Institutes, Foundations, and Think Tanks: Conservative Influences on U.S. Public Schools

While a complete analysis of the effects of conservative think tanks is beyond the scope of this article, we include the above passage as evidence of what, on a broad scale, the “idea brokers” have been working towards. While education is only one area where neoconservative think tanks seek to influence public policy, it has become the issue for many neoconservatives. In this article, we focus on four think tanks—The Manhattan Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation—and what they are doing to reshape public schools in ways more suitable to neoconservative and corporate ends. Our goal is to problematize and critique the assertions of these think tanks, with the hope of generating a counter-narrative to their bold and influential proclamations

Politics or Principles?: Joseph Kinmont Hart and The University of Washington, 1910-1915

Joseph Kinmont Hart was a young professor of education during this time and played a role in the unrest at the university. Hart was a popular teacher, a sought-after speaker in the community, and an agitator for social change. His politics were in contrast to most of the Board of Regents and the state legislature and the battles he fought with his own colleagues ultimately led to his being fired with the rest of the department in 1915. Hart was among a number of people who questioned Suzzallo’s candidacy for the UW presidency. It was widely believed that Hart wrote an article critical of Suzzallo in the Northwest Journal of Education. Whether Hart actually penned the essay or not, Suzzallo believed he did and in his correspondences with one of Hart’s enemies, Frederick Bolton (who ultimately was fired along with Hart), Suzzallo makes clear his dislike for Hart. This point may be important given the timing of Hart’s firing by interim president Henry Landes: one day before it was announced that Suzallo was selected to be the new president of UW

The Exploiting Business

Far from being limited to supermarket programs, school-business partnerships are increasing in number and variety and arguably represent a larger, exploitative agenda. The agenda is a pro-business, pro-capitalist, pro-careerist one that excludes questions about whether business is exploitative of workers and consumers (and schools), whether capitalism is the only or best economic theory, and whether elementary school students should be forced to consider their future based not on “What do you want to be when you grow up?” questions, but “What do you want to do when you grow up?” questions

Taking Care of Business: Advertising, Commercialism, and Implications for Discourse about Schools

This essay challenges the long-standing notion that the overriding purpose of U.S.A. public schools should be to produce future workers for corporate America. It questions the current discourse-the language we use when we talk about schooling, teaching, and learning. In effect, this essay takes exception to the undergirding assumption that public schools are primarily in existence as avenues for private gain. The claim is that a new language of inquiry and critique is needed in order for teachers and students to realize a significant, if untapped potential for U.S.A. schooling: namely, critical analysis of the taken-for-granted

A Lesson of Human Connection: 9/11, Film, Brotherhood, and Interpretation

Brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet were within two blocks of the World Trade Center (WTC) on the morning of September 11, 2001 when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the WTC towers. Both brothers had cameras with them, as they were engaged in shooting a documentary film about firefighters at the time. As a result, they captured unique footage from the area, including the only images from inside Tower 1, where firefighters were trying to get a handle on the situation. The footage includes sounds of falling bodies and scenes of firefighters trying to escape from Tower 1 after Tower 2 had collapsed. Both Jules and Gedeon were within blocks of Tower 1 when it collapsed, and escaped injury. CBS aired the Naudet brothers’ film on March 10, 2002. Over 39 million people watched. This essay explores the extraordinary footage and the insights the film brings to viewers regarding human connection and interpretation. Questions are raised regarding the perspectives represented in the film (and those perspectives not in the film). Questions also surround the competing meanings made of the film and the effort here is to partly lay out those competing interpretations in order to open a dialogue about human connections–their meanings, interpretations, generalizability, and importance (or lack thereof). Of ultimate interest for this essay are questions about time and timing (i.e., being the wrong place at the wrong time [or right place at the wrong time. . .or, etc.]), non- or supra-sentient existence (instinctive, quasi-cognizant actions like sensing when to escape a building and what and how to film during such a catastrophe), and the bonds of brotherhood stretched and ultimately strengthened by perseverance, serendipity, unique human connection, or something else completely. In effect, this essay explores different interpretations of the film that captured what the Naudet brothers faced and endured. This essay is not focused on whether the attacks were justified given multiple perspectives or whether the United States is a globalizing, imperialist force. These issues may run through any analysis, or attempt at analysis, of 9-11, yet the focus here is on the remarkable facts surrounding a fire company, its “probie,” and the two French film makers–all of whom survived the events of September 11, 2001. What, if anything, can the story within the story (or the story of the story) of “9/11” tell us? The film itself was set in three acts: life inside the firehouse before the tragedy, the events that transpired at the WTC, and the wait at the firehouse after the event to see who would come back alive. This essay begins with a narrative of the film, then moves to interpretations of the film, and ultimately raises questions about human connection, the Naudet brothers, and the role of criticality in viewing film. Criticality and interpretation are put forward as necessary components of U.S. schooling

Dewey\u27s Epistemology: An Argument for Warranted Assertions, Knowing, and Meaningful Classroom Practice

