Education in North America 9781472505521, 9781472593498, 9781472510709

Table of contents :
FC
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction and Regional Overview: D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul
Part One: Canada
1. Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments: Theodore Michael Christou and Sean Cousins
2. Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide: Fiona Walton
3. Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses: Ali A. Abdi
4. Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered : Community-Based Education as a Response to Changing Times: Roger Saul and Naomi Nichols
5. Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative (Online) School Culture: Maryam Moayeri
Part Two: The United States of America
6. Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview: Kelly Kolodny
7. Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States: John L. Rury
8. Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges: Ronnie Casella
9. Education for Social Justice in the United States : The Peculiar Case of Mathematics Education: Kurt Stemhagen
10. The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges: Leonard J. Waks
11. World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World: Audrey L. Heining-Boynton and Mary Lynn Redmond
12. International Outreach in Education in the United States: Anthony C. Ogden and Sharon Brennan
13. Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013 : A Faculty Member’s Point of View : Wayne J. Urban
14. Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013: D. E. Mulcahy and D. G. Mulcahy
Index

Citation preview

Education in North America

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 1

17/12/2013 09:38

Available and Forthcoming Titles in the Education Around the World Series Series Editor: Colin Brock Education Around the World: A Comparative Introduction, Colin Brock and Nafsika Alexiadou Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and Netherlands Antilles, edited by Emel Thomas Education in East Asia, edited by Pei-tseng Jenny Hsieh Education in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, edited by Nadiya Ivanenko Education in South-East Asia, edited by Lorraine Pe Symaco Education in Southern Africa, edited by Clive Harber Education in West-Central Asia, edited by Mah-E-Rukh Ahmed Forthcoming volumes: Education in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, edited by Michael Crossley, Greg Hancock and Terra Sprague Education in East and Central Africa, edited by Charl Wolhuter Education in West Africa, edited by Emefa Amoako Education in the United Kingdom, edited by Colin Brock Education in the European Union: Volumes 1 and 2, edited by Trevor Corner Also available from Bloomsbury Education as a Global Concern, Colin Brock Comparative and International Education: An Introduction to Theory, Method, and Practice, David Phillips and Michele Schweisfurth

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 2

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America Edited by D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul

Education Around the World

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 3

17/12/2013 09:38

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2014 © D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul, 2014 D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Volume Editors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: ePDF: 978-1-4725-1070-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Education in North America / edited by D.E. Mulcahy, D.G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul. pages cm. -- (Education around the world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4725-0552-1 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4725-0515-6 (epub) -- ISBN 978-1-47251070-9 (epdf) 1. Education--North America--Cross-cultural studies. 2. Education--Canada. 3. Education--United States. I. Mulcahy, D. E., contributing editor. II. Mulcahy, D. G. (Donal G.), contributing editor. III. Saul, Roger, 1976- contributing editor. LA191.E38 2014 370.97--dc23 2013036187 Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 4

17/12/2013 09:38

Contents Series Editor’s Preface Notes on the Contributors

Introduction and Regional Overview D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul

Part One: Canada 1 2 3 4

5

Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments Theodore Michael Christou and Sean Cousins Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide Fiona Walton Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses Ali A. Abdi Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered: Community-Based Education as a Response to Changing Times Roger Saul and Naomi Nichols Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative (Online) School Culture Maryam Moayeri

Part Two: The United States of America Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview Kelly Kolodny 7 Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States John L. Rury 8 Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges Ronnie Casella 9 Education for Social Justice in the United States: The Peculiar Case of Mathematics Education Kurt Stemhagen 10 The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges Leonard J. Waks

vii viii

1 21

23 49 75

95 117 135

6

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 5

137 155 175 195 211

17/12/2013 09:38

vi Contents

11 World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World Audrey L. Heining-Boynton and Mary Lynn Redmond 12 International Outreach in Education in the United States Anthony C. Ogden and Sharon Brennan 13 Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013: A Faculty Member’s Point of View Wayne J. Urban 14 Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013 D. E. Mulcahy and D. G. Mulcahy Index

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 6

229 251 279 299 319

17/12/2013 09:38

Series Editor’s Preface The volumes in this series will look at education in virtually every territory in the world. The initial volume, Education Around the World: A Comparative Introduction, aims to provide an insight to the field of international and comparative education. It looks at its history and development and then examines a number of major themes at scales from local to regional to global. It is important to bear such scales of observation in mind, because the remainder of the series is inevitably regionally and nationally based. The identification of the regions within which to group countries has sometimes been a very simple task; elsewhere less so. Europe, for example, has multiple volumes and more than 50 countries. National statistics vary considerably in their availability and accuracy, and in any case date rapidly. Consequently the editors of each volume point the reader towards access to regional and international datasets, available online, that are regularly updated. A key purpose of the series is to give some visibility to a large number of countries that, for various reasons, rarely, if ever, have coverage in the literature of this field. For this volume, Education in North America, it has been a simple task to identify the region. Clearly distinguishable from Central and South America, it comprises just two nation states, Canada and the United States of America. They do, however, contrast in many ways, with Canada’s joint Franco-British heritage and legacy, and its greater accommodation of the educational needs of its indigenous peoples. The five chapters allotted to Canada have been skilfully identified and managed by one of the editors, Roger Saul. The USA necessarily operates on a much grander scale, though a great deal of power still resides with the 50 individual States of the Union. The nine chapters on aspects of the USA have been gathered and edited by D. E. Mulcahy and D. G. Mulcahy. Their selection of themes has been insightful, and offers a balanced view of key educational issues that concern their country both internally and internationally. I would like to thank all three editors for the hard and quality work they have put into designing this volume and bringing it to fruition. Colin Brock Series Editor

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 7

17/12/2013 09:38

Notes on the Contributors Ali A. Abdi is Professor of Education and Co-director of the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Research (CGCER) at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is former President of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIES), and former Co-director of Global Education Network (GEN). His research interests include citizenship and human rights education and socio-cultural foundations of education. Sharon Brennan is an associate professor, Director of Field Experiences and Associate Director of the Office of International Engagement in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, USA. Her academic interests include teacher assessment and professional development emphasizing globally minded teaching practice. She is co-editor of a book addressing ways to build international student teaching. For more than two decades, she has served on the development and monitoring team for the system used to assess Kentucky’s first-year teachers. Currently, she is working on an instrument to assess global-mindedness in teaching. Ronnie Casella is Associate Dean and Professor at the State University of New York–Cortland, USA. His most recent book is Selling Us the Fortress. In 2006 he was Visiting Scholar at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He received his M.A. from New York University, USA, and his Ph.D. at Syracuse University, USA. Theodore Michael Christou is an assistant professor at Queen’s University, Canada. From 2009 to 2012 he worked as an assistant professor at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. Theodore’s teaching and research pertain to the history and philosophy of education. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, he worked as a public school teacher in the Toronto and Durham District School Boards, Canada. He is the author of two books, one prose and one verse, titled The Problem of Progressive Education (University of Toronto Press, 2012), and An Overbearing Eye (Hidden Brook Press, 2013). Sean Cousins is a graduate student in education at Queen’s University, Canada, a former elementary school teacher and professional learning coordinator. His

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 8

17/12/2013 09:38



Notes on the Contributors

ix

research examines the history of Canadian educational reform, health and wellness of school-aged children, and diabetes care in educational settings. Audrey Heining-Boynton, Clinical Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a widely published and award-winning educator in the field of language education. Her leadership roles include the presidencies of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, the National Network for Early Language Learning, and the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers’ Associations. Kelly Kolodny is an associate professor of education at Framingham State University, USA. Her research interests include foundations of education, women in schooling, teacher education, urban education and service learning. Maryam Moayeri received her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her research focuses on how teachers incorporate internet practices into the curriculum and how youth use the internet to learn. Her recent publications include ‘PhD in Pajamas: Kicking Back and Letting the Information Come to Me’ in Journal of Media Practice and ‘Classroom Uses of Social Network Sites: Traditional Practices or New Literacies?’ in Digital Culture and Education. D. E. Mulcahy is an assistant professor and director of elementary education in the Department of Education at Wake Forest University, USA. His research focuses on inequity in schooling along with education policy and critical pedagogy. He has published in a variety of scholarly journals including Radical History Review and The Educational Forum, among others. D. G. Mulcahy is Connecticut State University Professor at Central Connecticut State University, USA and Professor in the Department of Teacher Education. He is the author of several books, including The Educated Person: Toward a New Paradigm for Liberal Education (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008). Formerly Professor of Education at University College, Cork, Ireland, he has also been a Fulbright Scholar. Naomi Nichols has worked as an Applied Social Scientist in the Learning Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children, a Research Associate and Sessional Instructor at York University and an Adjunct Professor in the Queen’s-Trent Concurrent Education Program. She is currently the Post-doctoral Fellow

