Dr. Kathleen Knight Abowitz - Chair & Professor, Educational Leadership http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/5786 2026-04-08T21:45:27Z 2026-04-08T21:45:27Z Knight Abowitz, Kathleen http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/6963 2024-04-19T20:00:24Z

Defining moral responsibility for school leaders in times of democratic crisis Knight Abowitz, Kathleen In this chapter, I offer an ethical alternative to liberal neutrality in the present political contexts of educational governance and leadership, one that does not abandon important principles of political liberalism. The context for shared political and ethical life in the United States provides a democratic moral framework for understanding the challenges of moral responsibility, as the concept applies to public schooling in an era of democratic crisis. The traditional conception of the moral responsibility for positional educational leaders, particularly building principals, is too often viewed as fulfilling a linear, directive task of communicating and enforcing the correct moral ideal to guide educators, families, and students, with the expectation that this proper set of ideals (or, less often, theories) will determine right practice. I argue here for a contextual moral responsibility, derived from a practice-based ethic grounded in democratic political and ethical norms lived within a school community.

Collins, Jonathan Gottlieb, Derek Knight Abowitz, Kathleen Murray, Brittany Saultz, Andrew Schneider, Jack Stitzlein, Sarah White, Rachael http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/6961 2024-04-19T20:09:50Z

Democracy in Action Collins, Jonathan; Gottlieb, Derek; Knight Abowitz, Kathleen; Murray, Brittany; Saultz, Andrew; Schneider, Jack; Stitzlein, Sarah; White, Rachael School systems are important training grounds where both students and adults alike can learn and encourage the practice of civil discourse and where democratic values can be enacted, expressed, and achieved.

Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/6908 2023-07-12T19:34:32Z

Populism, Legitimacy, and State-Sponsored Schooling Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen In this article, I explore a selection of current scholarship on educational populist movements in Brazil, the U.S., and Israel. After a brief examination of these populist forms, which reveal political trends of ethno-nationalism, religious orthodoxy, anti-secularism, and authoritarianism, I examine democratic theory to understand populism from a dual democratic theoretical positions: pragmatism, and radical or critical democratic theory. I use pragmatist insights into the public sphere (Dewey, 1927; Frega, 2010, 2019), to explain how and why publics emerge in the dynamic of democratic state institutions of schooling. I then turn to radical democratic theory to explain the idea of populist expression and its role in democratic politics (Laclau, 2005; Mouffe, 2018). In pragmatist terms, populist movements are potential publics, relying on an experimentalist idea of political life which includes group associations in civil society which generate feedback, action, and dissent in attempts to shape decisions in state institutions. Yet too many populist movements fail to become democratic publics insofar as they are characterized by narrowed, private interests, unreflective habits, and practices which are antagonistic to inquiry, responsiveness, and deliberation. As such, populist movements threaten the normative legitimacy and stability of liberal democratic state institutions of schooling. While minimalist, or thin versions of populism are compatible with, and important vehicles for educational politics, the presently dominating maximalist versions profiled in this article threaten the liberal-democratic state project (Sant, 2021). Pragmatist theories of democratic politics and publics (Frega, 2019) offer ways to meet the populist moment, but contain significant implications of institutional re-design and reform for their realization.

Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen Sellers, Kathleen http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/6906 2023-06-08T20:11:50Z

Pragmatist Thinking for a Populist Moment: Democratic Contingency and Racial Re-Valuing in Education Governance Knight-Abowitz, Kathleen; Sellers, Kathleen We examine school governance in populist era, using contemporary readings of pragmatist philosophy. We are in a “populist moment,” a time of uprisings and movements of the demos making political claims (Mouffe, 2018). School officials in the U.S. are subject to an array of political demands in the form of protests and campaigns. We focus on the struggles around critical race theory in K–12 schools. Glaude (2017) has advocated pragmatism’s use in light of racial revaluing and democratic struggle. Rogers’ work (2009) has highlighted inquiry, founded on contingency, in the face of disagreement and power struggles. These scholars show us educational governance’s dual task in this moment: a revaluing of racialized Others in educational institutions done while simultaneously crafting conditions for deliberative judgment and meaningful policymaking in the face of political contingency. In light of this racial reckoning, we argue that populism presents a democratic irony for educational governance. Racial justice cannot be achieved without populist expression, taking the form of campaigns and persistent nonviolent signals that institutional racism is unacceptable. Yet our populist moment also contributes to the increasing political polarization that makes the conditions for democratic deliberative policymaking more elusive. Deliberative conditions for policymaking and curriculum development in schools are critically necessary for reinventing and reimagining our shared society.