Building a Framework to Promote Radical Education Policy

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 5:10 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Analysis and Perspectives on Education Policy for Equity (Table 13)

Abstract

Guided by critical policy analysis, we apply our radical policy innovation framework to two policy initiatives in Massachusetts that are explicitly intended to disrupt the structures and norms of teaching and learning in US schools. We ask:
To what extent are Massachusetts’ Early College and Anti-Racist Educator initiatives constitutive of radical innovation in education policy?
What can we learn about radical policy making, interpretation, and implementation from Massachusetts’ Early College and Anti-Racist Educator initiatives? Findings suggest that while both policy initiatives are structurally disruptive and justice oriented (i.e., radically innovative), policy interpretation and implementation is threatened by a broader context that continues to be defined by neoliberal accountability policies.

Authors

• Stacy Agee Szczesiul, University of Massachusetts - Lowell

• Megin Charner-Laird, Salem State University