"We're Kind of at a Pivotal Point": Opt Out's Vision for an Ethic of Care

• In Event: 34.078 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 34.078-2 - Educational Change in Classrooms, Schools, and Communities

Abstract

This presentation explores the Opt Out movement’s quest to dismantle neoliberal educational policy by boycotting high-stakes standardized tests. Using data collected from a critical ethnographic study of Opt Out Florida, the researchers analyzed the vision of post-neoliberal education articulated by the activist mothers who comprise the group. Our findings indicate Opt Out members display a commitment to education reminiscent of Noddings’ (1984) description of moral education. Understanding standardized tests as instruments of control, Opt Out members actively resist participating in an enterprise that fails to meet their children in a caring relation. We argue Opt Out’s emphasis on the ideal moral relations between school and child offers one vision of post-neoliberal education.

Authors

• Stephanie Schroeder, University of Florida

• Elizabeth Currin, University of South Carolina

• Todd McCardle, Eastern Kentucky University