This course explores historical and contemporary challenges involved in the policy and practice of viewing education more broadly than schooling alone. Students will explore several historical case studies, conceptual frames, and current policy challenges, culminating in a research project in service to the Norris Square community in Philadelphia. (more…)
This course was developed as a partnership between the education department at Penn State-Berks, The Penn State Educational Partnership Program’s Urban Teacher Leadership Program, and the school district of the city of Reading, PA. Themes explored in this course include: urban education, youth civic engagement, and action research. Students in the course engaged in service learning (mentoring middle and high school students) and action research. This syllabus may be particularly helpful for those interested in integrating action research into service-learning courses. The instructor for this course, Kira Baker-Doyle, is now Assistant Professor of Education and Director of Programs in Literacies, Technologies, and Citizenship Studies at the Arcadia University School of Education. For more information about this course, please contact her at bakerdoylek@arcadia.edu. (more…)
Parental involvement is mentioned more than one hundred times in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In this article, John Rogers argues that President Bush and former U.S. secretary of education Rod Paige have promoted policy narratives of test accountability, choice, and parental involvement that describe how poor parents can spur educators to have higher expectations and to work harder. What is missing from these policy narratives, Rogers argues, is a fundamental understanding of the problems facing poor communities: a lack of both resources and tools for collective action. Through the case study of a grassroots nonprofit organization, Parent-U-Turn, Rogers demonstrates how parents can create what he calls public power by responding to structural and systemic educational problems through shared inquiry and collective action. Rogers holds up this case as an example of how parents might become true forces for accountability in public education and outlines ways in which the lessons of this example might be incorporated into the reauthorization of NCLB. (more…)
This UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) study reveals important common ground among influential Californians about the knowledge and skills students should acquire from the state’s public schools. The points of agreement between stakeholders who span the political and ideological spectrum differ from the lofty rhetoric that characterizes much of today’s education debate, and offer hope for improving California’s public schools. (more…)
Activism and organizing can be a fertile subject matter for young people to study. This article presents a case study of a summer seminar in which urban high school students examined the historical struggle for educational justice in their communities. Adopting a “communities of practice” approach to learning, the article documents the changing participation of seminar participants and the changing identities and skills that this entailed. During the seminar, students took on identities as “critical researchers”— skilled investigators who produce and share knowledge relevant to social change. In the process, seminar participants developed and deployed high-level academic skills in language arts, social studies, and mathematics. (more…)
Anniversaries of major historical events, such as the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, provide social studies teachers with the opportunity to connect their classroom study to broader public conversations about the event and its significance. This article reports on the one such effort – an intensive five week summer seminar in which urban high school students produced original historical research on the legacy of Brown in greater Los Angeles. (more…)
Prepared for the 2005 conference of the American Educational Research Association, this readers theater presentation explains the use of research and community organizing to change the landscape of educational politics. (more…)
This article explores the potential role of low-wage service sector unions in engaging in equity-minded school reform. The members of many such unions are parents of children attending poorly resourced public schools. In seeking to address the interests of their members, labor unions can draw upon resources, organizing strategies, and political relationships to contribute to grassroots campaigns for educational equity. Data gathered in Los Angeles from labor and civic leaders, as well as janitors belonging to the Service Employees International Union Local 1877, reveal possibilities for low-wage service sector unions to build alliances around educational reform issues and support their members’ individual capacities to advocate for their own children in schools. At the same time, low-wage service sector unions face challenges to participating in school reform efforts, including prioritizing education issues among other competing interests and identifying common ground with teachers’ unions. (more…)
The third brief in the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment’s (IRLE) series of Research and Policy Briefs highlights the work of the Service Employees International Union Local 1877, the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, UCLA School of Law’s Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, and the UCLA Labor Center in understanding and addressing the educational issues facing union members’ children. SEIU Local 1877 has sponsored “Parent University” workshops which teach members about topics that will help them to support their own children’s academic success and advocate for school improvements. SEIU Local 1877 is also working with a collaborative of unions and community groups to expand upon the Parent University work and stay involved in children’s education. (more…)
Just Schools California supports a broad-based coalition of community-based groups, youth organizations, civil rights advocates, teachers, researchers, and policymakers eager to participate actively in providing Californians — especially low-income students, English learners, African American and Latino students — with high quality schools. We provide research necessary for understanding the conditions and outcomes of California schools and analyzing the impact of state policies. (more…)