Realizing the Promise of and Listening to the Public About Public Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Civic Education as Humanist Praxis: Consciousness- and Community-Building for Equity

Abstract

This paper deconstructs the foundations of the social contract for public education and argues for an inclusive, public engagement process that privileges the voices of those who receive public education services-students, families and communities. Paying particular attention to the influence of public participation, or lack thereof, I offer a critique of the lack of inclusion and consideration of public contributions to education by education experts, policymakers, higher education, and local and state government institutions as practiced in Chicago Public Schools. I argue that this exclusivity of community partners, families and students constitutes a crisis in public education when significant segments of the population accessing its services are excluded from its operation.

Author

• Torica L. Webb, University of Illinois at Chicago