Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Education Policy

Discipline
Institution
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 31

Full-Text Articles in Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education

Social Movements, Deliberation, And Educational Governance. A Response To “Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment”, Ellis Reid Oct 2023

Social Movements, Deliberation, And Educational Governance. A Response To “Pragmatist Thinking For A Populist Moment”, Ellis Reid

Democracy and Education

In this response essay, the author provides an account of the role of social movements in a democracy as part of a larger argument about democratic school governance. Focusing on Black Lives Matter (BLM), the author contends that social movements like BLM support a vibrant and legitimate democracy because they constitute vital nodes in the ongoing, norm-governed conversation that constitutes democratic politics. To make this argument, the author defends an account of democratic deliberation that recognizes (1) the contribution of emotion to our capacity for reason and (2) the fact that deliberation extends beyond the confines of official democratic fora. …


The Race, Social Class, And Place-Based Gap In Rural Turnaround Policy: A Policy Brief, Karynecia E. Conner Sep 2023

The Race, Social Class, And Place-Based Gap In Rural Turnaround Policy: A Policy Brief, Karynecia E. Conner

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Abstract: For teachers, leaders, and policymakers To understand the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of rural school turnaround, there is a need to understand how turnaround leadership implements school improvement in different types of communities of color (Wright, 2019). Studies examining the implications of school turnaround in minoritized educational contexts have solely examined urban school contexts to exclude rural contexts (Mette & Stanoch, 2018). Rural schools of color undergoing turnaround face the fundamental unique educational challenges of rural schools and the education debt that has accumulated over time for people of color (Ladson-Billings, 2006). There is a greater …


Public And Counterpublics: Rereading The Case Of Riverside Through Critical Pragmatism. A Response To "Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, And The Common Good", Kathleen Knight-Abowitz Oct 2021

Public And Counterpublics: Rereading The Case Of Riverside Through Critical Pragmatism. A Response To "Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, And The Common Good", Kathleen Knight-Abowitz

Democracy and Education

An article of empirically informed philosophical analysis of charter schooling that features local histories, voices of stakeholders, and an optimistic view on the democratic potential of charter school policies, the original piece presents a compelling, if extreme, case of charter school formation. In this response, I offer an alternative theoretical framing to the case. I argue that the scholarship of constitutional scholars is much less relevant as an interpretive lens on the case than more critical, contemporary pragmatist thinkers. I hope to show in this response how Deweyan political philosophy might have been used throughout the argument to produce a …


Undergoing Political Experience. A Book Review Of Educational Politics For Social Justice, Becky L. Noël Smith May 2021

Undergoing Political Experience. A Book Review Of Educational Politics For Social Justice, Becky L. Noël Smith

Democracy and Education

The persistent reports and video evidence of the brutality against people of color, the swell of protest and community organizing in response, and also the noxious swell of white supremacy in the current political climate all amount to a desperate reminder that we must not only continually interrogate our public institutions but thoughtfully pursue the many fronts necessary to dismantle the structural forms of oppression that most U.S. institutions have been built upon. Catherine Marshall, Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin, and Mark Johnson provide an analysis of the political arenas making up the public education system—what they explain as the micro, district, state, …


The Morning Meeting: Fostering A Participatory Democracy Begins With Youth In Public Education, Rebecca C. Tilhou Oct 2020

The Morning Meeting: Fostering A Participatory Democracy Begins With Youth In Public Education, Rebecca C. Tilhou

Democracy and Education

There is a faltering sense of democracy in America’s current political climate due to polarized opinions about leadership’s decisions and antagonistic political parties. John Dewey (1916) proposed that education is the place to foster democracy, as schools can provide a platform to actively engage students in authentic democratic experiences that will empower them to act democratically beyond the walls of the school. The democratic schools that emerged during the Free School Movement of the 1960s and 1970s embody Dewey’s philosophy, specifically with the shared governance occurring in their School Meetings. Unfortunately, American public education’s present preoccupation with standardization, proficiency scores, …


