AIRED: June 1, 2015– 11 am PST
www.latalkradio.com
TITLE: “Democracy’s Education: Public Work, Citizenship, and the Future of Colleges and Universities”
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/university-press/book/9780826520364
According to Harry Boyte, Today Americans feel powerless in the face of problems on every front. Such feelings are acute in higher education, where educators are experiencing an avalanche of changes: cost cutting, new technologies, and demands that higher education be narrowly geared to the needs of today’s workplace.
College graduates .face mounting debt and uncertain job prospects, and worry about a coarsening of the mass culture and the erosion of authentic human relationships. Higher education is increasingly seen, and often portrays itself, as a ticket to individual success–a private good, not a public one.
Beginning with his essay, Reinventing Citizenship as Public Work, and continuing in his new book, Democracy’s Education, Harry C. Boyte challenges educators and their partners to claim their power to shape the story of higher education and the civic careers of students, the collection brings world-famous scholars, senior government officials, and university presidents together with faculty, students, staff, community organizers, and intellectuals from across the United States and South Africa and Japan. Contributors detail practical approaches to making change, from new faculty and student roles to changes in curriculum and student life and strategies for everyday citizen empowerment. Overall, the work develops a democratic story of education urgently needed to address today’s challenges, from climate change to growing inequality.
HARRY BOYTE
Among his many accomplishments, Harry Boyte is founder of Public Achievement, a theory-based practice of citizen organizing to do public work for the common good that is used in schools, universities, and communities across the United States and in more than a dozen countries.
Since 1987, Boyte has worked with a variety of partners in Minnesota, nationally, and internationally on community development, citizenship education, and civic renewal. Currently, Boyte is head of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College. He also serves on the board of Imagining America, a consortium of colleges and universities whose mission is to strengthen the public role and democratic purposes of the humanities, arts, and design.
He is author or co-author of a number of books including:
- Democracy’s Education: Public Work, Citizenship, and the Future of Colleges and Universities
- The Citizen Solution: How You Can Make a Difference
- Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life
- Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work, with Nan Kari
- Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America, with Sara M. Evans
His writings have appeared in over 70 publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Democracy, and many more. His political commentary has appeared on CBS Morning and Evening News and National Public Radio.
