative education, providing a synthetic overview and critique of some of the most influential approaches today. In doing so, the book offers a new theory of transformative education that focuses on awakening and facilitating students’ aspiration. Drawing on important insights from ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of education, the book provides both conceptual clarity and concrete practical guidance to teachers who hope to create a transformative classroom.
This book will be of great interest for academics, K-12 teachers, researchers and students in the fields of curriculum and instruction, teaching and learning, adult education, social justice education, educational theory and philosophy of education.
Articles by Douglas Yacek
— one that, just a short time before, was either unforeseeable or seemingly unforgeable for us. We call these experiences transformative, and we often look back on them with gratitude for the person they have made us into and even a bit of awe at the obscurity of their inner workings. . .
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the ethical implications of arming public school teachers. Specifically, the article analyzes three intersecting domains relevant to the ethics of armed teachers: children’s rights, educational environments and the problem of school violence. In doing so, this article seeks to make clear what is morally and educationally at stake when adopting security policies such as arming teachers. Generalizing from this analysis, the article concludes with a deliberative heuristic for educators and policy makers who would like to address school security in a humane and ethically responsible way.
Research Design: The design of this research conforms to the standards of ethical inquiry and argumentation in education. The article draws heavily on arguments and observations made by teachers, administrators and educational commentators in the public sphere; state and federal legislation; research in social psychology, psychology, and sociology; and ethical theory.
Conclusions: The main conclusion resulting from this analysis is that the ethical grounds for arming teachers lack merit. The first half of the article argues that the empirical idiom in which the public debate is often carried out obscures important ethical issues concerning students’ perceptions of safety and the integrity of the school learning environment. In particular, I show that both sides have overlooked the ways in which armed teachers can undermine students’ developmental rights—i.e. their rights to an autonomy-promoting civic education. The second half of the article argues that armed protection transforms the role of both the teacher and student such that the conditions of democratic teaching and learning are seriously endangered. In the final sections, the argument turns to the issue of public fear surrounding school violence and concludes that efforts to prevent school violence may be counterproductive, especially when they are not coupled with larger scale socio-economic reforms.
Yes, they can. This book offers teachers a straightforward and intuitive approach to increase student engagement in the classroom. Drawing on the latest research and several decades of experience in teacher education, this book shows how teachers can make their classrooms inspiring and transformative places of learning. This guidance comes in the form of a simple four-step framework that teachers can begin immediately applying in their classrooms. The four step framework is not just effective instruction—it’s teaching that transforms.
The Transformative Classroom engages with these questions left open by the vast discussion of transformative education, providing a synthetic overview and critique of some of the most influential approaches today. In doing so, the book offers a new theory of transformative education that focuses on awakening and facilitating students’ aspiration. Drawing on important insights from ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of education, the book provides both conceptual clarity and concrete practical guidance to teachers who hope to create a transformative classroom.
This book will be of great interest for academics, K-12 teachers, researchers and students in the fields of curriculum and instruction, teaching and learning, adult education, social justice education, educational theory and philosophy of education.
— one that, just a short time before, was either unforeseeable or seemingly unforgeable for us. We call these experiences transformative, and we often look back on them with gratitude for the person they have made us into and even a bit of awe at the obscurity of their inner workings. . .
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the ethical implications of arming public school teachers. Specifically, the article analyzes three intersecting domains relevant to the ethics of armed teachers: children’s rights, educational environments and the problem of school violence. In doing so, this article seeks to make clear what is morally and educationally at stake when adopting security policies such as arming teachers. Generalizing from this analysis, the article concludes with a deliberative heuristic for educators and policy makers who would like to address school security in a humane and ethically responsible way.
Research Design: The design of this research conforms to the standards of ethical inquiry and argumentation in education. The article draws heavily on arguments and observations made by teachers, administrators and educational commentators in the public sphere; state and federal legislation; research in social psychology, psychology, and sociology; and ethical theory.
Conclusions: The main conclusion resulting from this analysis is that the ethical grounds for arming teachers lack merit. The first half of the article argues that the empirical idiom in which the public debate is often carried out obscures important ethical issues concerning students’ perceptions of safety and the integrity of the school learning environment. In particular, I show that both sides have overlooked the ways in which armed teachers can undermine students’ developmental rights—i.e. their rights to an autonomy-promoting civic education. The second half of the article argues that armed protection transforms the role of both the teacher and student such that the conditions of democratic teaching and learning are seriously endangered. In the final sections, the argument turns to the issue of public fear surrounding school violence and concludes that efforts to prevent school violence may be counterproductive, especially when they are not coupled with larger scale socio-economic reforms.