Reclaiming Public Education: Reviving Civic and Democratic Schooling in the Age of Neoliberal Standardization

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers as Agents of Equity: Data, Democracy, and Instructional Change

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, Neoliberal education reforms with the purpose of standardizing education have eroded the civic and democratic purpose of U.S. public schooling. This article uses qualitative data from a six-month research study at a public elementary school in New York City to examine how standardization exerts extreme control over curriculum, pedagogy, and knowledge production, and suppresses meaningful civic and democratic engagement. The author urgently calls for greater research of educational spaces which promote equity, teacher agency, and democratic pedagogy. A strong body of work researching these kinds of spaces must counteract the persistence and misplaced policy devotion to standardization and test scores. Our democratic crisis demands it.

Author

• Johanna Barnhart, Hunter College - CUNY