School Board Policy Discourse After the U.S. Financial Crisis

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: The Influences of Public Debate and Policy Narratives in Education

Abstract

In this paper, I examine how school board members responded to the 2008 financial crisis. I draw upon critical discourse studies, economic discourse, chaos theory, and grounded practical theory to guide my analysis, and I use an action-implicative discourse approach to conduct my analysis. My findings in this case suggest that school board members faced the institutional problem of addressing the value of teachers. This problem is complicated in this case by inadequate funding for public schools, a misalignment of “knowledge”, and the 2008 financial crisis. I argue that in response to the crisis school board members elevated their own knowledge and acted as fiduciaries to the public school system even though they recognized the system as heavily flawed.

Author

• Christopher Saldaña, University of Colorado - Boulder