To Acknowledge Growing Economic Inequality Is Not Enough: Implications of the Occupy Wall Street Movement for Educational Research and Practice

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

This session calls on researchers to grapple with the implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement for educational research and practice. The session will feature four papers, each exploring different questions raised by the movement.

First, how does rising economic inequality shape the educational experiences of young people in American schools? What do we know about how economic inequality influences the daily lives of young people outside of schools and what do we know about its affects on schooling experiences?

Second, to what extent does Occupy Wall Street’s challenge to the neoliberal agenda in the economic sphere speak to prevailing understandings of neoliberal reform in education?

Third, how are educators incorporating the Occupy movement and issues of economic inequality into the curriculum (and how should they be)? What challenges have teachers faced as they have sought to engage these issues?

Fourth, what is the relationship between Occupy Wall Street and education organizing? To what extent are education organizing groups forging relationships with, or building on, the Occupy Wall Street movement? What can we learn from the literature on social movements and education organizing about the conditions under which emergent activism builds into broader movements for social change?

Sub Unit

• Presidential Session

Cosponsors

• Division G - Social Context of Education

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Educational Policy and Politics

Chair

• John S. Rogers, University of California - Los Angeles

Participants

• John S. Rogers, University of California - Los Angeles

• Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa

• Janelle T. Scott, University of California - Berkeley

• Charles M. Payne, University of Chicago