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 9

17/12/2013 09:38

x

Notes on the Contributors

for the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and the Homeless Hub at York University, Co-Investigator on a five-year SSHRC project on youth and community safety, and the Co-lead for a knowledge to action project in family health equity at the Hospital for Sick Children. Her research interests span the areas of youth homelessness, human service provision for marginalized communities, educational processes and “youth at risk,” health equity, community-academic research collaborations, knowledge mobilization and research impact. Anthony C. Ogden is Executive Director of Education Abroad and Exchange and Assistant Professor in Educational Policy and Evaluation Studies at the University of Kentucky, USA. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Berea College, USA and a Master’s degree in International and Intercultural Management at the SIT Graduate Institute, USA.  He completed his Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University, USA, in Educational Theory and Policy with a dual title in Comparative and International Education.  Ogden is a career international educator with numerous publications on international education topics. Mary Lynn Redmond is Professor of Education and Director of Foreign Language Education at Wake Forest University, USA. She has published widely on a variety of topics in the field. She has held numerous state and national positions and is currently president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. John L. Rury is Professor of Education and (by courtesy) History at the University of Kansas, USA. His work has focused on urban education, race, gender and social class in the history of US education. He is a past president of the History of Education Society and Vice-President of the American Educational Research Association. Roger Saul is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, Canada. His research focuses on cultural studies and education, and spans areas such as youth cultures, digital cultures, cultural identities, and the pedagogies of popular culture. He teaches courses on comparative and international education, ethics, technology in the curriculum, and the intersections of culture, identity and pedagogy. Kurt Stemhagen is an associate professor in the School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. His fields of study are philosophy and

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 10

17/12/2013 09:38



Notes on the Contributors

xi

foundations of education. Much of his work explores how the intersections between American Pragmatism, democratic education and critical theory can lead to better school experiences for children. He is also interested in teacher empowerment. Wayne J. Urban is Associate Director of the Education Policy Center and Professor of Education at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, USA. He is the author or editor of ten books including, most recently, Leaders in the Historical Study of American Education (Sense Publishers, 2011) and More than Science and Sputnik: The National Defense Education Act of 1958 (University of Alabama Press, 2010). Leonard J. Waks is Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, USA in 1968, and an Ed.D. in Organizational Psychology at Temple in 1984. He is co-founder of the National Technological Literacy Conferences, and taught philosophy at Purdue and Stanford Universities, USA, before joining Temple’s educational faculty in 1971. He is the author of two books, Technology’s School (JAI, 1995) and Education 2.0: The Learningweb Revolution and the Transformation of the School (Paradigm, 2013), and over 100 scholarly articles and book chapters. His research focuses on the emerging educational arrangements of global network society, and the contributions of American Pragmatism to the resolution of problems in education and culture. He is president-elect of the John Dewey Society. Fiona Walton is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. She is also a 2012 National 3M Teaching Fellow. Fiona coordinates the Master of Education offered in Nunavut, Canada, and is involved in research related to Inuit and Mi’kmaw education.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 11

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 12

17/12/2013 09:38

Introduction and Regional Overview D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul

Introduction This volume in the Education Around the World series is essentially a presentation and consideration of key aspects of policy and practice in education in Canada and the United States. As will be clear, a number of different yet related themes are evident in the chapters that follow. Our intent in this introductory chapter is to address a range of the topics identified and discussed and to consider issues of significance that arise from them. As we make our way into the twentyfirst century, these issues pertain to challenges and prospects facing education and schooling in North America and in many other countries around the world. Reflecting on them here may enable the reader to see more readily how developments in Canada and the United States compare to developments elsewhere and vice versa. This we do by dwelling largely on education in Canada in the first half and education in the United States in the second half of this introduction.

Education in Canada Introduction Canada, a country of 35 million citizens inhabiting the world’s second largest national territory, is home to over 5 million primary and secondary school students and roughly 337,600 educators (Statistics Canada, 2001, 2011a). This volume, which contributes five chapters on Canadian education, aims among other objectives to orient readers to some of the predominant issues that educational stakeholders in Canada – the aforementioned teachers and students, and also policymakers, parents, school administrators, scholars and interested

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 1

17/12/2013 09:38

2

Education in North America

citizens – have long negotiated, and are newly grappling with, in envisioning approaches to schooling. Although by no means a comprehensive treatment, the chapters on Canadian education that follow have all been compiled and written with the express purpose of offering those interested in Canadian education – whether already acquainted with its issues or new to them – an insight into the contemporary educational scene in Canada, and into the foundations upon which the ideas continuing to shape it have arisen. Of late, Canada has made international news for the purported strengths of its educational achievements (Nocera, 2012; Shepherd, 2010; Sauter and Hess, 2012). Some have even taken to counting Canada as among a small group comprising the world’s most educated nations (ibid.). To this end, one commonly cited statistic suggests that the percentage of adult Canadians who have completed either college or university now exceeds 51 per cent, making Canada the world’s only country where over half of its adult citizenry has achieved this marker (Statistics Canada, 2012; Sauter and Hess, 2012). On international educational achievement tests, like the much talked-about Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) – a test that aims to ‘evaluate education systems worldwide every three years by assessing 15-year-olds’ competencies in the key subjects: reading, mathematics and science’ (OECD, 2013) – Canadian students have most recently finished near the top of these rankings (see Shepherd, 2010).. While our volume acknowledges these achievements, it offers a far more complex and nuanced picture of Canadian education, and often a more critical one, than any cursory glance at the latest publication of international test scores or standardized achievements can capture. Given their imperatives to unify then quantify vast segments of data, statistical markers such as those just mentioned often obscure the unevenness with which individuals and groups – particularly those on the margins of educational success – experience their educational lives. Our volume, then, aims to add nuance and depth to notions about the strength of Canadian education that have begun to enter the popular imagination with increasing intensity. By way of setting the stage for a more detailed exploration of Canadian education in the chapters on education in Canada that follow, we think it would be useful in this introductory chapter to proceed as follows. With the goal of broadly situating the Canadian educational scene for readers, we will begin by returning to recent statistical information on the state of Canadian education to offer a brief composite of some of its key demographic features. Having done so, we then provide an account of what the chapters in our volume inform us about

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 2

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

3

Canadian education in ways that move beyond these statistics. In particular, we pull out three overarching themes, spanning the work of all of our chapters, which reflect the story of Canadian education that our volume shares. We present these themes with a view toward encouraging readers to engage more fully with these and other issues in subsequent chapters.

Canada: A demographic overview Education in Canada is largely controlled at the provincial and territorial levels, under the auspices of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories, where school administration is overseen by a descending governance structure of local school districts, school boards and in-school administrative bodies. Although several Canadian chapters in our volume inform us that the federal government is very much implicated in the formation and distribution of education policies and funding, often peripherally but sometimes directly, the consequence of provincial control over much of education in Canada means that quantifying its national features with the aim of gleaning an accurate composite of its features is a somewhat tenuous exercise. Canada spends about 6.1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on its educational institutions, a number that puts it into similar territory as other OECD countries (Statistics Canada, 2012). Much of the allocation of these GDP funds goes to compensating both teachers and other educational staff at all levels of schooling, the result of which is that Canadian teachers are relatively well paid (ibid.). One fact that particularly distinguishes Canadian education spending from other similarly developed countries is the money it expends on university and college education: 40.2 per cent of its education spending is allocated here, a number that puts Canada in the company of the United States (36 per cent), among just a few others, as countries who devote significant public resources toward these ends (Statistics Canada, 2012).1 With respect to other arguable markers of Canadian educational success, two in particular worth mentioning are the achievements of its students with respect to traversing traditional gender and immigration barriers, for in many countries these factors often work against students in their pursuit of full educational inclusion. On the whole, the number of young adults in Canada who have high school diplomas now exceeds 90 per cent in each of the country’s provinces (Statistics Canada, 2012). This conversely puts the current national high school dropout rate at less than 10 per cent (ibid.). When screened through a gendered lens, however, Canadian females are achieving in significantly greater numbers

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 3

17/12/2013 09:38

4

Education in North America

than males in areas such as high school graduation rates, college and university graduate rates, length of time spent in school past secondary education, and school dropout rates (Statistics Canada, 2012, 2011b, 2010a, 2010b). Given the much-maligned plight of female students in education jurisdictions across the globe, particularly in the developing world (Janigan and Masemann, 2008), this statistic arguably speaks well of the Canadian system. With respect to immigration, Canada, which is one of the highest per-capita immigrant receiving countries in the world (almost 25 per cent of 15-year-old Canadian students have immigrant backgrounds [Statistics Canada, 2011b]), ranks very favorably in relation to other high immigrant receiving countries in terms of the educational successes of its students. With respect to important measures like the reading performance of Canadian students, for example, immigrants and non-immigrants perform equally well (Statistics Canada, 2011b). More so, students up to the age of 12 who immigrate to Canada are even more likely to obtain a university education than are Canadian-born students (Statistics Canada, 2011c). That said, factors such as these, which might point observers toward uncritically celebrating Canadian education, should again be viewed with caution. For example, the educational successes of Canadian immigrants might have less to do with the Canadian system than with a turn in Canada’s immigration policies, which in the late 1960s shifted away from its exclusionary policy of mostly admitting people of European ancestry to the country (Jansen, 2005; Abdi, this volume), and which now largely favors admitting children of immigrants from countries with traditionally high education levels (Statistics Canada, 2011c). And the same caution can be applied to gender, where recent figures tell us that Canadian women still earn 63 per cent of men’s salaries irrespective of their educational achievements (Statistics Canada, 2011b). Finally, Canadian dropout rates are not an evenly distributed statistic. Among Canada’s Aboriginal student populations, over half are failing to complete high school education (Walton, this volume; Statistics Canada, 2010b). And yet there is nonetheless much evidence to suggest that the global perception of Canadian education remains strong. Perhaps the most significant measure of this perception is in Canada’s international student intake, one of Canadian education’s largest recent growth areas. The number of international students coming to Canada to study has doubled over the past ten years. Over a quarter of these students now come to Canada from China, and the total number of all international students now exceeds 100,000 (Statistics Canada, 2012). By some estimates, these students contribute upwards of 8 billion dollars

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 4

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

5

to the Canadian economy every year (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2013).

