Public and Counterpublics: Rereading the Case of Riverside through Critical Pragmatism. A Response to Community Insurgency: Constituency, Choice, and the Common Good

An article of empirically informed philosophical analysis of charter schooling that features local histories, voices of stakeholders, and an optimistic view on the democratic potential of charter school policies, the original piece presents a compelling, if extreme, case of charter school formation. In this response, I offer an alternative theoretical framing to the case. I argue that the scholarship of constitutional scholars is much less relevant as an interpretive lens on the case than more critical, contemporary pragmatist thinkers. I hope to show in this response how Deweyan political philosophy might have been used throughout the argument to produce a more nuanced and less naïve reading of charter schooling as a venue for creating new public spheres in education beyond traditional public schools. The qualitative study featured in this paper produces a detailed reading of a local charter schooling initiative that is worthy of serious analysis. My response suggests new, more plausible ways to theoretically interpret the rich case offered here

Pragmatist Thinking for a Populist Moment: Democratic Contingency and Racial Re-Valuing in Education Governance

We examine school governance in populist era, using contemporary readings of pragmatist philosophy. We are in a “populist moment,” a time of uprisings and movements of the demos making political claims (Mouffe, 2018). School officials in the U.S. are subject to an array of political demands in the form of protests and campaigns. We focus on the struggles around critical race theory in K–12 schools. Glaude (2017) has advocated pragmatism’s use in light of racial revaluing and democratic struggle. Rogers’ work (2009) has highlighted inquiry, founded on contingency, in the face of disagreement and power struggles. These scholars show us educational governance’s dual task in this moment: a revaluing of racialized Others in educational institutions done while simultaneously crafting conditions for deliberative judgment and meaningful policymaking in the face of political contingency. In light of this racial reckoning, we argue that populism presents a democratic irony for educational governance. Racial justice cannot be achieved without populist expression, taking the form of campaigns and persistent nonviolent signals that institutional racism is unacceptable. Yet our populist moment also contributes to the increasing political polarization that makes the conditions for democratic deliberative policymaking more elusive. Deliberative conditions for policymaking and curriculum development in schools are critically necessary for reinventing and reimagining our shared society

Populismo, legitimidad y educación financiada por el Estado

En este artículo, analizo una muestra de las prácticas educativas actuales en los movimientos populistas educativos de Brasil, Estados Unidos e Israel. Tras un breve examen de estas formas de populismo, que revela tendencias políticas de nacionalismo étnico, ortodoxia religiosa, antisecularismo y autoritarismo, reviso la teoría democrática para interpretar el populismo desde una posición teórica democrática dual: pragmatismo, y teoría democrática crítica o radical. Utilizo reflexiones pragmáticas en la esfera pública (Dewey, 1927; Frega, 2010, 2019), para explicar cómo y por qué emergen colectivos en la dinámica de las instituciones estatales democráticas de educación. Y posteriormente, paso a la teoría democrática radical para analizar la idea de la expresión populista y su función en la política democrática (Laclau, 2005; Mouffe, 2018). En términos pragmáticos, los movimientos populistas son colectivos en potencia, basados en una idea experimentalista de la vida política que incluye asociaciones de grupos en la sociedad civil que generan opinión, acción y desacuerdo en intentos de conformar decisiones en las instituciones estatales. Pero muchos movimientos populistas no llegan a ser colectivos democráticos en la medida en que se caracterizan por reducidos intereses privados, hábitos irreflexivos y prácticas que son antagónicas a la interpelación, la capacidad de respuesta y la deliberación. Como tales, los movimientos populistas amenazan la legitimidad normativa y la estabilidad de las instituciones estatales democráticas liberales de enseñanza. Aunque las versiones minimalistas o menos militantes de populismo son compatibles con, y vehículos importantes para la política educativa, las versiones maximalistas actualmente dominantes perfiladas en este artículo amenazan el proyecto de estado liberal-democrático (Sant, 2020). Las teorías pragmáticas de política democrática y acciones colectivas (Frega, 2019) ofrecen vías para conocer el momento populista, pero contienen significativas implicaciones de rediseño y reforma institucional para su materialización

Wrap Up & Where to From Here

Symposium Track Chairs will provide high level summaries of the information covered in each of the tracks: Feedstock & Production; Benefits & Uses; Policy & Community and Sales, Scale & Marketing. To conclude the symposium and leverage all of the great new ideas and information in everyone\u27s minds, we will capture key take aways as a community and then invite suggestions and discussion about next steps in the biochar movement

Project ACCCES: A Collaboration to develop Capacity for Community-Engaged research in Springfield

Background: Residents of Springfield, Massachusetts experience disproportionately poorer health compared to the rest of the state. Springfield\u27s community of color population (39.5% Hispanic/Latino; 21.6% Black; 2% Asian) experiences high rates of poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment leading to large health disparities. Objective: The overall objective of the PCORI-funded Project ACCCES is to develop capacity to conduct community engaged research (CEnR) in Springfield that is based on patient and community needs, can be more easily translated, and improves community health. This engagement framework will be applied to development of patient-centered comparative effectiveness research proposals. Methods: In the project\u27s first phase, we conducted focus groups with patients, community organization leaders, and physicians to better understand the most pressing health needs of the community, past research experiences, and important considerations for building community-academic partnerships. We then convened a multi-stakeholder Advisory Board to inform all Project ACCCES activities. In the second phase, we developed and implemented two half-day workshops to give participants the knowledge and tools to conduct CEnR and to begin to build community-academic partnerships in the areas of perinatal/maternal-child health, mental health/substance use, chronic disease/nutrition, and respiratory health. The third phase is currently underway and is focused on convening research partnership action groups that will seek to address Springfield residents\u27 health needs through culturally appropriate interventions. The final phases will entail dissemination of both the process used to develop new collaborations to conduct CEnR in an underserved community and the workshop template, and development of structures to foster sustainability of partnerships

Light and propagule pressure affect invasion intensity of Prunus serotina in a 14-tree species forest common garden experiment

Experiments testing multiple factors that affect the rate of invasions in forests are scarce. We aimed to assess how the biomass of invasive Prunus serotina changed over eight years and how this change was affected by light availability, tree stand growth, and propagule pressure. The study was conducted in Siemianice Experimental Forest (W Poland), a common garden forest experiment with 14 tree species. We investigated aboveground biomass and density of P. serotina within 53 experimental plots with initial measurements in 2005 and repeated in 2013. We also measured light availability and distance from seed sources. We used generalized additive models to assess the impact of particular predictors on P. serotina biomass in 2013 and its relative change over eight years. The relative biomass increments of P. serotina ranged from 0 to 22,000-fold. The success of P. serotina, expressed as aboveground biomass and biomass increment, varied among different tree species stands, but was greater under conifers. Total biomass of P. serotina depended on light and propagule availability while biomass increment depended on the change in tree stand biomass, a metric corresponding to tree stand maturation. Our study quantified the range of invasion intensity, expressed as biomass increment, in a forest common garden experiment with 14 tree species. Canopy cover was the most important variable to reduce susceptibility to invasion by P. serotina. Even a modest decrease of overstory biomass, e.g. caused by dieback of coniferous species, may be risky in areas with high propagule pressure from invasive tree species. Thus, P. serotina control may include maintaining high canopy closure and supporting natural regeneration of tree species with high leaf area index, which shade the understory