In an effort to navigate the treacherous path between professionalism and social relevancy, this essay takes up an area of professional philosophy - epistemology - with the intention of reclaiming the integrative role John Dewey held for philosophy and classroom practice. Deron Boyles asserts that epistemology can and should represent an area of inquiry that is relevant and useful for philosophy of education, especially as it develops classroom practices that foster inquiry. He specifically seeks to revive Dewey’s conception of warranted assertibility in an effort to show the value of fallibilist epistemology in practical and social teaching and learning contexts. By highlighting the distinctions between traditional epistemology and Dewey\u27s conception of knowing, Boyles demonstrates that epistemology has value insofar as it highlights a more useful, instrumentalist theory of knowing that is applicable to classroom practice

Would You Like Values with That?: The Role of Chik-fil-A in Character Education

I explore three main lines of inquiry: (1) the specifics of “Core Essentials” as a strategy for teaching character; (2) the role (and ironies) of private businesses influencing public school curricula; and (3) the assumptions inherent in the kind of teaching of character outlined by “Core Essentials.” Girding this inquiry is a concern about the problematic enterprise of teaching character, itself, as if it were an unquestionable domain. Further, the oddly-but-related contexts of childhood obesity findings and Christian influences (both general symbolism and fundamentalist indoctrination) on and in public spheres will be considered via Theodore Brameld’s Ends and Means in Education , John Dewey’s Moral Principles in Education , and Pierre Bourdieu’s Acts of Resistance, and Firing Back. To be clear, this essay extends Weber’s, Kaestle’s, Apple’s, and others views of Protestantism merging with capitalism to create historical realities (for Kaestle) or problematic situations (for Weber and Apple) by forcing the element of Christian fundamentalism into the equation. It is not a small matter, on my view, that the curriculum this essay considers is financially supported by a Christian fundamentalist. Indeed, the curriculum, as will be shown, encourages students to financially support the company itself (and corporate chief), thus setting up a cycle whereby unwitting teachers and students finance a Christian fundamentalist’s policies that, in turn, support Christian fundamentalism in general

Sacrificial Bodies and Hegemonic Femininity: The Creation of the Heroine in the \u3cem\u3eTwilight, The Hunger Games, & Divergent\u3c/em\u3e Series

Within this thesis, I analyze The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games Trilogy, and The Divergent Trilogy and how the portrayal and treatment of the protagonists’ bodies within these texts uphold tenets of white, hegemonic femininity. I discuss first how their bodies are feminized, in part by their whiteness and smallness, but also through the comparison to the bodies of male characters. While the men are strong and physically capable, the protagonists are weak and physically incapable. As a result, the protagonists cannot act in the way a traditional hero might, using offensive action for self-preservation. Instead, the protagonists must establish their heroism through acts of sacrifice, seeking to preserve others rather than the self. However, these acts of sacrifice are frequently interrupted by the male character, who insists on rescuing the protagonist from herself. This disrupts the protagonist’s narrative authority, forcing her into a cycle of mutilation and redemptive beautification. Though the protagonist is allowed to perform heroic acts of sacrifice, she must always return to a state of feminine beauty. Thus, her value resides not in her actions but her body. Given the immense popularity all three of these series amassed, this presentation of the heroine is troubling. The illusion of power these narratives create is dangerous. Though the label of heroine alleges empowerment, the actual roles these protagonists play within their narratives sustain the tenets of hegemonic femininity and the gender binary itself

Uncovering the Coverings: The Use of Corporate-Sponsored Textbook Covers in Furthering Uncritical Consumerism

In this article, I explore the various kinds of book covers that exist to see if a metanarrative can be discerned. I also wish to question the degree to which the various covers indicate, inscribe, or otherwise represent cultural values that might be problematic. In a basic and general sense, my intent is to investigate what symbols are actually represented on the dust jackets. What meanings do they foreclose or \u27cover\u27 over? What messages might they send? This article highlights and describes a series of textbook covers, from over one hundred that have been provided to me by various students, colleagues, and friends. Accordingly, this is not an exhaustive review of book covers. I am analyzing what I have been given with the intention of analyzing the symbols, meanings, and pros and cons of using book covers in schools. Ultimately, this article questions the role teachers play in promoting, wittingly or not, commercialism in schools

The Gig is Up: Combating the Meanings of Education Proffered by Science, Technology, and Global Capitalism

Colleagues in the academy seem to have a fascination with conceptual analysis and the term “education.” Debates are held, papers are written, and symposia take place within which definitions are articulated and modulated. Whether the point is to provide narrative, stipulative, or programmatic definitions matters little to the larger point: the quest for the meaning of “education” continues. In their turns, schooling and training are contrasted with education in order to help clarify the differences in scope, purpose, and meaning of the various terms. The concepts are often qualified in discussions of literacy, socialization, and democracy, but why? Why are we still asking these questions? More to the point, why are we still asking these questions in light of the fact that the term is already operationalized and defined for us