A decade of budgetary, policy, and ideological contention has left
American universities under the yoke of narrow-minded management models.
As corporate culture increasingly invades educational and other public
sectors, we as a nation have lost a clear vision of the public good and
the necessary components of a vital democracy. Prominent scholars in
this book seek to redress these trends. They move boldly beyond critique
to show how and why the critical functions of a democratically informed
civic education (not merely professional training) must become the core
of the university's mission. They show why higher education must address
what it means to relate knowledge to public life, and social
responsibility to the demands of critical citizenship. Moreover, they
show why democratic forms of education and various elements of a
critical pedagogy are vital not only to individual students, but also to
our economy and our democratic institutions and future leadership. They
also suggest how we can move beyond the stagnation of current debates to
more fully embrace the democratic possibilities of public education.