“With the Emphasis on Public”: A Qualitative Examination of the Discourse Surrounding the Public Nature of a Charter School

• In Event: Neoliberalism and the “New” Public School Reform Movement

Abstract

This study explores the shifting meaning of public education through a constructivist qualitative analysis of the public discourse around Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, a recently opened charter elementary school in Richmond, Virginia. The data for this analysis are from a five-year review of articles, editorials and letters to the editor from six print media sources (n=237), and minutes from the public comment portion of Richmond School Board meetings (n=35). The study found that while the pubic discourse surrounding the school has drawn strongly on the popular reform language of charters, much of it is also rooted in the race politics of Richmond and the history of Massive and Passive Resistance to school desegregation in the city.

Author

• Jesse Senechal, Virginia Commonwealth University