Introduction

Since 2008, headlines in the United States regularly feature the global financial crisis, which transcends any one nation’s control or responsibility, as well as perceived economic threats from Asian countries like China and India. In the midst of all this economic anxiety, great attention is given to the lowly state of education in the United States, whether from international test score comparisons or documentary films like Waiting for Superman or Race to Nowhere. Of course, anxieties about the world and anxieties about our schools are deeply connected: we look to our schools to shape and form the next generation, while realizing that the world for which students are being prepared is highly complex and uncertain.