ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes some main insights from the school case studies and analysis of districtwide policies and their implications in relation to processes of globalization. It outlines an alternative educational agenda and three powerful examples of doing education very differently. These examples challenge hegemonic discourses about education by showing that teachers, administrators, students, and families can create schools and school systems that prepare children to be empowered subjects and critical actors for social change. These examples also concretize the strategic role of education in reconstructing the state and challenging neoliberal hegemony. The chapter concludes by commenting on what these policies mean in a post-9/11 world and possibilities for linking education change with emerging, critically conscious social movements. The four case studies illustrate that accountability, centralized regulation, and differentiated schools are a system of social discipline that works through everyday practices in schools to shape student and teacher identities.
