The Power of the Network: Teach For America’s Impact on the Deregulation of Teacher Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Concentric Circles of Teach For America/Teach For All: A Layered Approach to Neoliberal Reform

Abstract

In this paper we interrogate the relationships between Teach For America (TFA) and the movement to deregulate teacher education. Using policy network analysis (Ball, 2012; Grabher & Powell, 2005), we map out how TFA sits at the forefront of an “education entrepreneur network” of leaders and organizations that support, manage, and promote the current shift to free market philosophy as a guide for urban education reform. While this network promotes multiple agendas, this analysis focuses on TFA’s relationship to the deregulation of teaching. Through a critical policy scholarship lens, we situate TFA and the education entrepreneur network within a social, economic, political, and cultural context (Anyon, 2005; Lipman, 2011), examining the specific interests and relations of power embedded in educational policy decisions (Apple, 1995; Grace, 1984). To this end, we are interested in how power and resources are distributed via networks with and through TFA. In the past decade there has been a fundamental shift in governance away from elected hierarchical systems towards networks of resources, expertise, reputation, and legitimization (Grabher & Powell, 2005). Rhodes (1995, p. 9) defines ‘network’ as the interdependent actors and organizations engaged in the provision and exchange of informational, monetary, and human resources. These networks are increasingly acting as a “shadow state,” in which unelected, decentralized bodies are exercising profound influence on policy without public accountability (Ball, 2007; Saltman, 2009; Scott, 2009; Wolch, 1990).
To better understand how and by whom governance happens, researchers have begun to use policy network analysis to investigate the formations and interactions of these networks. We seek to understand TFA’s impact on teacher education policy in the current climate of the deregulation of teacher education (Sleeter, 2008; Zeichner, 2010), an increasing technocratic conception of teaching (Lipman, 2011), and intensifying accountability systems for Schools of Education and teaching candidates (Kumashiro, 2010; Sleeter 2008; Zeichner, 2010). In addition to promoting alternative certification through TFA, and other fast-track programs modeled after TFA, such as the alumni founded New Teacher Project, TFA is intertwined with numerous organizations advancing a move away from university-based teacher preparation. For example, Relay School of Education, the first charter, independent master-granting institute, is a joint effort between Teach For America and three charter school networks. Relay has plans to expand and is an expected model for other programs as indicated by the introduction of the “Growing Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals Act (GREAT)” into the Senate. This would allow states to apply for grants to set up charter colleges of education (Open Congress, 2011; Zeichner, 2011). TFA alumni serving as district and state leaders, such as John White and Michelle Rhee, have promoted the growth and expansion of the Teach For America corps in their districts and hired a significant percentage of alumni to work as high-level staff. As Teach For America continues to develop financial, political, and media support it is imperative that we examine not only the immediate affects that the organization has on students, but also the potential impacts on future reforms.

Authors

• Kerry Kretchmar, Carroll University

• Beth Leah Sondel, University of Wisconsin

• Joseph J. Ferrare, University of Kentucky