Reclaiming the Methodological Grounds of Neoliberal Education Policy Research

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This panel seeks to push back against the prevailing neo-liberal education policies that help solidify unequal social arrangements and have their most dire effects on marginalized groups living in cities. In doing so, the panelists challenge the narrow scientism that supports such policies and discuss the contributions of a range of critical methodologies. Each panelist presents rich data from theoretically, city-based research that holds important policy implications and highlights methodological advantages. Additionally, the session opens a discussion to strategize ways to assert critical methodologies into policy discussions and join forces with communities in struggle for just and equitable educational practice

Sub Unit

• SIG-Education and Student Development in Cities

Chair

• Kathleen M. Nolan, Princeton University

Papers

• Perspectives From Studying Through School Closure Policy: A Critical Anthropology Guiding Neoliberal Inquiry - Liza Pappas, The New York City Independent Budget Office

• Trapped Inside a Poisoned Maze: Mapping Young People’s Geographies of Disposability in Schools - Patricia Krueger-Henney, University of Massachusetts at Boston

• Complicit Practices, Entangled Supports: How Education Policies Miss the Mark at Critical Junctures - Mayida Zaal, Montclair State University

• Urban Teachers’ Counterstories of Neoliberal School Reform - Kathleen M. Nolan, Princeton University

• What Does Policy Have to Do With It? Antibullying Legislation and LGBTQQ Youth Participation in Schools - Darla Linville, Georgia Regents University

Discussant

• Lisa (Leigh) Patel, Boston College