Negating Amy Gutmann: Deliberative Democracy, Business Influence, And Segmentation Strategies In Education, Brian Ford May 2020

Negating Amy Gutmann: Deliberative Democracy, Business Influence, And Segmentation Strategies In Education, Brian Ford

Democracy and Education

The task of creating a public will is daunting in any political system, but a democracy dedicated to the principles of participation and public deliberation faces specific challenges, including overcoming organized opposition that may not accept democratic tenets. In the sphere of education (and social reproduction more generally), business-influenced movements to reform public education question many of the established goals and norms of democratic education and thus may be the vanguard of such opposition. In order to interpret and explore these movements, this article enlists Amy Gutmann's work as a heuristic device. In so doing, it looks at the task …


Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq+-Inclusive Curriculum. A Book Review Of Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq-Inclusive Curriculum: Opportunities And Constraints, Matthew A. Thomas-Reid May 2020

Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq+-Inclusive Curriculum. A Book Review Of Critical Democratic Education And Lgbtq-Inclusive Curriculum: Opportunities And Constraints, Matthew A. Thomas-Reid

Democracy and Education

With the aim of promoting the democratic education values of inclusion equity and social justice using a queer theoretical framework to identify and deconstruct normalizing forces, author Camicia sets the reader up for a deep analysis of educational practice, policy, and curriculum using Utah and California as concrete illustrations of democratic inclusive curriculum. Camicia's book ends with an epilogue “discussing a rationale for using auto-ethnography within curriculum in order to increase inclusion," which opens up excellent possibilities for future research.


Educational Life In The Interregnum: Race, Dis/Ability, And Special Education, Benjamin Kearl Oct 2019

Educational Life In The Interregnum: Race, Dis/Ability, And Special Education, Benjamin Kearl

Democracy and Education

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of special education policy through the juxtaposition of two recent Supreme Court actions: Allston v. Lower Merion School District (2015) and Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017). This comparison reveals an ordering of special education policy around questions of race. Specifically, this article argues that special education policy is governed by a racecraft of disability labeling that defines students of color as variously disabled and through a biopolitics of special education that expands disability services for individual students who are within the truth demarcated by scientific-juridical mediations of life. Against such negative …


High Costs To Peddling Solutions In Search Of Problems. A Book Review Of Selling School: The Marketing Of Public Education, T. Jameson Brewer May 2019

High Costs To Peddling Solutions In Search Of Problems. A Book Review Of Selling School: The Marketing Of Public Education, T. Jameson Brewer

Democracy and Education

The unwavering commitment by reformers to privatize schools through educational marketplaces has fostered a rise in educational advertising necessitated by the competitive nature of commodification. Not only has this new form of "edvertising" fostered the creation of new jobs within the corporate cabal but it relies heavily on what are likely misleading claims of academic success and, additionally, raises serious questions about funds being diverted away from pedagogical practices in favor of glossy advertisements and videos. Selling School: The Marketing of Public Education by DiMartino and Jessen explores the ways in which edvertising within the educational landscape serves as a …


Talking Back To Corporate Reform. A Book Review Of "You Can't Fire The Bad Ones!" And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, And Public Education, Alisun Thompson Oct 2018

Talking Back To Corporate Reform. A Book Review Of "You Can't Fire The Bad Ones!" And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, And Public Education, Alisun Thompson

Democracy and Education

A review of the book “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones!” And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, and Public Education, by William Ayers, Crystal Laura, and Rick Ayers (Beacon Press, 2018).


