Leaving Safe Harbors: Toward a New Progressivism in American Education and Public Life

To rise to the challenges of postmodern culture, Carlson argues, progressivism will need to leave the safe harbors of what is familiar and comfortable. A new progressivism can only be forged of a fundamental re-thinking and re-mythologizing of democratic education. Drawing upon cultural studies perspectives, Carlson interrogates philosophy through popular culture for mythologies that might guide such a progressivism. The author uses Platonic, Hegelian, Nietzschean, and Heideggerian "mythologies" to elaborate a progressive model that provides powerful ways of "thinking" democratic education and public life.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction 2. Lighting Up the Cave: Progressivism and the Ghost of Plato 3. Recognizing Ourselves: Hegel and the Master/Slave Struggle in Education 4. Zarathustra's Education: Nietzsche and Postmodern Progressivism 5. A Cyborg's Education: Heidegger and Eco-Progressivism 6. Leaving Safe Harbors Notes Index

About the Author :
Dennis Carlson is Senior Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Director of the Center for Education and Cultural Studies at Miami University of Ohio

Review :
"In this brilliant volume, Dennis Carlson threads his way through guiding myths at the heart of modern culture, enticing us to become part of his journey as he weaves through the mythology associated with classical philosophers, modern-day educational theorists, and popular cultural forms. In plain language, Carlson takes us beyond "safe harbors," challenging our everyday beliefs about educational institutions at one and the same time as he urges us to work outside the reigning discourses associated with current educational practices. Rather than simply engage in a battle over myth, however, Carlson's work sets the stage for the construction of responsible counter myths and narratives--ones that lay the basis for a more just and humane society. Brilliantly argued, Leaving Safe Harbors is a tour de force." -- Lois Weis, author of The Unknown City: The Lives of Poor and Working-Class Young Adults "For over a decade, Dennis Carlson has been at the forefront of education¹s progressive tradition. In this important new work, Carlson surveys how the millennium myth has seized the social sciences and shaped educational theorizing at a time when postmodernism forebodes a period where the center does not hold, and where there exist no more safe harbors of the self. In doing so, he examines with the Argus eye of the critical theorist the myth of postmodernism that has ingressed into contemporary history. In this vibrant journey through the Western philosophical canon, Carlson leads a great escape from Plato¹s cave, hitching a ride with Hegel¹s journeying subject, searching for Gaia in harbors mined with cynicism and despair. The results are illuminating and provocative. This book masterfully maps the challenges that face the progressive educational tradition and offers us a compass with which to chart the future of educational theorizing." -- Peter McLaren University of California, Los Angeles "For over a decade, Dennis Carlson has been at the forefront of education's progressive tradition. In this important new work, Carlson surveys how the millennium myth has seized the social sciences at a time when postmodernism forebodes a period where the center does not hold, and where there exist no more safe harbors of the self. This book masterfully maps the challenges that face the progressive educational tradition and offers us a compass with which to chart the future of educational theorizing." -- Peter McLaren, University of California at Los Angeles "Leaving Safe Harbors is an ambitious book, an adventurous journey that connects the turmoil of the self with the public duty of teaching and educating, in a time when many of the old signposts have been removed or turned upside down. This book is in the front rank of scholarship that applies the art of reflexive philosophical inquiry to the problems of education and everyday life." -- Cameron McCarthy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "I highly recommend it! It is a wonderful project of self-development, in which Carlson offers to take the reader along with him. I promise the reader will not get lost with Carlson as a guide, for his excellent scholarship and analysis, and rich connections to cultural products serve as touchstones along the way." --Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon, University of Tennessee, Educational Studies