Winner of the 2022 AESA Critics' Choice Book Award Winner of the 2022 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award This diverse and global collection of scholars, educators, and activists presents a panorama of perspectives on media education and democracy in a digital age. Drawing upon projects in both the formal and non-formal education spheres, the authors contribute towards conceptualizing, developing, cultivating, building and elaborating a more respectful, robust and critically-engaged democracy. Given the challenges our world faces, it may seem that small projects, programs and initiatives offer just a salve to broader social and political dynamics but these are the types of contestatory spaces, openings and initiatives that enable participatory democracy. This book provides a space for experimentation and dialogue, and a platform for projects and initiatives that challenge or supplement the learning offered by traditional forms of education. The Foreword is written by Divina Frau-Meigs (Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris) and the Postscript by Roberto Apirici and David Garcia Marin (UNED, Madrid). Contributors are: Roberto Aparici, Adelina Calvo Salvador, Paul R. Carr, Colin Chasi, Sandra L. Cuervo Sanchez, Laura D'Olimpio, Milena Droumeva, Elia Fernandez-Diaz, Ellen Field, Michael Forsman, Divina Frau-Meigs, Aquilina Fueyo Gutierrez, David Garcia-Marin, Tania Goitandia Moore, Jose Gutierrez-Perez, Ignacio Haya Salmon, Bruno Salvador Hernandez Levi, Michael Hoechsmann, Jennifer Jenson, Maria Korpijaakko, Sirkku Kotilainen, Emil Marmol, Maria Dolores Olvera-Lobo, Tania Ouariachi, Mari Pienimaki, Anna Renfors, Ylva Rodney-Gumede, Carlos Rodriguez-Hoyos, Mar Rodriguez-Romero, Tafadzwa Rugoho, Juha Suoranta, Gina Thesee, Robyn M. Tierney, Robert C. Williams and Maria Luisa Zorrilla Abascal.

We are not "scared" of educators but do understand the fear that many may and do feel, and why some people may believe that "education" has a disproportionately negative effect on them and those close to them. With so much wealth, technological prowess, innovation, and economic development, why do we still have marginalization, social inequalities, conflict, mass incarceration and generational poverty? The connection to democracy, Education for Democracy (EfD) and social justice is, for Carr and Thesee, clear, and this volume interweaves a narrative within these themes based on a Freirian theoretical backdrop. Aiming to deconstruct, re-imagine and plan for a more meaningful, vibrant, social-just-based democracy that problematizes the normative, representative, hegemonic democracy in place that holds sway over formal relations, institutions, processes and education is a central preoccupation for the authors. This book presents a vision for transformative education and EfD, seeking to cultivate, stimulate and support political and media literacy, critical engagement and a re-conceptualization of what education is, and, importantly, how it can address entrenched, systemic and institutional problems that plague society. Based on over a decade of empirical research in a range of contexts and jurisdictions, the authors strive to link teaching and learning with agency, solidarity, action and transformative change within the conceptual framework of a critically-engaged EfD.

Winner of the 2022 AESA Critics' Choice Book Award Winner of the 2022 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award This diverse and global collection of scholars, educators, and activists presents a panorama of perspectives on media education and democracy in a digital age. Drawing upon projects in both the formal and non-formal education spheres, the authors contribute towards conceptualizing, developing, cultivating, building and elaborating a more respectful, robust and critically-engaged democracy. Given the challenges our world faces, it may seem that small projects, programs and initiatives offer just a salve to broader social and political dynamics but these are the types of contestatory spaces, openings and initiatives that enable participatory democracy. This book provides a space for experimentation and dialogue, and a platform for projects and initiatives that challenge or supplement the learning offered by traditional forms of education. The Foreword is written by Divina Frau-Meigs (Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris) and the Postscript by Roberto Apirici and David Garcia Marin (UNED, Madrid). Contributors are: Roberto Aparici, Adelina Calvo Salvador, Paul R. Carr, Colin Chasi, Sandra L. Cuervo Sanchez, Laura D'Olimpio, Milena Droumeva, Elia Fernandez-Diaz, Ellen Field, Michael Forsman, Divina Frau-Meigs, Aquilina Fueyo Gutierrez, David Garcia-Marin, Tania Goitandia Moore, Jose Gutierrez-Perez, Ignacio Haya Salmon, Bruno Salvador Hernandez Levi, Michael Hoechsmann, Jennifer Jenson, Maria Korpijaakko, Sirkku Kotilainen, Emil Marmol, Maria Dolores Olvera-Lobo, Tania Ouariachi, Mari Pienimaki, Anna Renfors, Ylva Rodney-Gumede, Carlos Rodriguez-Hoyos, Mar Rodriguez-Romero, Tafadzwa Rugoho, Juha Suoranta, Gina Thesee, Robyn M. Tierney, Robert C. Williams and Maria Luisa Zorrilla Abascal.