ABSTRACT

Advancing a three-fold political agenda, this volume: * illuminates how the meanings assigned to a whole vocabulary of words and phrases frequently used to discuss the role and reform of U.S. public schools reflect an essentially economic view of the world; * contends that education or educational reform conducted under an economized worldview will only intensify the effects of the colonial relations of political and economic domination that it breeds at home and abroad; and * offers a set of alternative concepts and meanings for reformulating the role of U.S. public schools and for considering the implications of such a reformulation more generally for the underlying premises of all human relationships and activities. Toward these ends, the authors, in Part I, critically examine many of the most commonly used terms within the rhetoric of educational reform since the early 1980s and before. Part II links today's economized worldview to curricular and instructional issues. These essays are especially important for comprehending how the organization of school curriculum privileges those disciplines deemed most central to market expansion--math and science--and how the political centrality of the economic sphere influences the nature of the knowledge presented in specific content areas. Given that language constrains as well as advances human thought, the twin tasks of de-economizing education and decolonizing society will require a vocabulary that transcends the familiar terminologies addressed in Parts I and II. The entries in Part III cultivate the beginnings of such a vocabulary as the authors elucidate innovative concepts which they view as central to the creation of truly alternative educational visions and practices.

part I|138 pages

Political and Social Foundations

chapter 1|8 pages

Democracy

chapter 2|9 pages

Socialism

chapter 3|12 pages

Liberalism

chapter 4|10 pages

Neoliberalism

chapter 5|13 pages

Conservatism

chapter 6|19 pages

Neoconservatism

chapter 7|11 pages

Fascism

chapter 8|9 pages

Global Economy

chapter 9|11 pages

Class

chapter 10|8 pages

Gender

chapter 11|8 pages

Race

chapter 12|10 pages

Sexuality

part II|88 pages

Antieducational Foundations: The Setup

chapter 13|9 pages

Propaganda

chapter 14|10 pages

High Standards

chapter 15|8 pages

Assessment

chapter 16|10 pages

Evidence-Based Education

chapter 17|12 pages

Educational Research

chapter 18|8 pages

Accountability

chapter 19|9 pages

Discipline

chapter 20|11 pages

Masculinization

chapter 21|6 pages

Militarization

part III|78 pages

Antieducational Foundations: The Trap

chapter 23|11 pages

The Anti-School Movement

chapter 24|7 pages

Choice

chapter 25|9 pages

Charter Schools

chapter 26|14 pages

Privatization

chapter 27|12 pages

The Corporate University

chapter 28|10 pages

Schooling

part IV|128 pages

Classroom Consequences

chapter 29|9 pages

Teaching

chapter 30|9 pages

Reading

chapter 32|7 pages

Language Arts Education

chapter 33|10 pages

Literacy

chapter 34|10 pages

Arts Education

chapter 35|9 pages

Social Studies Education

chapter 36|11 pages

Math Education

chapter 37|13 pages

Science Education

chapter 38|9 pages

Educational Technology

chapter 39|9 pages

Abstinence-Only Sex Education

chapter 40|10 pages

Character Education

part V|119 pages

Democracy’s Path

chapter 41|14 pages

Inclusive Democracy

chapter 42|13 pages

Inclusive Schooling

chapter 43|13 pages

Critical Pedagogy

chapter 44|8 pages

Socialist Pedagogy

chapter 45|7 pages

Critical Feminist Pedagogy

chapter 46|8 pages

Indigenous Pedagogy

chapter 48|13 pages

Technological Literacy

chapter 50|9 pages

Deschooling