ABSTRACT
Democracy is neither a possession nor a guaranteed achievement. It is forever in the making; it might be thought of as a possibility—moral and imaginative possibility. It has to do with choices and alternatives, with the capacity to look at things as though they could be otherwise. Some teachers are particularly good at building learning communities in which individuals feel valued and supported, and that sustain productive and critical learning. Relationships among these aspects of development are complex and little understood. One important function of the range of perspectives is that it expands children’s social imagination, which is central to many aspects of literate development. Children entering adulthood already apprenticed into these ways of knowing and being will certainly be sought after by both private- and public-sector employers.
