scholarly journals The War on Public Education: Agonist Democracy and the Fight for Schools as Public Things

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Kathleen Knight Abowitz
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Education Governance ◽  
Educational Politics ◽  
A Site ◽  
Local Levels

Agonistic critiques of democratic theory conceptualize democracy as a site of conflict and struggle; as the fight against privatization escalates, these critiques become more relevant for educational governance. Public education governance has, in addition, increasingly been the site of growing conflicts between federal, states and local levels, as populist and other types of dissent are now emerging in educational politics. These conflicts reached a new nexus with the nomination of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. This nomination represents a vivid battle over public school as a “public thing,” a material object, space, institution or place of symbolic and embodied civic importance (Honig 2017). DeVos’ nomination stirred up, in popular imagination, the idea of public schools as “public things” of meaning and value for many citizens who participated in unprecedented ways to (unsuccessfully) block her appointment. It was with this threat to public education that the value of school as a “public thing” became crystalized among a diverse network of citizens. This political moment reveals 1) the nature of schools as public things, 2) the importance of agonist critiques of democracy, and public work, as a means for citizens to help safe-guard the future of schools as public things. I conclude by explaining the limits of agonism as a comprehensive approach to the democratic governance of schooling, advocating for its use as a critique and expansion of current models of public engagement with educational politics.

The Dying of the Light

2017 ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Westry Whitaker
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Critical Awareness ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
A Site

These are dangerous times (Giroux, 2010, 2015). In this chapter, the author illuminates and explores the founders' complex and often contradictory perspectives on public education and democracy itself and their relevance to technologically-mediated educational discourses. This chapter demonstrates the importance of re-politicizing and historicizing public education with particular emphasis on defending public schools, public school teachers and the very concept of public education as a site of democratic solidarity. The author approaches this topic with attention to the corporatized war on education waged by wayward conservatives and centrist democrats. The author explores these battle lines while juxtaposing their stance and value for public education with that of the nation's founders. The author expands upon this contrast by drawing critical awareness to the social, political, and cultural implications of information technology and the use of digital spaces to project our voices and faces loudly and vividly into the bedrooms of people never met.

No Child Left Behind: The Ongoing Movement for Public Education Reform

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROD PAIGE
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Education System ◽  
Academic Skills ◽  
Public Education System ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Public Education Reform ◽  
Original Goal

In this essay, former secretary of education Rod Paige depicts the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as the culmination of more than half a century of urgent but largely unheeded calls for reform of the nation's public education system. He explains the rationale for the design of NCLB and responds to several criticisms of the legislation, including the notion that it is a one-size-fits-all mandate and that its improvement targets are unrealistic. He further argues that the nation's public schools must become more responsive to the needs of students and their families in order to remain viable. Finally, he contends that subsequent reauthorizations should stay true to NCLB's original goal of holding school systems accountable for equipping all students with the academic skills on which America's future depends.

Whose money matters in public education: A “public” good that parents purchase

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110343
Author(s):  
Eunju Kang
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
New York State ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Education Funding ◽  
Funding Policy ◽  
State And Local

Instead of asking whether money matters, this paper questions whose money matters in public education. Previous literature on education funding uses an aggregate expenditure per pupil to measure the relationship between education funding and academic performance. Federalism creates mainly three levels of funding sources: federal, state, and local governments. Examining New York State school districts, most equitably funded across school districts among the 50 states, this paper shows that neither federal nor state funds are positively correlated with graduation rates. Only local revenues for school districts indicate a strong positive impact. Parents’ money matters. This finding contributes to a contentious discourse on education funding policy in the governments, courts, and academia with respect to education funding and inequality in American public schools.

scholarly journals Desafío TEP – Positive Educational Trajectories. A Public-Private Alliance to Strengthen Public Education During the Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-79
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Valenzuela ◽  
Simon Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Exclusion ◽  
Educational Trajectories ◽  
Education Service ◽  
Educational Foundation ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
The University