Segregation, The “Black Spatial Imagination,” And Radical Social Transformation, Pauline Lipman Oct 2018

Segregation, The “Black Spatial Imagination,” And Radical Social Transformation, Pauline Lipman

Democracy and Education

This response discusses the complexity of racial segregation in U.S. cities today and an emerging education movement for equity and racial justice. Racial segregation has been and continues to be a potent, and contested, strategy of containment, subordination, and exploitation, but African Americans have also, out of necessity, turned racial segregation into collective survival, radical solidarity, resistance, and counter-hegemonic economic and social relations. New geographies of racial containment, exclusion, and incorporation in the neoliberal, postindustrial city have spawned a new antiracist, antineoliberal education movement. While people of color have the right to live and attend school anywhere, African American and …


A Democratic Critique Of The Common Core English Language Arts (Ela) Standards, Nicholas Tampio Apr 2018

A Democratic Critique Of The Common Core English Language Arts (Ela) Standards, Nicholas Tampio

Democracy and Education

Parents, educators, and students have criticized the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects for expecting students to regurgitate evidence from assigned texts rather than think for themselves. This article argues that this popular critique is accurate and that the Common Core, regardless of its advocates’ intentions, has undemocratic consequences. Initially, the essay considers a democratic argument for the Common Core. Then, I show that the standards themselves, faithfully implemented, lead to assignments and assessments that give students few opportunities to articulate their own thoughts or responses. I argue that …


Democracy Dies In Dualisms. A Response To “Dewey And Democracy”, Dan Sarofian-Butin Dec 2017

Democracy Dies In Dualisms. A Response To “Dewey And Democracy”, Dan Sarofian-Butin

Democracy and Education

This essay reviews Atkinson’s article “Dewey and Democracy” and argues that while Dewey and the social foundations classroom may indeed be important for teacher preparation, it is not in the way Atkinson suggests. Namely, I argue that Atkinson’s essay has three distinct (yet interrelated) issues: his problematic oversimplifications, what I term as “Dewey doesn’t do dualisms”; his misreading of Dewey, where I point out that “Dewey doesn’t do debate”; and his unexamined positionality, where I make clear that “Dewey doesn’t do Descartes.” I conclude this essay with a different perspective of a way forward with Dewey: that Dewey’s antifoundationalism serves …


Navigating Middle Of The Road Reforms Through Collaborative Community, Andrea J. Bingham, Patricia Burch Dec 2017

Navigating Middle Of The Road Reforms Through Collaborative Community, Andrea J. Bingham, Patricia Burch

Democracy and Education

The current wave of educational reform is complex and situated in market-based initiatives coupled with a renewed emphasis on local autonomy, deliberation, and community—middle-of-the-road reforms. In practice, schools are challenged to develop organizational forms that can support collaboration and community engagement, alongside the bureaucratic and accountability-driven reforms that demand more oversight, transparency, and demonstrable results. Our intent in this paper is to begin to map the emerging contradictions and opportunities that the complex reform climate presents for practitioners through a case study of a personalized learning charter school. In so doing, we illustrate how a community of teachers within a …


The War Against Teachers: How The Discourse Of A Nation At Risk Set The Agenda For Contemporary New Mexico Education Policy, Christine P. Wernle May 2017

The War Against Teachers: How The Discourse Of A Nation At Risk Set The Agenda For Contemporary New Mexico Education Policy, Christine P. Wernle

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

A Nation at Risk (ANAR) represented a paradigm shift in national education policy and public education discourse. This Critical Discourse Analysis utilizing the theoretical framework of Fairclough and Wodak (1997) found five major recurring themes between ANAR, national and state discourse, and NMTEACH (as referenced in the Final Report and Recommendations of the New Mexico Effective Teaching Task Force, 2011): 1) The Establishment of Pedagogic Authority; 2) The Common-Senseness of Education; 3) Anti-Teacher Rhetoric and the Artificial Support of Teachers; 4) Deracialisation of Educational Policy and Color-Blind Ideology; and 5) The Movement from Symbolic to Physical Violence. This study has …


Researching Holistic Democracy In Schools. A Reponse To "Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy", Philip A. Woods May 2017

Researching Holistic Democracy In Schools. A Reponse To "Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy", Philip A. Woods