Global perceptions and local perceptions: Canadian educator tensions While perceptions of Canadian education abroad are arguably strong, the chapters in this volume temper this perception by offering a more critical stance on Canada’s educational present, and on the foundations upon which it has been built. In their account of Canadian educational history, Christou and Cousins (Chapter 1) write that the very beginnings of Canadian education are embedded with discriminatory presumptions, whereby political elites helped to construct and conceive of mass education as a political tool whose function was to assimilate children into Christianized orientations toward ‘civilized’ life, to quell radicalism, to build industry, and to address perceived societal problems endemic to the lives of the poor and the dispossessed. Several of our chapters take this notion up in what is perhaps Canada’s most contemptible and embarrassing educational legacy, a circumstance that has come to be known as the residential school movement. The beginnings of this movement, which targeted Canada’s Aboriginal students and affected some 150,000 children and countless more Aboriginal communities and family members, loosely coincides with the beginnings of Canadian Confederation (1867). Carried out throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it consisted of a racial indoctrination and assimilation programme aimed at eradicating the cultural customs, practices and identifications of Aboriginal peoples, whereby Aboriginal children were systematically removed from their homes, families and traditions. Walton, who writes in detail about Indigenous education in Canada in this volume, informs us that the negative effects of what many have referred to as this ‘cultural genocide’ – not to mention the continuing legacy of government failure to address educational inequities among Canada’s Aboriginal students – are still felt strongly today. Her chapter nonetheless emphasizes that this circumstance is not the complete story of Indigenous education in Canada. In what she names a ‘Turning Tide’, Walton describes community-led initiatives focused on cultural regeneration and validation in several of Canada’s Aboriginal communities, highlighting their successes amid continuing challenges. Our volume suggests that these educational inequities are mirrored across several segments of Canadian society. For example, Saul and Nichols (Chapter 4), who focus on an innovative teacher training programme in Toronto, Canada’s largest and most ethnically diverse city, write about the educational challenges

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 5

17/12/2013 09:38

6

Education in North America

that many of the city’s socially and economically marginalized teachers and students will face as poverty in the city continues to rise and many of its middleincome neighbourhoods begin to disappear. They nonetheless suggest that these issues should not simply be relegated to an imaginary future – in presentday Toronto, they cite statistics that suggest the inequitable social situation is already such that university-educated immigrants today earn similar incomes to non-immigrants who have not completed high school. Without the necessary foresight and support from a collaboration of educational stakeholders, not to mention greater societal consciousness and attention to this circumstance, they suggest that education systems in Toronto and other large Canadian cities facing similar circumstances may suffer significant peril in coming years.

Canadian education as the ongoing story of learning across differences Perhaps coming as no surprise given the above, notions of difference and educational equity are major preoccupations in Canadian education. As such, these issues are variously addressed in many of our chapters. In this current era of intense global interconnectivity, an era where individuals have in many ways had to learn to live, work and share together according to imperatives previously thought unimaginable, attendant issues related to understanding difference and equity have of course taken prominence among many – educators and otherwise – around the world. What perhaps distinguishes the positioning of Canada here is in the approach and the timing with which it has attempted to respond to these realities. Abdi (Chapter 3) informs us that Canada, with its Multicultural Policy in 1971 and its Multicultural Act of 1988, was the first nation in the world with an official, government-mandated multicultural policy, a legislated attempt to validate cultural differences among its citizens. Theoretically, it is inspired by notions such as cultural pluralism, multiplicity and recognition of the importance of immigration to the country’s past and future. In its practical application, various societal institutions and domains – public, cultural, social – are encouraged to affirm the different ethnic, racial, religious and other attendant backgrounds that can constitute being ‘Canadian’. This policy, a major preoccupation in Canadian education, has met with both celebration and critique. On the side of celebration, the practice of dominant ‘multiculturalism’ in schools often functions as something akin to school-mandated celebrations of racial, ethnic and religious differences among students. As Abdi (Chapter 3) intimates, it is not uncommon in Canadian

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 6

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

7

schools to hold ‘multicultural days’ and other such activities where surface differences among students are celebrated through the enforced presentation and sharing of food or dress from students’ countries of origins (or from those of their parents or grandparents). The common critique is that these kinds of celebration are often entirely superficial, and ignore educational inequities like the statistics cited in the previous section in the name of uncritically celebrating vacuous notions of difference. Under such circumstances, it is often said that naming difference is often synonymous with naming deficit in Canada, whereby those deemed different (i.e. those deemed ‘visible minorities’ according to Canadian multicultural parlance) are seen as coming from elsewhere while ‘real’ Canadians – i.e. non-minorities, the non-visible, the neutral and thus the default position for what constitutes Canadian – keep their static cultural identities intact. The persistent issue for educators, particularly in light of the statistics suggested earlier, is how to create inclusive environments for all Canadian students in context of government rhetoric that often suggests this has already occurred. As evidenced in our volume, many Canadian educators remain unconvinced that this is yet occurring at acceptable levels. In various ways, all of our chapters comment upon Canadian notions of (multi)culture and their impacts and influences upon students’ educational experiences in the country. More so, many share ideas and debates, promulgating within Canadian education circles, aimed at addressing how inequities are often attached to cultural differences. For example, Abdi argues that difference – an existential reality, and a force that can be said to animate all human experience – needs to be understood as such instead of being attached to notions of deficit, as is often the case in Canadian multicultural rhetoric. He suggests that Canadian multicultural education might adopt a perspective that moves it away from static notions of culture as an ‘exotic artefact’ and towards conceptions that validate student cultural experiences as fluid and malleable. Doing so, he intimates, would humanize (rather than adversely symbolize) student differences. Similarly, in describing what they suggest can be a more effective approach to teacher education than is currently the norm in urban Canada, Saul and Nichols describe a programme of teacher training based on foregrounding teachers’ cultural immersions into the communities where their students reside. Likewise, Walton, who here shares her own long involvement as an educator in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, sees factors like respect for Aboriginal peoples’ cultures, languages and traditions as foundational to the educational successes of those she has worked with, and recognizes

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 7

17/12/2013 09:38

8

Education in North America

similar principles in the successes of other Aboriginal communities she has written about.

Future visions of Canadian education A final subtext spanning many of the Canadian chapters in this volume are the various ways in which they point us to future visions of Canadian education. As is perhaps the case with respect to national educational debates in many contexts, the future of Canadian education is much deliberated in the country’s education circles. In fact, in Chapter 1 of this volume, Christou and Cousins remind readers that contemporary concerns about Canadian educational futures are perhaps best recast as reiterations of older, more persistent questions aimed at fulfilling progressive education agendas. When ported to this historical moment, questions about the future of Canadian education tend to be dominated by factors such as best ways to implement new technologies into curricula, to expand definitions and practices of literacy by tapping into the digital and online cultures that are now so much a part of many Canadian students’ lives, and – in ways very much related – to prepare students for global participation and competition in the new ‘knowledge economy’ (Moayeri, Chapter 5). These are, of course, not the only future visions of Canadian education up for debate. In fact, many of the works earlier cited – whether in Walton’s writing about her work in Nunavut, Saul and Nichols’ writing about their work in Toronto, or Abdi’s conceptualizations about equity and difference – can be said to be born of critiques of past and current Canadian educational approaches and of desires for better futures. Still, technological questions have tended to dominate debates about the future of education across the globe, and our volume thus situates Canadian education on this issue. In this respect, Moayeri (Chapter 5), based on a research study she conducts of one school district in British Columbia, suggests that there, as elsewhere in Canada, initiatives aimed at building technologically responsive schools, curricula and pedagogical practices are in full force. She speaks of these initiatives by prefacing the popular concept of ‘new’ or ‘digital literacies’ adoption, a notion and practice meant to refer to the novel texts and meaning-making apparatuses available to teachers and students who can now access information and online networks in more complex and distributed ways than in earlier times. Yet she alerts readers to some significant limitations with respect to school and teacher approaches on these matters. In particular, she cites a disconnect between the self and school-related literacy practices of students,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 8

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

9

suggesting that the arguably free, open and demographic ethic of internet use (see also Waks, Chapter 10) is ill supported by the hierarchical organizational structures of Canadian schools. Other issues she alerts readers to include the high costs of rendering schools technologically compatible, the ways in which students’ out-of-school access to information is rendering in-school access models obsolete in terms of their dynamism and convenience, educators’ security concerns about the online content students may access while in schools, the difficulty of assessing social media and internet-based assignments, and the tendency among teachers and learners to engage potential new literacies in traditional, ‘old literacy’ ways. Still, it seems uncontroversial to suggest that the current ‘internet moment’ in Canadian education is rife with idealism among educators about what schools and education might become amid attendant factors such as the democratization of information, new kinds of collaborative learning possibilities, new platforms for teaching and learning, and new communicative reaches. Given this, a question that remains for Canadian educators concerns how, if at all, these new teaching and learning possibilities might be harnessed to promote more effective, more interesting and more inclusive educational opportunities for all students. Can these new possibilities facilitate said ideals, or will older orientations and exclusions simply be ported to new contexts? Will all students be validated by whatever may come next, or will Canadians systems support the thriving of some peoples and groups over others, as our volume suggests it has in the past? This issue – one of several outlined here and addressed in subsequent chapters – is perhaps at the forefront of Canada’s educational future. We invite readers to consider all of these issues in the chapters that follow.