AbstractThis case study describes the Desafío TEP project, which arose from a public-private alliance between the Arauco Educational Foundation, the Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) from the University of Chile, and the Andalién Sur Local Public Education Service (SLEP). The goal of the project is to develop a model for the prevention of school exclusion (resulting from repetition and dropout) in public schools.Although the initiative was in consideration to be suspended due to the closure of schools across the country caused by COVID-19, instead the proposal was completely redesigned, recognizing that the pandemic would increase the problems of school exclusion. The innovations generated in this redesign are anticipated to lead to long-term sustainability and scalability in the region through cost reductions and the promotion of remote interactions between different establishments working in networks, such as the SLEP, the schools, and the teams from the CIAE and Arauco Educational Foundation. This network is further supported by the actors in the educational system of the territory.

The Publishers and Their Books

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Kathleen Wellman
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Christian Education ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Bob Jones University ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Bible Reading

This chapter discusses the three publishers of the textbooks this book treats: Bob Jones University, Abeka Books, and Accelerated Christian Education. It addresses when and why they began to publish and the controversies and legal challenges they subsequently generated. It explores the history of their sponsoring educational institutions and their stated missions. It places them in the context of Christian opposition to public education as it developed in response to the teaching of evolution, the Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s prohibiting prayer and Bible reading in public schools, and, most importantly, desegregation. These three publishers have offered an alternative “Christian” education since the early 1970s.

Ceará

2019 ◽  
pp. 246-280
Author(s):  
Rebecca Tarlau
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Local State ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
National Context ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Contemporary Context

Chapter 6 analyzes the MST’s engagement with public schools in Ceará in the late 2000s, in a very different context, when the movement’s educational initiatives are already recognized nationally. During this period, MST activists in Ceará win access to four high schools in their settlements, specifically designated as escolas do campo (school of the countryside). Chapter 6 shows how the national context, while not determining of regional trajectories, directly influences local relations between movement activists and local state officials. More specifically, a conservative government in Ceará agrees to work with the MST due to increasing external pressure. In contrast, São Paulo was able to deflect this national advocacy, illustrating that high-capacity states can still override the influence of national trends. This chapter also shows the evolution of the MST’s pedagogical practices and what the MST’s contentious co-governance of public education looks like in the contemporary context.

scholarly journals Critical Classrooms Matter: Baltimore Teachers’ Pedagogical Response After the Death of Freddie Gray

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 984-1007
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. Flores-Koulish ◽  
Jessica T. Shiller
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Cultural Relevance ◽  
Police Custody ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Events ◽  
School Classroom ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Public School Classroom ◽  
The City

The purpose of this article is to discuss the possibilities of public education. We argue that public schools, despite their flaws, still provide necessary spaces of civic engagement. When major social and/or political events happen, young people have few outlets to discuss, process, and understand implications. In this article, we share the experiences of Baltimore’s teachers after the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed Black man, who lived in Baltimore and died in police custody. Following his death, the city exploded in protest, both violent and peaceful. We interviewed eight teachers and collected curriculum samples to make sense of how they used the public school classroom as a space of critical care, social justice, cultural relevance, and anti-racism to contextualize current events in their city. There are implications here for school district professional development and teacher education.

Equitable Educational Opportunities in K-12 Schools: West African and U.S. Public Schools Compared

2020 ◽  
pp. 002205742096676
Author(s):  
Adekunle Lawal
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
West African ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Education For All ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Elementary And Secondary Education ◽  
K 12

In an effort to promote public elementary and secondary education that meets world standards where all students have equal access to 21st-century public schools, some countries have adopted Education For All (EFA) policy. This article examines how three selected countries (the United States, Nigeria, and Gambia) are implementing the idea of giving all children the opportunity of equal access to public education. The article explores the historical trend of the concept and several education policies enacted in each country to make the program productive.

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