Security, Democracy, and Learning: Exploring the Dialectics of In/Security in Educational Space

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Post-9/11, notions of security in schools, communities, and workplaces are tied to the policy assemblage labeled the ‘War on Terror.’ These policies often appear in contradiction with the experiences of educators who see their work impacted by mandates emphasizing privatization, reduction of public services, standardization, intensification of labor, and loss of funding. The juxtaposition of these experiences, in the context of fiscal crisis, raises questions about the nature of ‘security’ in the everyday life of schools and communities. This symposium will examine questions of ‘security,’ and their attenuating policy formations, from the standpoint of youth, teachers, and communities by drawing together diverse perspectives on the question of the relation between security, education, and democracy in Canada and the United States.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 4: Social Context of Educational Policy, Politics, and Praxis

Chair

• Jamie Lynn Magnusson, OISE/University of Toronto

Papers

• The Rise and Fall of Socialist Education in North America - Tara Silver, OISE/University of Toronto

• Securitization, Youth, and Urban Public Schooling - Alexander James Means, University of Toronto

• “Where Are the Promises of America?” Educating Iraqi Refugee Youth in Our Public Schools - Sally Wesley Bonet, Rutgers University

• Social Work Education for Social Change: Exploring the Impacts of the Post-9/11 Sociopolitical Context - Sajedeh Zahraei, University of Toronto

• Children of War? Security, Civic Education, and Democratic Learning - Sara Carpenter, OISE/University of Toronto