Education in the United States Government involvement in education In reflecting on the emergence of formal schooling as a way of addressing educational needs of individuals and communities in the United States – as we have just seen to be the case also in Canada – one is conscious of the historical contexts that gave rise to it and of the organizational and administrative approaches which emerged at different times. In regard to the United States, these historical contexts and the approaches taken to deal with the educational challenges of the day do not need to be restated here. They are already well

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 9

17/12/2013 09:38

10

Education in North America

presented in a number of chapters, including those by Kelly Kolodny (Chapter 6) and John Rury (Chapter 7). The chapters highlight key points of development in the evolution of schooling and reveal the complex legal, administrative and organizational character of schooling today in the United States. Ongoing developments, and the contemporary challenges and sometimes hotly contested debates to which they give rise, especially as regards the involvement of governments and influential interested parties, are presented by Mulcahy and Mulcahy (Chapter 14) in relation to federal education policy and by Wayne J. Urban (Chapter 13) in regard to higher education. Of all the features of contemporary education that catch the eye in the United States and elsewhere, none is more visible and worthy of scrutiny when viewed against the background of over 2,000 years of educational thought and practice than the remarkable growth of government interest and involvement in education and schooling since the beginning of the nineteenth century. This involvement has been beneficial in many respects and injurious in some. One of the benefits to accrue from this large-scale involvement is the spectacular increase in the numbers of those participating in formal education or schooling and the spread of literacy to the great variety of populations and cultures across the globe. These achievements have come about in large part through governmental policy initiatives and legislation and through substantial financial investments in education by governments. Benefits gained range from those in the health and economic spheres to personal development, intercultural understanding, cross-borders cooperation, and advancements in the arts and in science and technology. As in all areas of public policy, there are debates as to which involvements by government represent progress and which regress, which ought to be encouraged and sustained, which rejected and abandoned. Not surprisingly, there is no shortage of issues surrounding government involvement in education and schooling that give rise to disagreement and debate. As is evident in chapters that follow, many of these areas of disagreement cut across national and regional boundaries. Among them are government policies and legislation addressing the needs of Indigenous peoples, language policies, educational uses of the internet, standards and assessment, the education of teachers, and economic or corporate influence. It is not the specifics of government involvement in any of these areas that are the primary focus of interest here. It is, rather, the very nature of government involvement in education and schooling and, in particular, those aspects of this involvement which, while well-intentioned, may prove to be more deleterious than beneficial at the end of the day.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 10

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

11

As regards the United States, consideration of the merits or otherwise of government involvement can be readily contextualized in the debates of recent decades surrounding the interrelated issues of standards, assessment and reform. Be it associated with religious, economic or civic goals that have been prominent at different times in the United States, the need for reform has often been the justification for government involvement in education. The motivating force in the United States, as in many countries in recent times, has been largely economic in nature. With economic goals becoming the main driving force, education came to be widely seen as a preparation for work and as a necessary basis for economic growth and competition. The upshot of this as it relates to aims of education or purpose has been a long-standing decline in attention to personal and civic goals (Adler, 1982; Pratte, 1988). As it relates to programmes and curriculum content, it has led to the promotion of the so-called STEM subjects – namely science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As it relates to teaching and evaluation of learning, many believe it has led to an unhealthy reliance on standardized assessment of student learning (Kohn, 2000) and assessment-based evaluation of teaching. Overall, this approach to education we shall label technicist or corporatist. Educators express two main concerns about these trends. The first regards aims or purpose, the second efficacy. While few object to schools and colleges contributing to the preparation of the young for work and societies for economic development, there are long-standing concerns as regards the neglect of personal and civic goals. In fact, in the view of many, schooling and even undergraduate education in colleges and universities should be broadly based and should aim to provide what is variously termed a general or a liberal education. In this view, the content of education is not limited or constrained by economic considerations or goals beyond those of learning for the sake of learning and personal development. This concern is heightened for those such as Nussbaum (2010) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (2002), who believe that not only does the narrowing of focus found in educational models driven by economic and corporate considerations neglect the historical goals of a general or liberal education and education in the arts and humanities, it also fails to deliver an adequate education even in terms of preparation for work and economic development. It also fails to avail of possibilities for the cross-integration of subject matter across disciplines. These possibilities have received considerable attention in the area of mathematics education, as is made clear in the chapter by Kurt Stemhagen (Chapter 9). There he examines this body of educational research, pointing to ways in which it may be possible

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 11

17/12/2013 09:38

12

Education in North America

not only to teach mathematics and civic education but to do so in interdisciplinary ways to the benefit of learning in both areas. Striking a similar chord, Sullivan and Rosin (2008) and others have argued for the mutual reliance upon materials drawn from both the professional studies and the humanities in the teaching of traditional liberal arts subjects and professional studies – such as business studies and education – alike. Maintaining the focus on the lack of efficacy associated with government policies, some are critical of federal legislation in the United States such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (Darling-Hammond, 2004; Meier and Wood, 2004) on the grounds that the measures they contain are ill designed to achieve intended reforms and outcomes in student learning. Others (Werblow and Longo, 2013; Anyon, 2005) argue that in their efforts to reduce the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students, measures such as NCLB and Race to the Top (RttT) focus unduly on educational inputs such as curriculum and teaching. For Werblow and Longo, the first measure to be taken to address the achievement gap ought to be that of eliminating poverty. Still others (Mulcahy, 2013; Mulcahy and Irwin, 2008; Wellner, 2009; Shaker and Heilman, 2004) highlight the influence of powerful conservative foundations on politicians and policymakers when shaping educational policy and practice. A broadly based concern is grounded in the work of a number of foundations that serve as policy advocates. A case in point is the Fordham Institute, whose President has expressed the view that a majority of America’s education school professors – he actually labels them ‘pie-in-the-sky individuals’ – ‘remain committed to romantic/progressivist ideals and shrug off the mission of transmitting Lemov-style tips and tools to aspiring teachers’ (Finn, 2010). Another such group, which was started by Fordham, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), opened new fronts in criticisms of colleges and departments of education. Still other systems and databases were created to track institutions of higher education (IHE) and the test scores of the students of their graduates. A particular recent cause of concern in this regard is the report on the state of teacher education in the United States released by NCTQ (2013). Writing of the report, Linda Darling-Hammond has said that its inaccuracies are shocking, that it contains numerous errors in its review of nearly every institution it deals with, that it is based on partial and often inaccurate data, and that it fails to evaluate teacher education quality. (Darling-Hammond, 2013). For its part, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), writing in a press release entitled ‘NCTQ Review of Nation’s Education Schools Deceives, Misinforms

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 12

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

13

Public’ (AACTE, 2013), says the review is ‘misleading, unreliable and an effort to promote an ideological agenda rather than a genuine effort to inform the public and improve teacher preparation’. All of this notwithstanding, the concern of many is that the report will be welcomed by governments and other policymakers who have shown little regard for what counts as legitimate research as the basis for policy and legislation. And this – essentially the politicization of policy issues – may be the most deleterious of all facets of government involvement in education. The spectre of governmental involvement – or in some cases the lack of it – in education, sometimes accompanied by its politicization, is also evident in other parts of the higher education domain, a feature implicit in concerns expressed by Wayne J. Urban (Chapter 13). While not understating the many achievements of higher education, reflecting on the evolution of policy and practice in higher education in the United States throughout a career that altogether spans half a century, Urban is especially concerned about what he considers to be several ominous developments of late. These he characterizes as ‘the intrusion, unwarranted but formidable, of corporate and large governmental values and priorities in the academy’ (Urban, Chapter 13; see also Fichtenbaum, 2013). Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University, has also treated of some of the issues raised by Urban (Bok, 2003). They include for-profit education, online courses, over-reliance on the pursuit of lucrative research grants and the spirit of competition rather than cooperation they introduce among researchers, the influence of institutional review boards where it is inappropriate, and overreliance on adjunct professors to carry out basic functions of a university.

Education and the internet If the rise of government involvement in education is a conspicuous feature of contemporary social policy worldwide, the impact of the internet is set to become a dominating consideration when it comes to the articulation and implementation of education policies. We get a good sense of this and of various determining factors affecting how such policies may best be handled from chapters by Waks (Chapter 10) in relation to the United States and Moayeri (Chapter 5) in the case of Canada. These chapters deal with the incorporation of the internet into both the substance and the processes of schooling. Whatever the merits or otherwise of particular policies and practices, it is likely that taking advantage of the educational uses of contemporary communications technology is likely to transform utterly the nature of formal education in schools and colleges everywhere.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 13

17/12/2013 09:38

14

Education in North America

The formulation of policy in this area is likely to present special challenges. Policies that are based on a logic that requires the identification of specific educational objectives at the level of classroom teaching to be articulated in advance of the teaching-learning encounter itself – a logic that has been taken to task with less than glowing success by progressive educators such as John Dewey and Paulo Freire – may well prove to be ill-conceived. As is well brought out in the chapter by Waks in the discussion of federal policy priorities and directives in this area, it may be that the most important learning outcomes are the result of non-directed or loosely directed explorations with the technology itself. Because of this, moreover, policies in this area may need to emanate from how the uses of communications technology in education determine what constitutes best practice. But above and beyond the question of policymaking, the impact of the uses of communications technology is also likely to present unforeseen challenges as to how conventional practices, processes, structures, and organizational and administration arrangements are envisioned in the United States and around the world. This will be especially challenging when it comes to determining the place of classroom-based vis-à-vis individualized teaching and learning arrangements, curriculum design and development, the design and uses of school buildings or spaces for teaching and learning, and evaluation of learning. As regards teaching methodologies associated with the incorporation of internet technologies, and as emphasized in the chapter by Maoyeri, there is a further challenge. Even leaving aside the question of available resources, which has already been referred to in this introductory chapter, ensuring that there is an alignment between the desire to promote new literacies in the classroom – and specifically literacies based on the internet and the use of social media tools – presents a particular challenge. This is so at least in the near term given the demonstrated tendency to favour more traditional text-based forms of literacy. All of these matters, in turn, will bring with them questions of budget, control over sources of knowledge and information on the internet to ensure their suitability for educational purposes, and providing for equitable access to the technology itself where cost to individual students and families becomes a factor.

