Description:
Employing history, social theory, and a detailed contemporary case study, Knowledge for Social Change argues for fundamentally reshaping research universities to function as democratic, civic, and community-engaged institutions dedicated to advancing learning and knowledge for social change. The authors focus on significant contributions to learning made by Francis Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Seth Low, Jane Addams, William Rainey Harper, and John Dewey-as well as their own work at Penn's Netter Center for Community Partnerships-to help create and sustain democratically-engaged colleges and universities for the public good.
Knowledge for Social Change highlights university-assisted community schools to effect a thoroughgoing change of research universities that will contribute to more democratic schools, communities, and societies. The authors also call on democratic-minded academics to create and sustain a global movement dedicated to advancing learning for the "relief of man's estate"-an iconic phrase by Francis Bacon that emphasized the continued betterment of the human condition-and to realize Dewey's vision of an organic "Great Community" composed of participatory, democratic, collaborative, and interdependent societies.
Review Quotes: "The authors catalogue in rich detail the pioneering efforts of educators and administrators at the University of Pennsylvania to put into practice the ideals of their forebears in progressive education, John Dewey first and foremost among them. Until the Netter Center, these ideals had fallen largely on deaf ears or been transformed beyond recognition. It is this faithfulness to the inseparability of past, present, and future that makes the book a standout in the literature of education and societal change, putting the public back in public education and recalling universities to their special responsibilities here."-- Teachers College Record