Democracy and Education

Bradley-Levine reported in her article how she created an opportunity to explore research data with the aim of examining the degree to which New Tech schools were democratic in the sense conceptualized by the notion of holistic democracy. My response is in three parts. The first sets out my understanding of the significance of the model of holistic democracy and the purpose of the framework. The second is a review of Bradley-Levine’s findings, with reflections that occurred to me as I worked through these. The third comprises my conclusions. The framework has been applied, in my judgement, in a diligent …


How Ideological Differences Influence Pre-Service Teachers’ Understandings Of Educational Success, Justin Sim Jan 2017

How Ideological Differences Influence Pre-Service Teachers’ Understandings Of Educational Success, Justin Sim

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores how popular ideological discourses within public policy are influencing the views and practices of pre-service teachers at a university in Melbourne. The research began by examining how educational success has been historically understood by individuals vis-à-vis government discourse. Three values and four corresponding ideological positions were used to create a theoretical framework. The researcher then surveyed a small cross-section of pre-service teachers to investigate how these values contributed to their understandings of educational success, and how these understandings were used to justify their receptions of neoliberal reforms in education. The data shows that democratic equality was the …


What Makes Hope Possible. A Book Review Of Strike For America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity, Amy B. Shuffelton Nov 2016

What Makes Hope Possible. A Book Review Of Strike For America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity, Amy B. Shuffelton

Democracy and Education

This is a positive review of Strike for America, by Micah Uetricht.


The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy, Benjamin J. Bindewald, Rory P. Tannebaum, Patrick Womac Nov 2016

The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy, Benjamin J. Bindewald, Rory P. Tannebaum, Patrick Womac

Democracy and Education

This conceptual paper assesses prevalent critiques of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and analyzes content from the CCSS in language arts and literacy to determine whether the standards are likely to support or undermine key democratic aims of education. The authors conclude that critiques of the CCSS have some merit but are generally overstated and misdirected, and the standards give inadequate attention to the development of public autonomy but an ideal amount of attention to development of private autonomy.


The Cake Is A Lie. A Book Review Of The Failure Of Corporate School Reform, Amy Rector Aranda Apr 2015

The Cake Is A Lie. A Book Review Of The Failure Of Corporate School Reform, Amy Rector Aranda

Democracy and Education

This is a book review of The Failure of Corporate School Reform by Kenneth J. Saltman.


Civic Meanings: Understanding The Constellations Of Democratic And Civic Beliefs Of Educators, Elizabeth A. Lowham, James R. Lowham Apr 2015

Civic Meanings: Understanding The Constellations Of Democratic And Civic Beliefs Of Educators, Elizabeth A. Lowham, James R. Lowham

Democracy and Education

There is little doubt of public school’s role in the enculturation of youth into American democracy. There are several aspects about which little is known that should be addressed prior to seeking options to understand and address civic education for the 21st century: first, the desired civic knowledge, skills, and predispositions are not clearly identified; and second, little is known about the knowledge, skills, and beliefs of the faculty, administration, staff and board of education members about democracy or the patterns of congruence among adults connected to K–12 education. In this pilot study, we investigate the patterns of beliefs through …


Litigation And Organization: Educational Rights In A Deliberative Democracy. A Book Review Of Realizing Educational Rights: Advancing School Reform Through Courts And Communities, Todd A. Demitchell, Winston C. Thompson Sep 2014

Litigation And Organization: Educational Rights In A Deliberative Democracy. A Book Review Of Realizing Educational Rights: Advancing School Reform Through Courts And Communities, Todd A. Demitchell, Winston C. Thompson

Democracy and Education

Realizing Educational Rights: Advancing School Reform through Courts and Communities by Anne Newman advances an important argument for the establishment of education as a right. Her argument asserts that a fair, deliberative democracy cannot be sustained without a right to education. She builds an argument for a right to an an education in response to the U.S. Supreme Court case San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez denial of education as a fundamental federal right.


