ABSTRACT
In his book Democracy and Education, John Dewey (1916/2008) argued for a mutu - ally dependent relationship linking a legitimate education system and a thriving democracy. One century later, many would argue that democracy and education have been decoupled and ‘disenchanted’, with engagement and wonder replaced by disaffection and cynicism (Biesta, 2013; De Lissovoy, 2015; Pharr and Putnam, 2000). Of course, democracy and education are not fixed givens but are each characterised by a series of tensions between, for example, equality and freedom, leadership and participation, stable structure and dynamic change. Against this background, this chapter examines the quality and strength of the links between democracy and education, with specific regard to teacher education. We argue that recent teacher education policy and programme initiatives have quietened, and in some jurisdictions silenced, democratic debate about education by establishing problematic levels of normativity in the profession, undermining the leadership role of teachers and teacher educators and stabilising a false consensus about what constitutes educational good and the teacher’s role in realising that good.
