Writing Op-Eds: Taking Up the Crucial Task of Educating the Public

• In Event: Edu4: Social Imagination, Innovation, and Political Activism in Education

Abstract

This working group is at the nexus of the Edu4 initiative. Its members seek to challenge and bridge methodological boundaries with the goal of facilitating unlikely collaboration across, and within, various fields of inquiry. Discourse on education, it is argued, too often reflects the views of “experts” while shirking the experience, insight, and wisdom of teachers, parents, and students. Even within the arena of scholarly discourse around issues in education, too often field-entrenchment and specialization silos unnecessarily exclude one group from the other, thwarting beneficial discourse between the arts and humanities scholar and the psychologist and economist, for example. In recognition of, and challenge to, these boundaries, Edu4’s op-ed working group aims to make academic work accessible and meaningful to a broader public and their everyday lives by advocating for those disenfranchised, disempowered, and denied access to the conversation: namely, parents, teachers, students, and other concerned citizens, all of whom experience, rather than speculate about, the impact of education policy. The writing of op-eds and articles by various intellectuals is made possible through various media, extending from online journals to newspapers. Making the work of engaged scholars and education professionals, and especially the insight of those “non-traditional” educators mentioned widely accessible broadens the scope of the audience for such work by transgressing the boundaries and challenging the orthodoxy that “only education professionals know what educates.” As a community, this group seeks to bring into conversation dispersed public intellectuals and diverse educators who are willing to take up the crucial task of educating the public, while engaging and reflecting the views of the public in the content it produces. The overarching goal is to cultivate a more equitable and socially just educational environment. Such cultivation begins with reflection on the voices and stories of diverse educators not only in the mainstream, but more important both philosophically and ethically, the voices of those not in the mainstream.

Discussion questions:
• How can we as education researchers, in collaboration with other educators, bridge the gap between research, theory, and local knowledge in order to educate the public?
• How can we challenge and go beyond divisions in research and praxis to engage a more diverse range of perspectives and engage traditionally marginalized voices?
• What opportunities already exist (e.g., organizations, institutions, initiatives, etc.) for collaboration on these issues and educating the public?
• How can we promote a more socially just and diverse educational discourse, where diverse educators may collaborate to address, rather than avoid or ignore, the fact that socioeconomic status plays directly into educational equity/opportunity?

Authors

• William C. Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Arnold Edward Dodge, Long Island University - C.W. Post Campus