Collective Choice in Education

Collective Choice in Education PDF

Author: M.J. Bowman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9400973985

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The persistently increasing scale and complexity of government, of quasi public organizations, and of private organizations pose many problems in the economics of collective choice. Moreover, education as a quasi-public good has drawn ever more heavily on public budgets. Yet economic research into collective behavior with respect to education has been sparse (with the partial exception of recent work on teacher unions). In view of these trends, it was decided that the third conference under the Ford-sponsored UK. jUS. Pro gramme in the Economics of Education should make the high-risk effort of encouraging and bringing together studies relating to collective choice in education, with some emphasis on studies in educational finance. The con ference exploited opportunities for an exchange of ideas between economists in the United Kingdom and in the United States; there were special gains that could come from such an interchange. British and American economists do share a common inheritance that goes back to Benthamite utilitarianism and a common training in neo-classical economic theory even when one or both of these is challenged (which happens, of course, on both sides of the Atlantic). They share also a culture of political democracy despite important dissimilar ities in governmental structures and institutions. These commonalities and contrasts facilitate comparative testing of analyses developed in either setting.

School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy

School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy PDF

Author: Robert Asen

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2021-09-28

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0271091509

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Evidence shows that the increasing privatization of K–12 education siphons resources away from public schools, resulting in poorer learning conditions, underpaid teachers, and greater inequality. But, as Robert Asen reveals here, the damage that market-based education reform inflicts on society runs much deeper. At their core, these efforts are antidemocratic. Arguing that democratic communities and public education need one another, Asen examines the theory driving privatization, popularized in the neoliberalism of Milton and Rose Friedman, as well as the case for school choice promoted by former secretary of education Betsy DeVos and the controversial voucher program of former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. What Asen finds is that a market-based approach holds not just a different view of distributing education but a different vision of society. When the values of the market—choice, competition, and self-interest—shape national education, that policy produces individuals, Asen contends, with no connections to community and no obligations to one another. The result is a society at odds with democracy. Probing and thought-provoking, School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy features interviews with local, on-the-ground advocates for public education and offers a countering vision of democratic education—one oriented toward civic relationships, community, and equality. This book is essential reading for policymakers, advocates of public education, citizens, and researchers.

School Choice and Social Controversy

School Choice and Social Controversy PDF

Author: Stephen D. Sugarman

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2011-12-01

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 0815721080

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In this important new volume, distinguished legal and public policy scholars address issues that are critical to the successful drafting and implementation of school choice programs, yet are usually overlooked in the choice debate. They explore whether school choice is a threat or an opportunity to the many children who are largely deprived of choice today and they offer a variety of perspectives, with some authors enthusiastic, others more skeptical. The book begins with a discussion of the types and extent of school choice, what is known about its consequences, and how politics has influenced its development. It then focuses on three important public policy issues: how school choice can revolutionize the way schools are financed, what policy interventions are necessary to increase the supply of choice schools, and how choice programs can be held accountable to parents and the state without undermining institutional autonomy. The book addresses legal issues, including whether public and private choice schools will be required to observe student and teacher rights generally recognized in traditional public schools, how the religion and speech clauses of the First Amendment may affect the participation of religious schools in school choice programs, whether school choice will enhance or aggravate opportunities for racial justice, what the implications of school choice are for teacher unions and collective bargaining, and whether children with disabilities will be accommodated in school choice programs under federal disability law. Throughout the book, the authors offer recommendations for public policy development. The contributors are Jeffrey Henig, Robert Bulman and David L. Kirp, Paul T. Hill, Robert M. O'Neil, Jesse H. Choper, Betsy Levin, William G. Buss, and Laura F. Rothstein. Stephen D. Sugarman is Agnes Roddy Robb Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Frank R. Kemerer is Regents Professor and director of the Center for