The education of teachers in the United States When the questions of costs and resources arise, talk of the achievement gap is never far behind. Long seen as a feature of urban education, we continue to view it in these terms at our peril, according to Ronnie Casella

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 14

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

15

(Chapter 8). The educational malaise once considered to be a hallmark of urban schooling in the United States has spread almost imperceptibly to the suburbs. If the first challenge in addressing this is the open recognition of its occurrence, other challenges and possible solutions also arise. These include a greater equalization of resource provision across school districts as occurs in other countries, granting all individuals equal status, a recognition that decreases in educational achievement may be attributable to demographic factors, a recognition of the interplay between the growing complexity of teaching and the need for community support, and improvements in teacher education programmes aimed at enabling teachers to educate cross-culturally. If any group of people will need to be familiar with and competent to ensure beneficial educational outcomes in changing environments, be they the outcome of the changing demographics of metropolitan areas, as Casella brings out, or the growing impact of the internet as already addressed, it will be teachers. But preparedness to deal with the challenges such as educating cross-culturally and successfully employing new technologies will be but two challenges facing teachers. All of these will surely raise questions regarding the nature of teacher preparation as we know it today. But questions also arise regarding questionable approaches to the preparation of teachers sometimes advocated in the discourse surrounding this matter, and to which the NCTQ report to which reference has been made above may contribute. One dimension of the challenge facing the design of teacher preparation programmes in metropolitan settings in particular is that brought to our attention by Roger Saul and Naomi Nichols (Chapter 4). While their consideration is contextualized with regard to Toronto, Canada, it has ramifications for teacher education far beyond Canada. They examine an approach to teacher preparation that draws heavily on exposing prospective teachers to community settings other than conventional schools. These settings encompass opportunities for learning of a kind largely eschewed in conventional schooling where the emphasis is upon more academic forms of learning. The intent is to familiarize future teachers with the variety of socio-economic conditions in which young school-goers live and grow up and which impact considerably on their attitudes toward and capabilities for success in school. Others, such as French (2013), have drawn attention to how such community-based experiences in the United States can be built upon so as to promote ecojustice education through teacher preparation. This is achieved in a manner that enables future and existing teachers to appreciate the values of such education and introduces

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 15

17/12/2013 09:38

16

Education in North America

them to possibilities for heightening such appreciation among students in their charge. Any discussion of the education of teachers must now, more than ever, include consideration of an aspect that has been under threat for many decades. It goes beyond the long-standing if futile debate regarding whether teachers need greater preparation in subject matter or pedagogical knowledge and skills when both are clearly essential. It mirrors in a way the question of whether community-based or school-based experiences should form a necessary component of teacher preparation where the case can be made that both are essential. The aspect in question is whether or not prospective teachers should be provided an opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of schooling itself. The purpose of such engagement would be to promote understanding of and the ability to address the variety of social contexts of schooling – historical, philosophical, economic and political, to name a few – that have always and continue to shape it. This is a form of engagement that many consider essential to sustaining teaching as a profession positioned to defend and advance in the public arena priorities that are educational in nature, especially at a time when competing non-educational values of corporatism and technicism increasingly hold sway. It is also a form of engagement that, while once respected in the framing of state and provincial regulations governing the certification of teachers, is now increasingly rejected or considered dispensable. Such rejection brings into relief an irony contained in a comment once made by a former US Secretary of Education, Lamar Alexander, when expressing some dismay that educators who were once ‘way up front of everyone else in arguing for change’ (1991) had become somewhat withdrawn. It is this rejection, however, that has brought this state of affairs upon us, and it reintroduces a topic dealt with earlier – namely, the increasing involvement of governments in education. There is normally a tension accompanying government involvement in education, and the balance in this tension now favours governments. This is essentially a tension between advancing the interests of governments and their masters and the educational interests of the young. It is the balance currently favouring the interests of governments and their masters that now renders undesirable and hence dispensable the education of teachers to engage in the analysis of the social contexts of schooling. It is this same balance – not the reluctance of educators to lead – that threatens the kind of leadership by educators of which Alexander spoke.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 16

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

17

The internationalization of education in the United States We turn finally in this introductory chapter to reflecting upon the place and importance of the internationalization of education. There are many ways in which initiatives in this area are possible, and universities have always been, and continue to be, forces in this regard. In this the advancement of second language education in recent years in the United States has been notable. As the chapter by Audrey Heining-Boynton and Mary Lynn Redmond (Chapter 11) bears out, such education can take place at the level of schooling as well as higher education. Indeed great advances are evident in this area across many countries today at both levels. As Heining-Boynton and Redmond show, this has advantages in many different respects, including personal development, economic benefit to individuals, corporations and nations, and national interests in an increasingly global environment. Yet there is concern expressed by many (Reagan, 2009) that second language education in the United States is lacking in comparison with other countries. Heining-Boynton and Redmond’s chapter (Chapter 11) tracks very well the various issues involved in this, as well as the kinds of measures and support structures for addressing deficiencies put in place in the United States in recent years. Second language education in the strict sense, however, is not the only way in which the internationalization of education takes place. Significant efforts in this regard include the establishment of the Fulbright programmes in the United States in 1946 and programmes begun in the European Union dating back at least as far as the establishment of the Erasmus programme in 1987. As is brought out clearly in the chapter by Anthony C. Ogden and Sharon Brennan (Chapter 12), these are but two examples of such internationalizing programmes. There is, in fact, a wide array of programmes engaged in the United States that represent educational outreach activities. The level of government support for such programmes indicates the value that governments place upon them, and while this support may reflect a degree of humanitarian interest, many programmes emanating from the United States, such as USAid as well as initiatives in promoting overseas students teaching experience for those in teacher education programmes, also represent programmes that promote the national self-interest as well. In an age of increasing global interdependency, one cannot but welcome developments such as these as a way of promoting international and intercultural understanding. But there are ever-present dangers as well. Among these is the danger of more wealthy nations availing of such programmes to advance national or sectional interest at the expense of other nations and cultures.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 17

17/12/2013 09:38

18

Education in North America

Another danger – whether intentional or not – is that of cultural encroachment and the dilution of Indigenous cultures under the pressure of stronger cultures being promoted through a range of outreach or internationalizing initiatives. Here one can cite examples such as those in the United States and Canada alone, where government programmes intended to benefit Native peoples – and in Australia those intended to benefit Indigenous peoples there (Reynolds, 2005) – were in many ways at once destructive and ineffective in promoting intended educational and cultural outcomes.

Conclusion Such is the diversity of education in the United States and Canada that it is impossible to present a definitive account of its every detail in a volume such as this. Accordingly, what we have attempted to do in this introduction and overview and in the chapters selected for inclusion is to create an account of education in North America that is true to its general yet changing character. References included in the various chapters can be employed to examine in greater detail the topics dealt with.

References Adler, M. J. (1982). The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto. New York: Macmillan. Alexander, L. (1991). Interviewed by Brian Lamb, November 18, 1981 on C-SPAN in the series, National Discussion on Education. C-SPAN Video Library. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) (2013). NCTQ Review of nation’s education schools deceives, misinforms public. http://aacte. org/news-room/announcements/aacte-releases-press-statement-on-nctq-us-newsnational-review-of-education-schools.html [accessed 6 July 2013]. Anyon, J. (2005). Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement. New York: Routledge. Association of American Colleges and Universities (2002). Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Bok, D. (2003). Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2013). Canada Welcomes Record Number of International Students in 2012, 26 February. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/ department/media/releases/2013/2013–02–26.asp [accessed 25 June 2013]