Flying Sandwiches And Broken Glasses. A Response To "New Forms Of Teacher Education: Connections To Charter Schools And Their Approaches", Sigal R. Ben-Porath Sep 2014

Flying Sandwiches And Broken Glasses. A Response To "New Forms Of Teacher Education: Connections To Charter Schools And Their Approaches", Sigal R. Ben-Porath

Democracy and Education

The authors of the feature article provide a sound analysis of the shortcomings of the new teacher training model in preparing professional teachers rather than technicians, in getting them ready to teach in varied environments, and in helping teachers and students develop their skills of participation in a democratic society. In this response I outline an additional key issue related to apprenticeship-based teacher training models of the type that Match and Relay represent, namely, the matter of accountability.


Democratic Teaching: An Incomplete Job Description, Rachel Bradshaw Sep 2014

Democratic Teaching: An Incomplete Job Description, Rachel Bradshaw

Democracy and Education

The importance of public education in democratic states is almost beyond dispute. Too often, though, discussions of democratic education focus solely on policies and systems, forgetting the individual teachers who are ultimately responsible for educating future citizens. This paper attempts to illustrate just how complex and significant the role of teachers in a democratic republic can be.


Resisting The Neoliberal Ambush Of Public Education. A Book Review Of Educational Courage: Resisting The Ambush Of Public Education, Brandy S. Wilson May 2013

Resisting The Neoliberal Ambush Of Public Education. A Book Review Of Educational Courage: Resisting The Ambush Of Public Education, Brandy S. Wilson

Democracy and Education

This is a review of the book Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education.


Paternalism, Obesity, And Tolerable Levels Of Risk, Michael S. Merry Feb 2012

Paternalism, Obesity, And Tolerable Levels Of Risk, Michael S. Merry

Democracy and Education

In this article the author examines the relationship between paternalism and childhood obesity. In particular he examines the risks of paternalistic intervention in order to prevent or curtail the occurrence of obesity among young children.


Race To The Top: An Example Of Belief-Dependent Reality. A Response To "Race To The Top Leaves Children And Future Citizens Behind", William J. Mathis Oct 2011

Race To The Top: An Example Of Belief-Dependent Reality. A Response To "Race To The Top Leaves Children And Future Citizens Behind", William J. Mathis

Democracy and Education

Although the federal government claims otherwise, Race to the Top is not research based. Rather, its foundation is in ideology and belief-based realism. The overall effort is fundamentally antiscientific and distracts valuable and needed attention, resources, and focus from the nation's real problems of social, economic, and educational deprivation.


Imagining No Child Left Behind Freed From Neoliberal Hijackers, Eugene Matusov Oct 2011

Imagining No Child Left Behind Freed From Neoliberal Hijackers, Eugene Matusov

Democracy and Education

As a sociocultural educator and scholar, I have always been ambivalent about No Child Left Behind's slogan. I like its democratic ideal of “education without failure,” but I do not like the current educational policies guided by a neoliberal ideology. This article begins a discussion about what a No Student Left Behind educational practice might look like from a sociocultural democratic education perspective.


Schooling For Democracy, Nel Noddings Apr 2011

Schooling For Democracy, Nel Noddings

Democracy and Education

There is a widespread movement today to prepare all students for college, and it is promoted in the name of democracy. I argue here that such a move actually puts our democracy at risk by forcing students into programs that do not interest them and depriving them of courses at which they might succeed. We risk losing the vision of democracy that respects every form of honest work and cultivates a deep appreciation of interdependence.


The Political Legacy Of School Accountability Systems, Sherman Dorn Jan 1998

The Political Legacy Of School Accountability Systems, Sherman Dorn

Sherman Dorn

The recent battle reported from Washington about proposed national testing program does not tell the most important political story about high stakes tests. Politically popular school accountability systems in many states already revolve around statistical results of testing with high-stakes environments. The future of high stakes tests thus does not depend on what happens on Capitol Hill. Rather, the existence of tests depends largely on the political culture of published test results. Most critics of high-stakes testing do not talk about that culture, however. They typically focus on the practice legacy of testing, the ways in which testing creates perverse …