Excluded by Choice

Excluded by Choice PDF

Author: Federico R. Waitoller

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0807778621

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Through powerful narratives of parents of Black and Latinx students with disabilities, this book provides a unique look at the relationship between disability, race, urban space, and market-driven educational policies. Offering significant insights into complex forms of educational exclusion, the text illustrates the actual challenges and paradoxes of school choice faced by today’s parents. Included are explanations for the kinds of injustices students with disabilities face every day, as well as resources that can be helpful for engaging in collective action aimed at improving educational services for all children. This accessible resource offers recommendations to help policymakers, charter school administrators, teachers, and families tackle the challenges of school choice while dealing effectively with the new generation of inclusive schools. Book Features: Presents a first-of-its-kind look at how Black and Latinx parents of students with disabilities experience market-driven approaches to education. Identifies the consequences of push-out practices in charter schools and how families experience and resist these practices. Situates school choice amid historical and compounding forms of exclusion associated with geographical (neighborhood) and social (disability, race, and class) locations. Provides lessons learned and valuable guidance for creating a new generation of inclusive charter schools.

Collective Responsibility

Collective Responsibility PDF

Author: Frances Whalan

Publisher: Brill / Sense

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 9789460918810

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How to achieve school reform and organisational change has been a subject of much inquiry and interest by educators, education systems and academics. This volume advances both conceptual and methodological knowledge in understanding the cultural changes required at the school level to develop teachers' collective responsibility for student learning.The concept of teachers' collective responsibility is both intriguing and elusive as it traverses both sociological and psychological aspects of teaching. Five major but interconnected discourses: professional community; professional development; relational trust; accountability; and efficacy map the terrain of this complex phenomenon.Results reported in this volume provide clear evidence that collective responsibility is positively correlated the coherence between professional learning programs and the school's learning goals, teachers' commitment to enact those shared goals and teacher-to-teacher trust. In addition, teachers' collective struggle to address pressing issues for teaching and learning, and pedagogical leadership, when embedded in the organisational capacity of a school, form a complex and dynamic set of factors influencing the development of collective responsibility. Drawing together these important findings surfaces a need to rethink how schools, education systems and academics pay attention to what falls between the cracks for school reform. This book addresses aspects of school culture that guide the choices in the development of teachers' collective responsibility. Professional development, collective struggle, professional community, relational trust and pedagogical leadership as elements of school culture and organisational reform are modelled as a continuum of micro-political conditions interacting at the school level. This model offers new insights into the complexity of collective responsibility as a multi-dimensional phenomenon and is a useful guide to organisational change for school and system leaders and academics whose research interests are focused on the how of organisational change.

Anarchist Pedagogies

Anarchist Pedagogies PDF

Author: Robert H. Haworth

Publisher: PM Press

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13: 1604861169

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Education is a challenging subject for anarchists. Many are critical about working within a state-run education system that is embedded in hierarchical, standardized, and authoritarian structures. Numerous individuals and collectives envision the creation of counterpublics or alternative educational sites as possible forms of resistance, while other anarchists see themselves as “saboteurs” within the public arena—believing that there is a need to contest dominant forms of power and educational practices from multiple fronts. Of course, if anarchists agree that there are no blueprints for education, the question remains, in what dynamic and creative ways can we construct nonhierarchical, anti-authoritarian, mutual, and voluntary educational spaces? Contributors to this edited volume engage readers in important and challenging issues in the area of anarchism and education. From Francisco Ferrer’s modern schools in Spain and the Work People’s College in the United States, to contemporary actions in developing “free skools” in the U.K. and Canada, to direct-action education such as learning to work as a “street medic” in the protests against neoliberalism, the contributors illustrate the importance of developing complex connections between educational theories and collective actions. Anarchists, activists, and critical educators should take these educational experiences seriously as they offer invaluable examples for potential teaching and learning environments outside of authoritarian and capitalist structures. Major themes in the volume include: learning from historical anarchist experiments in education, ways that contemporary anarchists create dynamic and situated learning spaces, and finally, critically reflecting on theoretical frameworks and educational practices. Contributors include: David Gabbard, Jeffery Shantz, Isabelle Fremeaux & John Jordan, Abraham P. DeLeon, Elsa Noterman, Andre Pusey, Matthew Weinstein, Alex Khasnabish, and many others.