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 18

17/12/2013 09:38



Introduction and Regional Overview

19

Darling-Hammond, L. (2004). From ‘Separate but equal’ to ‘No Child Left Behind’: The collision of new standards and old inequalities. In Meier, D. and Wood, G. (eds), Many Children Left Behind. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, pp. 3–32. —(2013). Taken from: Linda Darling-Hammond on the NCTQ Report. By dianerav. 18 June 2013. http://dianeravitch.net/2013/06/18/linda-darling-hammond-on-thenctq-report/ [accessed 6 July 2013]. Fichtenbaum, R. (2013). Universities for sale. Academe, 99, 3, p. 56. Finn, C. (2010). Cracks in the ivory tower? The views of education professors circa 2010. http://educationnext.org/cracks-in-the-ivory-tower-the-views-of-educationprofessors-circa–2010/ [accessed 9 July 2013]. French, J. J. (2013). Methods and mindsets for creating eco-social community educators. In D. G. Mulcahy (ed.), Transforming Schools: Alternative Perspectives on School Reform. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 37–66. Goals 2000: Educate America Act (PL 103–227), 31 March 1994. Janigan, K. and Masemann, V. L. (2008). Gender and Education. In K. Mundy, K. Bickmore, R. Hayhoe, M. Madden and K. Madjidi (eds), Comparative and International Education: Issues for Teachers. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., pp. 215–48. Jansen, C. J. (2005). Canadian Multiculturalism. In C. E. James (ed.), Possibilities and Limitations: Multicultural Programs in Canada. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood, pp. 21–33. Kohn, A. (2000). The Case against Standardized Testing: Raising the scores, ruining the schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Meier, D. and Wood, G. (eds) (2004). Many Children Left Behind. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Mulcahy, D. E. (2013). Chester Finn and the future of whole language – and schooling. The Educational Forum, 77, 2, pp. 207–13. Mulcahy, D. E. and Irwin, J. (2008). The Standardized Curriculum and De-localization: Obstacles to Critical Pedagogy. Radical History Review, 102, Fall, pp. 201–13. National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) (2013). Teacher Prep Review 2013 Report. http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/Teacher_Prep_Review_2013_Report [accessed 5 July 2013]. Nocera, J. (2012). How to Fix Schools. New York Times, September 17. http://www. nytimes.com/2012/09/18/opinion/nocera-how-to-fix-the-schools.html?_r=0 [accessed 7 October 2013]. Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2013). OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). http://www.oecd.org/pisa/ [accessed 7 October 2013]. Pratte, R. (1988). The Civic Imperative: Examining the Need for Civic Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Reagan, T. G. (2009). Language Matters: Reflections on Educational Linguistics. Charlotte, NC: Innovative Age Publishing.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 19

17/12/2013 09:38

20

Education in North America

Reynolds, R. J. (2005). The education of Indigenous Australian students: Same story, different hemisphere. Multicultural Perspectives, 7, 2, pp. 48–55. Sauter, M. B. and Hess, A. E. M (2012). The most educated countries in the world. Yahoo Finance. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-most-educated-countries-in-theworld.html?page=all [accessed 7 October 2013]. Shaker, P. and Heilman, E. (2004). The new common sense of education: Advocacy research versus academic authority. Teachers College Record. 106 (7), pp. 1444–70. Shepherd, J. (2010). World education rankings: Which country does best at reading, maths and science? The Guardian, 7 December. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/ datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading [accessed 7 October 2013]. Statistics Canada (2001). Trends in the use of private education. http://www.statcan. gc.ca/daily-quotidien/010704/dq101704b-eng.htm#cont [accessed October 2013]. —(2010a). Study: Trends in dropout rates and the labour market outcomes of young dropouts, 3 November. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/101103/dq101103a-eng.htm [accessed 7 October 2013]. —(2010b). University degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded, July 14. http://www. statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100714/dq100714b-eng.htm [accessed 7 October 2013]. —(2011a). Elementary and Public School Indicators. 30 November. http://www.statcan. gc.ca/daily-quotidien/111130/dq111130e-eng.htm [accessed 7 October 2013]. —(2011b). Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective: Highlights. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81–604-x/2011001/hl-fs-eng.htm [accessed 7 October 2013]. —(2011c). Study: Education and earnings of childhood immigrants, 25 January. http:// www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110125/dq110125b-eng.htm [accessed 7 October 2013]. —(2012). Education indicators in Canada: An International Perspective: Highlights. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81–604-x/2012001/hl-fs-eng.htm [accessed 7 October 2013]. Sullivan, W. M. and Rosin, M. S. (2008). A new agenda for higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Wellner, K. G. (2009). Non-Evidence about Tracking: Critiquing the New Report from the Fordham Institute. Teachers College Record, 14 December. http://www.tcrecord. org [accessed 7 May 2010]. Werblow, J. and Longo, L. (2013). Addressing the Root Causes of the Achievement Gap. In D. G. Mulcahy (ed.), Transforming Schools: Alternative Perspectives on School Reform. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 67–85.

Note 1 Canada’s spending on compulsory schooling falls in line with much of the OECD.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 20

17/12/2013 09:38

Part One

Canada

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 21

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 22

17/12/2013 09:38

1

Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments Theodore Michael Christou and Sean Cousins

Introduction Progressive education is both a response to modernity and an inimitable part of it. It is the pedagogical response to the realization that the world has changed. It is also an instrument of that rapidly changing world. Increasingly, the rate of change accelerates, rendering the world around us largely unrecognizable. Ronald Wright’s Massey Lecture, A Short History of Progress makes this point nicely, noting, for instance, that for centuries – millennia, even – we could learn the same skills and knowledge that our parents learned, and enter the same trade or profession on the basis of that knowledge or those skills (Wright, 2004). We stand on the precipice of the twenty-first century, looking out into an inimitable future even as we are a part of this future. Now, much is rendered obsolete in the span of years. Now, we are again in the throes of a progressivist affair. Once more, our curricula seem obsolete. Once more, our educational aims are being evaluated. We must prepare children not for our world, but for their world: a world of the future. If these words sound familiar, it is because they are nearly taken verbatim from John Dewey. One core problem remains that we are also told that we do not know what that world of the future will look like. Historians will have fun making sense of us some day. The Twenty-first Century Schools label is an effective rebranding of progressive education, demonstrating a preoccupation with modernity and an almost existential anxiety about the changes that this rapidly evolving future will provoke.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 23

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

24

Background: Key themes and issues in the history of Canadian education up to progressivism The federal government and Canadian education The legal basis for the current arrangement of Canadian schooling is to be found in Section 93 of the British North America (BNA) Act (re-enacted and retitled the Constitution Act, 1867 by the Constitution Act, 1982). This Act placed education within the ‘exclusive jurisdiction’ of each province. The governance of education of any kind – ‘public or private, academic or technical, from early childhood to university-level studies’ (Gidney and Millar, 2012, p. 3) – is vested under the authority of the provincial and territorial parliaments and further sanctioned by constitutional law. Today, 13 jurisdictions’ – ten provinces and three territories – departments or ministries of education are responsible for the organization, delivery and assessment of education at the elementary and secondary levels, for technical and vocational education, and for post-secondary education (Council of Ministers of Education, 2013). While the BNA Act delegated responsibility of Canadian education to the provinces, it did not exactly rule out the Canadian government’s power to exert influence on education. The Constitutional guarantee to denominational schooling (e.g. Protestant and Roman Catholic schools) is the most obvious example. Another example of federal activity in the affairs of Canadian education ‘arises out of attempts to address the educational requirements of those areas of federal jurisdiction spelled out in Section 91’ (Young and Levin, 2002, p. 51) of the BNA Act. These areas of federal jurisdiction refer to centralized cultural agencies (e.g. National Defence and the Canadian Forces, Indian Affairs, Industry Canada, Statistics Canada, Justice Canada and Canadian Heritage) which exert provisions for the functions of national governance. Thus, the Canadian government has assumed responsibility for the promotion of cultural heritage and Canadian identity via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (1936–present), the collection and publication of statistics on education, training and learning in the Department of Statistics Canada (formerly the ‘Dominion Bureau of Statistics’, 1918–present), the delivery of educational programmes to inmates of penitentiaries, the financing of the nation’s largest research laboratory complex (the National Research Council, 1917–present), the production and dissemination of educational films and film strips to Canadian schools from the National Film Board of Canada (1939–present), the support of international programmes that

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 24

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

25

work to improve access to quality education in developing and war-torn countries through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), funding for post-secondary education, apprenticeships, and domestic and international internship programmes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics under Canada’s Economic Action Plan (2009–present). Further, the Department of National Defence assumes responsibility not only for the education and training of all Canadian Forces personnel but also for the education of Canadian military dependent children. While departments of education in each of the three territories (i.e. Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) function much like their provincial counterparts, they receive federal funding which technically places them under the authority of the Canadian government. The most insidious aspect of the federal government’s involvement in Canadian educational history in an otherwise provincially directed system was the Canadian residential schooling system.

The residential schooling system In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Canadian federal government operated a system of residential schools in partnership with various religious orders, including the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United churches. Collectively, over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children experienced the residential schooling system – an institution that included ‘industrial schools, boarding school, homes for students, hostels, billets, residential schools, residential schools with a majority of day students, or a combination of any of the above’ (Stout and Kipling, 2003, p. ii). More than 130  residential schools existed in virtually every part of Canada (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2013). An estimated 80,000 former students of residential schools are alive today. Residential schools were formally established in Canada shortly after Confederation (BNA Act, 1867) in the late  1870s. After a failed attempt for electoral office, Nicolas Flood Davin (1840–1901) was awarded with a commission by the 3rd Canadian Ministry (1878–91), under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald (1815–91). His primary task was to study the schooling systems of Aboriginal peoples in the United States (Milloy, 2006). He reported his findings to the then Minister of the Interior (1878–83), Sir John A. Macdonald, and stated, among other things: ‘if anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young’ (Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds, Davin, 1879, p.  12). His

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 25

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

26

report laid the foundation for the mission of the Canadian residential schooling system. Indeed, the enduring mission of the residential school system while in its existence was ‘to remove and isolate Aboriginal children from in the influence of their homes, families, traditions, and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture’ (Government of Canada, 2008). Duncan Campbell Scott (1862–1947), Deputy Superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs (1913–32), gave the clearest rendition of the government’s motive in establishing the residential schooling system. In 1920, he remarked: I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone […] Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department. (Legacy of Hope Foundation, 2009)

