Learning How to Hope: Reviving Democracy Through Our Schools and Civil Society

Democracy is struggling in America. Citizens increasingly feel cynical about an intractable political system, while hyper-partisanship has dramatically shrank common ground and intensified the extremes. Out of this deepening sense of political despair, philosopher of education Sarah M. Stitzlein seeks to revive democracy by teaching citizens how to hope. Offering an informed call to citizen engagement, Stitzlein directly addresses presidential campaigns, including how to select candidates who support citizens in enacting and sustaining hope. Drawing on examples from American history and pragmatist philosophy, this book explains how hope can be cultivated in schools and sustained through action in our communities -- it describes what hope is, why it matters to democracy, and how to teach it.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Sarah M. Stitzlein is Professor of Education and Affiliate Faculty in Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. As a philosopher of education, she explores the purposes and practices of education from the perspective of social and political philosophy with an aim to uncover problems in education and envision better alternatives. She is president of the John Dewey Society, co-editor of the journal Democracy & Education, and winner of the University of Cincinnati Excellence in Teaching Award. She has earned grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Templeton Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Center for Ethics & Education, and the American Association of University Women among others. She speaks about her work often through public lectures, in radio interviews, via podcasts, and other outlets. Her books have won the Critics’ Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association.