Education Commons^™

Ask Not Only Who Defines The Curriculum: Rather Ask Too What The Curriculum Aim Should Be, Walter Feinberg

Journal of Educational Controversy

I have been asked to address the question “who defines the curriculum?” On one level the answer to this question is quite easy and requires little more than a look at the legal codes regulating education and school boards. On another level it seems to call for a close empirical analysis of decision-making in individual districts and schools. However, since the question is asked by the editors of The Journal of Educational Controversy and partly in response to the banning of the Mexican American curriculum in Arizona, I presume the question is intended to have more bite, and is more …

Who Defines The Public In Public Education, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

The theme of this issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy continues the conversation that was started in our Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue where we published our first article on the events occurring in Arizona with the passing of HB 2281. The legislation:

• Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that:

1. Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
2. Promote resentment toward a race or class of people.
3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
4. Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.

Religious Citizens In A Secular Public: Separate. Equal?, John F. Covaleskie

Journal of Educational Controversy

In our generation, the crisis of democracy is embodied in the conflict between those who view the U.S. as a Christian republic to be governed according to (their interpretation of) the Bible and those who view the United States as a purely secular state, neutral on moral questions and the general nature of a good life. The hope is that, despite these radically different and incommensurable visions of the good, society can be held together by a thin consensus on procedures combined with public neutrality on the nature of the Good (Rawls, 1971/1999).

Critical Study Of The Concept Of Public Identity As Manifested In Postmodernist Versions Of Critical Pedagogy, Boaz Tsabar

Journal of Educational Controversy

The article seeks to highlight the fundamental weaknesses of the postmodern concept of Public identity as it appears in critical pedagogy. Although these versions of critical pedagogy present their goals in the positive terms of achieving freedom and liberation from oppression, they tend to disregard the complex dialectical nature of identity and its positive aspects. I claim that such concepts fail to grasp the concrete nature of identity by not acknowledging the immanent tensions between the individual and the collective and between liberation and empowerment. I argue that these postmodern stances lead to suppression of identity and the reduction of …

Reading Nclb As A Form Of Structural Violence, Kerry Burch

Journal of Educational Controversy

If I were to formulate two broad generalizations to approximate the common-sense attitudes my students tend to exhibit toward the educational policies operating under the banner of No Child Left Behind (2001; NCLB), I would suggest that 1) despite perceiving marginal difficulties with the legislation, on the whole, many consider its original purposes to be well-intentioned and thus, morally legitimate; and that 2) largely because of this bestowal of legitimacy, the totality of NCLB’s bureaucratic structure and presence, as a productive agency of state, is tacitly assumed to be politically neutral and innocent of power relations.

Attack Of The Cyborgs: Economic Imperialism And The Human Deficit In Educational Policy-Making & Research, Scott Ellison

Journal of Educational Controversy

The term 'economic imperialism': is generally attributed to an article of that title by Hoover Institution economist Edward Lazear (2000, p. 1), although it is a concept that has long been promoted by University of Chicago economist Gary Becker. The article itself is a celebratory piece that asserts both modern economics bona fides as the premiere social science analogous to the so-called hard sciences, such as physics and chemistry, as well as the generalized applicability of neoclassical economic theory and econometric methods to all manner of social phenomena. Lazear is surely being provocative in proclaiming the preeminence of economic orthodoxy, …

The Public And Its Problem: Dewey, Habermas, And Levinas, Guoping Zhao

Journal of Educational Controversy

The question of who defines the public in public education in a democratic society is a tricky one. It is tricky because the answer appears deceivingly obvious, but it is also deeply difficult. In a democratic society, the decisions about public education seem, by default, to be made by all people: concerned citizens, parents, or those who live within the borders of the district/state/nation, and who, presumably, share certain common values, interests, or purposes related to the future of the children and the place.

Democratic Transformations: Eight Conflicts In The Negotiation Of American Identity By Kerry T. Burch, John G. Richardson

Journal of Educational Controversy

Despite that fact that the subtitle of the book informs one directly of its content, more so than the primary title, this titular confusion is irrelevant, for this is an excellent work. Democratic Transformations [hereafter DT] is eminently readable, both in terms of the writing, and in terms of its substantive depth. And the depth is considerable.

Preserving The Public In Public Schools: Visions, Values, Conflicts, And Choices By Phil Boyle & Del Burn, Richardson Addai-Mununkum

Journal of Educational Controversy

Preserving the Public in Public Schools is a timely intervention in the current discourse on educational policy and research where the word public has become synonymous with failure, inefficiency and something to get rid of. It is not too surprising that the term has become part of the popular jargon; and as a victim of political polarization (McAvory & Hess, 2013), has been used to invoke passion in advocating for or against the status quo. As a starter, Boyle and Burns deconstructs the term public with an introduction captioned, “The Public in Public Schools.” Written in an easily accessible language, …

The Assault On Public Education By William Watkins (Ed.), Pj Nelsen

Journal of Educational Controversy

As William Watkins and the collected authors of The Assault on Public Education document clearly, the contemporary fight for democratic education within the United States is dominated by an interlocking set of ideologies and practices that cohere around central themes of privatization, commodification and standardization – all dominated by an instrumental rationality that supports hegemonic systems of power and control. Within this neoliberal conceptual and practical puzzle, students, parents and educators are discouraged from questioning reform efforts purportedly aimed at democratic ends. As families and educators across the United States know only too well, though, the emphasis on charter schools, …

Dangerous Minds In Tucson: The Banning Of Mexican American Studies And Critical Thinking In Arizona, Curtis Acosta

Journal of Educational Controversy

It has been over a year since the president of the school board in the Tucson Unified School District wrapped his gavel on the sound block signifying the end of the Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson. This moment not only stood as a temporary victory for the politics of fear and anti-Latin@ legislation and sentiments in Arizona, but also initiated a literal state takeover of our academic spaces. Subsequently, it ushered in a period of censorship that still chills our schools and teachers to this very day. The fact that this was a program that had proven academic success …

Can Education Change Society? By Michael Apple, Kathryn Ross Wayne

Journal of Educational Controversy

Michael Apple, in his new book, Can Education Change Society, asks us to seriously consider the role of education as a substantive vehicle for engendering change at a societal level. While one might consider a flip answer to the question which acts as the title of this book, Apple pushes us a little harder toward an answer which seems carved in quicksilver: It depends. In his answer, Apple requires that we critically reflect on who we are, who the public is that education serves, what our better natures might be, what our experiences have been, how the historical crafting of …

Precious Knowledge: An Interview With Film Director, Ari Palos, On April 15, 2013, Celina Meza

Journal of Educational Controversy

The ethnic studies program in Tuscan Unified School District (TUSD) emerged in the 1990’s as a grassroots effort to reverse the disturbingly low trends in Latino academics. Nationally, the dropout rate for Latinos is consistently about 56%, and only 24% of Latino students continue onto college. As a solution to the low achievement, teachers in the TUSD designed ethnic studies classes to be culturally relevant so that students can see themselves and a purpose in the curriculum. The program has been successful; Latinos in the program drop out at a rate of 2.5%, much lower than the national average. In …

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

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