By the 1930s, over 70 schools were in operation in all parts of the country. In these schools, the ‘cultural genocide’ (CBC News, 2013) was carried out on the body, mind and spirit of the Aboriginal students. Long or braided hair was barbered (Milloy, 2006); traditional clothes were removed and a formal school uniform was worn instead (Troniak, 2011); Aboriginal names fell into disrepute to make room for the adoption of Euro-Canadian names and student numbers (idem). Statements by former students testify the extent to which the residential schooling system impacted the experience of certain children’s everyday lives. Frederick Loft (1861–1934), a Mohawk nation activist and veteran of World War I who founded the League of Indians of Canada (1919–35), the first national Canadian Aboriginal political organization, had this to say in memory about his time at the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario during the 1870s: ‘I recall the times when working in the fields, I was actually too hungry to be able to walk, let alone work’ (Smith, as cited in Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2012, p. 31). Similarly, Theodore Fontaine (1941–), a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, recalled his experiences at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School (1948–1958) and the Assiniboia Indian Residential School (1958–1960). It was masterfully drilled into me that I was a ‘heathen savage,’ incapable of being white or doing what the white man could do. I’ve had to come to terms with the realization that Canada has tried really hard to rid the land of its First Peoples, and has contravened the laws of humanity. (Fontaine, as cited in Troniak, 2011, p. 2)

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 26

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

27

Although the residential school system was officially disbanded in the 1960s, the last such institution operated until 1996. Nevertheless, ‘the legacy of the Indian residential schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today’ (Government of Canada, 2008). Aboriginal peoples have undertaken a number of educational organization movements in response to the ongoing trauma inflicted by the history of the Canadian residential school system. The most ambitious example concerns the case of the National Indian Brotherhood (presently the Assembly of First Nations [AFN]). In 1972, the National Indian Brotherhood published the policy paper ‘Indian control of Indian education’ (ICIE). This paper was used to strike a public conversation over the design of an Aboriginal education system in the post-residential school era. It proposed that ‘education authorities, especially those in Ministries of Education, should provide for this in curricula and texts which are chosen for use in Canadian schools’ (p. 2). The expressed call to have Aboriginal teachings facilitated at the provincial levels remains frustrated today; in 2007, the AFN Chiefs Committee on Education (CCOE) in conjunction with the National Indian Education Council (NIEC) recommended that the original ICIE 1972 policy be updated. In 2010, the AFN released It’s Our Vision, It’s Our Time, a comprehensive educational policy document that builds upon the ICIE 1972 policy (AFN, 2010). The document represents how Aboriginal peoples today envision their work to ‘support the realization of education as a tool to eradicate poverty’ (p. 3). Such an expressed call for constructing an education that empowers Aboriginal peoples to realize their potential works from an assumption that is strikingly similar to the one used to establish the provincial and territorial schooling systems in the history of Canadian education. As the following section will illustrate, the emergence of Canadian public education drew from various threads of reformist rhetoric published in print media, which helped to stage public perception of the need for mass schooling.

Conceptualizing mass schooling Educational historians of various persuasions have examined the shaping of public education through the forces of reformist rhetoric, but few have contributed discussion on the rhetoric of racism and its influence in shaping educational policy in Canadian history. John Milloy stands out as an exemption in this regard, albeit one not frequently referenced. He has studied the first significant period of educational reform (1830–79) in Canadian history through

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 27

17/12/2013 09:38

28

Education in North America

readings of texts found in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa, the Presbyterian, Anglican and United Churches of Canada in Toronto, and the Deschatelets Archives of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Ottawa. Milloy described this early period in Canadian educational history as the explicit pursuit of the ‘policy of civilization’ (Milloy, 2006, p. 11). Schools were seen as serving an ameliorative role in social development. Children, for instance – regardless of sex, family income or religious observance – were to receive an education that linked knowledge with industry. In Upper Canada (presentday Ontario), knowledge was understood in relation to utility, particularly as conceived within the demands of a growing class of industrial labourers. In Lower Canada (present-day Quebec), education pursued a more traditional path: schools taught religion, reading, writing and the French language. Language was the heart of education, whereby both Aboriginal children and children of white, settler colonies would be made French in heart and mind. Such a system of education would persist in Quebec largely undisturbed until the 1960s (Smith and Donahue, 1999). Unlike today, the early nineteenth century saw the communication of ideas – letters, newspapers and magazines – to be somewhat of a luxury. For example, a letter sent from York (Toronto) to Kingston or London in Upper Canada, a distance of approximately 258 kilometres, would have cost the recipient ninepence, and from York to Quebec one shilling and sixpence (Phillips, 1957). A contemporary labourer could earn as much as three shillings a day, and a skilled artisan – mason, carpenter or blacksmith – might, if hired for a day’s work, earn seven shillings and sixpence (ibid.). These wages were low in comparison to the cost of most articles, with the exception of food and drink. The daily income of a carpenter, for example, would mean that items like letters, tea and sugar were purchased infrequently; however, things like meat and whiskey were common fodder. Nevertheless, the vast geographical landscape of Canada and the costly exchange of information through the circulation of letters made the post office an undesirable and inefficient organ of communication for ordinary people. In these same years, the costly exchange of information functioned not only to regulate the circulation of ideas but also aided in the perpetuation of the traditional practice of organizing information into discrete bundles of knowledge. This packaging and selling of information paralleled several of the contemporary teaching methods used in the British-style monitorial or pupil/teacher schools. The system of Madras schools, a type of monitorial school pioneered by Andrew Bell (1753–1832) for orphans in Madras, India,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 28

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

29

organized pupils around one teacher and several older pupils who acted as ‘monitors’ (Tomkins, 2008, p. 24), instructing a small group of pupils in lessons that promoted obedience and moral training. The monitorial method in its cheapness, efficiency and stern discipline mirrored the presence of a static world in which the lower orders of society acquired a body of knowledge useful to preserving the integrity of the status quo (Tomkins, 2008). As a result, few children received formal instruction; only those families who could afford payment of tuition fees and residence could entertain visions of having their son educated in the elite institutions called ‘grammar schools,’ (Johnson, 1968, p. 24) such as Upper Canada College. For most children, the family home served to engender the teachings of basic literacy skills (Gaffield, 2013). Following the British North America Act of 1791 – a statutory law that gave birth to the colonies of Upper (Ontario) and Lower (Quebec and the Maritime Provinces) Canada – the British authorities became increasingly intolerant of opposition or criticism which threatened their power to rule (Adams, 1968). With respect to methods and policies of education, the government ‘sought to provide the higher education which could at best be the privilege of the few, and neglected entirely, so far as the government was concerned the great mass of children, whose parents had not the means to give them such education’ (Bannister, 1926, p. 68). Furthermore, education grants were awarded to schooling systems only if they were within urban settings; that their schools emphasized Christianization; that their hiring practices would select teachers with English language qualifications; and the curriculum would work to imperceptibly impart ‘the manners, habits, and customs of civilized life’ (Milloy, 2006, p. 13). Tensions between Catholic and Protestant orders in French Canada as well as an explicit lack of public interest in formal education undermined efforts among the British colonial administrators to set up a system of mass schooling. Nevertheless, the concept of mass schooling became more widespread among the public at large thanks in part to newsprint publishing the independent commentary of editors and columnists who addressed the positions taken by political reformers. Commentaries usually featured an intersection of political, social and economic interpretations, and in the process newspapers made a rhetorical statement about the existing state of affairs. Ideas of democracy, equality and freedom of opportunity – tenets of American republicanism – had inspired some in British North America to imagine a world in the precipice of revolution. Published in the late 1830s, an extract from the Niagara Reporter shows a column that expresses intolerance for social upheaval and advocates for a type of education that aims to quell radicalism of all kinds. As it appeared:

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 29

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

30

Every new school that is established on a proper basis is a new pillar of support to the fabric of the social order and constitutional law. Every lesson of morality and religion which is imbibed by a people weakens the chances of rebellion and insurrectionary violence. (Lawr and Gidney, 1973, p. 43)

The appearance of criticism in the newspapers was not uncommon. Some reflected a Loyalist perspective, which, in essence, was an expression of allegiance to British colonial rule. Others exhibited an anti-establishment view, which showcased disaffection with the affairs of everyday life in the colonies. Applied to education, such criticism, whether Loyalist or antithetical to the establishment, took on reformist overtones. Mass schooling was proffered as an effective instrument for instilling appropriate modes of thought and behaviour into children; in this mindset, the purpose of mass schooling was not to deposit a sufficient fund of academic knowledge in the minds of naïve children, as in the case of monitorial schools. Rather, school systems should be designed in favour of the assimilation of the individual, which propelled the need for schooling to have mechanisms in place which were capable of addressing the wider scale of perceived societal problems precipitated from the forces of mass immigration, urbanization and industrial capitalism – crime, poverty, idleness and vagrancy. For Loyalists, this type of education meant setting up a schooling system that constructed an alliance between church and state, thus systematically ‘civilizing’ the poor, the immigrants and the Aboriginal peoples according to the accepted norms of a Christian settler society (Lipset, 2001). While the majority of Upper Canadian newspapers characterized education in the image of British values and customs, not surprisingly Lower Canadian print generally reflected animosity for all things British. Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786–1871), a leading reformer in Lower Canada, believed that the French-Canadian culture and language should be supported through education en masse. His rationale was that education could be used as a means to empower the subjugated French-Canadians against the tyranny of a ‘foreign administration’ (Lawr and Gidney, 1973, p. 41). At the time of such social unrest, British North America, as Canada was officially known until 1867, was ruled by a closed circle of elite men (i.e. the Family Compact in Upper Canada and the Clique du Château in Lower Canada). These men exerted influence over the government in the Executive and Legislative Councils – advisory bodies to the Lieutenant Governor – from the 1810s to 1840s. By comparison, the popularly elected Legislative Assembly had little real power. Individuals like John Beverly Robinson (1821–96), the Reverend John Strachan (1778–1867) and the Reverend Jacob Mountain (1749–1825) occupied

