Untangling District Resistance and Academic Capitalism: Exploring Forces That Inhibit Equitable Education Systems

• In Event: Teacher Education in and for Multilingual/Multicultural Contexts

Abstract

We engaged in reflexive methodology and sensemaking of our experiences in a school-university partnership and the district-level resistance from central-office administrators we encountered in our work. We were met with this resistance even when teachers themselves acted as enthusiastic agents of change; to the general public, the inner-workings of district-level offices remain obscured. The purposes of the study, therefore, are two-fold: one, to shift blame away from teachers and students and center the role of district-level administrators as gatekeepers to social justice-oriented work even when teachers embrace it; and, two, to hold ourselves accountable to the students, teachers, and communities we serve. The generative insights gleaned through our analysis suggest possibilities for others engaged in social-justice projects within school-university partnerships.

Authors

• Brie Morettini, Rowan University

• Daniel Tulino, Stockton University

• Shelley Zion, Rowan University