[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-603271-105":59,"doc-detail-603271-en":129},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":122,"head_meta":124,"extra_data":126,"updated_unix":128},105,"en","an-exploration-of-myles-hortons-democratic-praxis-highlander-folk-school-introduction","An Exploration of Myles Horton’s Democratic Praxis - Highlander Folk School - Introduction","","Exploration of how Myles Horton developed a democratic, adult-learning vision through the Highlander Folk School. The text traces Horton’s engagement with Dewey’s democratic society framework, while reflecting on later critiques of liberal democratic theory in postsocialist contexts. It argues Highlander addressed political economy and recognition directly, using lived pedagogy, oral transmission, organizing during labor union and Civil Rights eras, and aims toward social justice through relational, pluralistic democracy.",{"@graph":69,"@context":121},[70,84,104],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/an-exploration-of-myles-hortons-democratic-praxis-highlander-folk-school-introduction/603271/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":98,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":99,"interactionStatistic":100},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/an-exploration-of-myles-hortons-democratic-praxis-highlander-folk-school-introduction/603271.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"moss~","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":101,"interactionType":102,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":103},"ViewAction",{"@type":105,"mainEntity":106},"FAQPage",[107,113,117],{"name":108,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":110},"What is Highlander Folk School, and when was it formed?","Question",{"text":111,"@type":112},"Highlander Folk School is an adult education center in eastern Tennessee. It was formed in 1932 by Myles Horton and continues today.","Answer",{"name":114,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":115},"How does the paper explain Dewey’s influence on Horton’s democratic thinking?",{"text":116,"@type":112},"The paper describes Horton beginning with Dewey’s concept of a democratic society—one that enables participation on equal terms and allows flexible re-adjustment of institutions through interaction.",{"name":118,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":119},"Why does the paper argue Highlander did not “bracket” political economy or recognition?",{"text":120,"@type":112},"It states Highlander addressed political economy directly and embraced recognition by welcoming diversity, rather than setting these questions aside.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":123,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":125,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":127,"site_id":62},603271,1792100309,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":130},{"doc_id":127,"user_id":131,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":132,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":133,"file_id":134,"file_url":135,"file_type":136,"file_size":137,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":138,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":139,"faqs":140,"seo_title":141,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":142,"read_time":143},962090895452,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon is a professor ofcultural studies of education in the Department of Instructional Technologyand Educational Studies atthe University ofTennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee.  \nAn Exploration of Myles Horton’s Democratic Praxis:  \nHighlander Folk School  \nBy Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon  \nIntroduction  \nHighlander Folk School is an adult education center located in eastern Tennessee that was formed in 1932 by Myles Horton and continues today.1 Myles Horton (1905-1990) hoped to create an independent adult learning center where people could come together and address their problems. He wanted to create a public space where people could learn from eachother and use education as a means to challenge the unjust social systems affecting their lives. Highlander was built on principles of democracy; however, Horton resisted definitively defining democracy throughout his lifetime. In The Long Haul, he tells us people get angry with him for not carefully defining what he means by democracy, but he says,“I’ve never been able to define [democracy. . . . it](democracy. . . . it)’s a growing idea.”2 Horton began Highlander Folk School by relying on Dewey’s concept of a democratic society as “a society  \nwhich makes provisions for participation in its good of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible readjustment of its institutions through interaction of the different forms of associated life.”3 A democratic society is one with shared interests and fullness and freedom of interaction within the group as well as with other groups.  \nGreat changes have happened in political philosophy and in societies at large since Dewey was writing and Horton was organizing. We live in times that Nancy Fraser describes as “postsocialist.”4 Today, key underlying assumptions of democratic theory are being questioned and dismissed. Dewey’s liberal democratic theory focused on individual freedom and autonomy, even as he offered us the possibilities of moving beyond individualism, with his theory of social transaction; and, he assumed an Enlightenment-type of rationalism, even as he showed us how to move beyond this rationalism in his arguments for truths as warranted assertions.5 Enlightenment rationalism and the idea of a unitary subject have come under serious criticism by postmodernists, feminists, and critical theorists. Fraser says we live in times when group identity has supplanted class interests and when the need for recognition overshadows the need for redistribution. She suggests we live in times when no credible vision of an alternative to the present order is available, that the visions we have lack the power to convince because they bracket questions of political economy. The visions she refers to include: radical democracy, multiculturalism, political liberalism, and communitarianism.6  \nHighlander Folk School did not bracket questions of political economy; rather it sought to address those questions head-on. It also did not bracket questions of recognition; instead, it embraced diversity with open arms. While Horton began with Dewey’s concept of a democratic society, he worked for close to sixty years on further developing this “growing idea,” based on what he learned from his experiences through Highlander during the socialist times of labor union organizing, the anti-racist times of the Civil Rights Movement, and beyond. Unlike Paulo Freire, who worked as an academic and wrote many scholarly publications about his ideas for academic audiences, Myles Horton wasn’t worried about trying to reach an academic audience. Horton preferred to spend his time helping people come together and learn how to organize and work toward “replacing, transforming, and rebuilding society soas to allow for people to make decisions that affect their lives.”7 He wrote next to nothing about his ideas, not trusting the written word as a medium for expressing living ideas that are contextual to specific settings and change overtime. Horton prefe","cbCainI3lVgHNxYV","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainI3lVgHNxYV","pdf",56490,"English","# Introduction\n## Highlander Folk School’s origins and democratic principles\n## Dewey’s influence and later critiques of liberal democracy\n## Horton’s lived pedagogy, organizing practice, and education philosophy","[{\"question\":\"What is Highlander Folk School, and when was it formed?\",\"answer\":\"Highlander Folk School is an adult education center in eastern Tennessee. It was formed in 1932 by Myles Horton and continues today.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper explain Dewey’s influence on Horton’s democratic thinking?\",\"answer\":\"The paper describes Horton beginning with Dewey’s concept of a democratic society—one that enables participation on equal terms and allows flexible re-adjustment of institutions through interaction.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper argue Highlander did not “bracket” political economy or recognition?\",\"answer\":\"It states Highlander addressed political economy directly and embraced recognition by welcoming diversity, rather than setting these questions aside.\"}]","An Exploration of Myles Horton’s Democratic Praxis - Highlander Folk School - Introduction | PDF",1792096005,48]