Political Cartoons and the Framing of Charter School Reform

• In Event: 33.054 - Promoting Democratic Citizenship Through a Critical Analysis of the Media's Relationship to the Privatization of Education

Abstract

This study examines a number of political cartoons focused on various aspects of charter school reform. These images illustrate the ways in which political cartoons are able to tap into dominant cultural beliefs in order to call attention to particular issues often from a critical perspective. The paper unpacks the meaning embedded in these cartoons through the use of tools borrowed from both the study of semiotics and the field of visual rhetoric. With regard to semiotics, the study focuses on identifying the signs and symbols embedded within the images. With respect to visual rhetoric, the study focuses on the way the images condense and combine ideas, present opposing position, and seek to normalize or challenge particular perspectives.
In the case of charter school reform, political cartoons open up a discursive space for consideration and critique of new policies and their consequences. These cartoons provide access to a discourse that questions the benefits of charter school reform and stands in opposition to the neoliberal discourses now influencing educational policy.
Political cartoons, as a form of visual discourse, select and emphasize some aspects of perceived reality in ways that lead to particular interpretations. According to Greenberg (2002), “The visual image, its caption and the accompanying label or ‘punch line’ provide clues to the preferred meaning and the types of outcomes or consequences that the artist feels may legitimately result from the activity, issue or event being depicted” (p. 184). These depictions can be powerful when they resonate with existing systems of social relations within which political actors are situated and draw on deep seated assumptions, presuppositions, and beliefs. If the framing is successful, political arguments come to be viewed as unassailable, natural, and consistent with widespread popular consensus.
Discourse analysis has the power to reveal ideas about free enterprise, capitalism, efficiency, and choice have been used to frame particular issues such student performance as social problems and certain institutional arrangements as preferred solutions. According to Nisbet (2009), this process, which gives “greater weight to certain considerations and elements over others” helps to shape the way readers understand the news, what is important, and what actions should be taken (p. 17). For example, in a previous empirical study, I found two dominant news frames in a sample of 161 news articles related to charter schools drawn from The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Philadelphia Inquirer published between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013. One of these frames emphasized issues of public accountability with respect to resource allocation and administrative practices in charter schools, while the other emphasized freedom, choice, and innovation with regard to educational practices and the benefits thought to be associated with parental choice. I conclude that the ubiquitous nature of these frames in reports on charter schools “function[s] to shape the ways in which charter school issues are understood” as either entities in need of further regulation or as sites of innovation.

Author

• Abe Feuerstein, Bucknell University