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 30

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

31

the highest levels of governance. These officials and others of the elite circle were ardent followers of the Church of England (Anglicanism). They epitomized the Loyalist heritage in holding fears of Americanization, in seeking to maintain proper allegiance to the crown, and in expressing the felt need to assimilate the poor, immigrants and Aboriginal peoples who were perceived as disruptive elements in a society that quickly began to urbanize (Tompkins, 1977). During the 1820s, British North America started to exert more influence over schooling through the creation of a colony-wide General Board of Education. Although short-lived, this administrative office headed by Strachan was established in 1823, with the authority to govern local schools, appoint teachers and select textbooks (Tomkins, 2008). These unprecedented powers held by the government foreshadowed the eventual development of a public school system and a standardized curriculum. Such powers also led to an intense public obsession over the conception of education, especially evidenced in the newspapers. As Gidney remarks: Foreign educational ideas were discussed in editorials, letters to the editor, and in assembly debates, while proposals for improving the local schools were increasingly judged against the standards set in Scotland, or New York or Germany. (1972, pp. 48–9)

Thus an assortment of new ideas focused on education dotted the newsprint. Despite such differences, popular education was conceived as a method to achieve the realization of a better world. Schooling would be organized as a means to improve society overall – to be a ‘bulwark against democratic excesses, a weapon against oppression, a means of improving farming, expanding trade, eliminating crime, and spreading the gospel’ (Tomkins, 2008, p. 20). According to an editorial in Mackenzie’s anti-establishment newspaper, the Colonial Advocate, educational administrators should ‘seek not to put off the teacher of skill, talent, and moral character, with a miserable pittance, but reward him liberally’ (Lawr and Gidney, 1973, p. 41). His argument, along with several others that saw schooling as essential to prosperity, informed the vision that education could become the official handmaiden of constructing an enlightened citizenry.

Education as a public good Ryerson University, in downtown Toronto, is home to 38,950 students, including 2,300 Master’s and PhD students, nearly 2,700 faculty and staff, and more

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 31

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

32

than 140,000 alumni worldwide. It is named for Egerton Ryerson (1803–82), a prominent figure in nineteenth-century Canada who played an influential role in several fields of discipline, including politics, religion and the arts, but perhaps most significantly, education. In front of the university stands the statue of Ryerson, originally erected on the grounds of what was then the Toronto Normal School (Teacher’s College). Inscribed at the base of the statue is written: ‘Edgerton Ryerson Founder of the School System of Ontario’. Thousands of travellers – students, faculty, staff and the public – walk past this public monument each day without a moment’s hesitation. Despite such lack of expressed interest, this landmark makes causal reference to an important period of Canadian history, one that saw schooling become a public good. The statue also casts Ryerson as the principal figure in the development of public education in Canada. He held the post of Superintendent of Education between 1846 and 1876. Under Ryerson’s administration, a series of Education Acts formally legislated and developed ‘a scheme of mass schooling at the elementary level that had the following characteristics: state control; social comprehensiveness; non-denominationalism; a standardized curriculum; trained teachers; compulsory attendance; public support from property taxation; and absence of fees’ (Dawson and Titley, 1982, p. 15). This system of governance has not remained unaltered in Ontario, nor have other provinces and territories across the country come to embody an idyllic representation of the Ryerson model of education. As Young and Levin note: The struggles to define what would constitute an appropriate structure for the governance of public education involving competing versions of democratic participation, professional authority, and efficiency continue to resonate into the twenty-first century. (2002, p. 32)

The development of public education also emerged in response to the favourable reputation Ryerson had amassed in his dealings with print media. He first came to the attention of the public in 1826 by writing a polemic against the Church of England, specifically in response to a sermon officiated by the Bishop of York, John Strachan, on the death of Jacob Mountain, Anglican Bishop of Quebec. In his funeral oration Strachan not only reaffirmed the claim of the Church of England as the established Church in the dominion, but he also singled out Methodists as harbingers of republican ideals and accused them of being ignorant, self-indulgent and disloyal. The Niagara circuit – embracing a region of the Niagara peninsula, from roughly eight kilometres east of Hamilton, and west across to Fort Erie – was a hotbed of ministerial activity for the Methodist

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 32

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

33

Church. Several of its presiding ministers, notably the elder Reverend John Madden (1780–1834), were originally from the United States. They were part of a collective of itinerant preachers, travelling on horseback (thus earning the nickname ‘circuit riders’ [Putnam, 1912, p. 8]), spreading the gospel, and working tirelessly to inspire local communities with the thoughts of a better world. Madden appointed Ryerson to the circuit; for a limited period of time, Ryerson was thus engaged in a lifestyle similar to that of a modern substitute teacher. Under the signature of ‘A Methodist Preacher’, Ryerson launched a 12,000-word diatribe ‘which appeared, appropriately enough, in William Lyon Mackenzie’s spirited anti-Tory newspaper, the Colonial Advocate’ (Wilson, 1982, p. 63). This article marked the first strike in Ryerson’s campaign against the special privileges (so-called Clergy Reserves) of the Church of England and it laid the foundation of his public reputation as a vigorous rhetorician, having prose laced with nuanced arguments, flashes of insight, and powerful imagery. It also signalled the influence of Ryerson’s own upbringing. Born into a prominent Loyalist family in Charlottesville, Norfolk County (Lake Erie), Ryerson inherited a deep respect of British culture. Like the other selected clippings of newspaper articles documented in this paper, the conception of mass schooling Ryerson had in mind was not of his own creation. Ryerson shaped his imaginary of education from being an avid reader of the popular and academic presses as well as from being an international traveller, having visited several nations in Europe and during his travels having met with several dignitaries on the issue of Canadian educational reform. The characteristic conviction of school reformers like Egerton Ryerson in Ontario, Jean-Baptiste Meiller (1796–1878) in Quebec, as well as John Jessop (1829–1901) in British Columbia was that education needed to espouse an anti-American and anti-republican stance. This included opposition to the employment of teachers or textbooks from the United States. From their vantage point, a society born in revolution should be viewed with suspicion. Instead, they imported certain elements of Irish schools – most notably, the Irish Readers. Used in Scotland and England as well as in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the Irish Readers had a broad assimilative appeal without being ‘stridently nationalistic’ (Tomkins, 2008, p. 62). Indeed, these texts were designed to inculcate in the mind of the pupil ‘knowledge of sound moral principles, and of a vast number of important facts in History, Literature, and Science’ (Tomkins, 2008, p. 62). These were a series of ‘graded’ (Wilson, 1982, p. 67) textbooks. Ryerson sought to use them in the place of a diversity of texts

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 33

17/12/2013 09:38

34

Education in North America

used in the common schools, which were often republican, democratic and antiBritish in tone. Education historian Bruce Curtis perceived the usage of the Irish series as an attempt to provide ‘sound intellectual ailment’ to the ‘lower orders’ – to discipline the children of a growing working class (1988, p. 268).

Professionalism and organization as trends in Canadian schools A dominant theme in the history of Canadian education is a trend towards increasing professionalism within the teaching profession. Teachers, whether male or female, needed to be seen as discriminately chosen out of a pool of possible candidates (not all of which were graduates of teaching colleges called ‘normal schools’), thus leading to the perception that the teacher was not only a licensed professional but also a ‘competent’ authority to preside over the teachings of the curriculum in the schools (Gidney and Millar, 2012). The teacher’s licence was accompanied by (and usually took the form of) a certificate that attested to the qualification the particular individual held. Certificates were ranked according to the level of qualification obtained so that the public authorities could adequately assess an individual’s competence to teach particular subjects or grades (Gidney and Millar, 2012). School districts were collections of schools systematically organized under the authority of usually three trustees. These trustees were responsible for exercising administrative duties like offering contracts to teachers, issuing terms of their compensation, and exercising (when and where deemed appropriate) termination of their contract, as well as collecting and redistributing funds obtained through local taxes and provincial grants. By 1885, the government in each province and territory had come to determine the official languages of instruction. While in most provinces the language commonly used and understood was English, with the obvious exception of Quebec, a few regions of Canada used other languages of instruction, such as French, German, and even Cree. Some pioneer schools in Edmonton, Saint Albert and Île-à-la-Crosse, for example, were known to utilize more than one language of instruction and teach more than one type of religion (Curtis, 1988). Catholic and Protestant schools received financial assistance from their own governments, and such monies allowed Boards of Education to rapidly expand and hire teachers to fill vacant positions of teaching in posts considered too remote for most urban dwellers. In most cases, schools in the late 1880s were small, rectangular, log or brick buildings. The smell of rancid clothes, the surge of blood-thirsty mosquitoes,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 34

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

35

and the hot, humid climate of the classroom made for appalling teaching and learning conditions, especially in the rural settings. Furnished with few pedagogical technologies but blackboards, desks and benches with possibly globes or wall maps, these differed in few respects from the earliest schools of the pioneers. A well or pump, stove, outdoor plumbing and possibly a play area completed the picture of the little country school, which was familiar to most Canadians. By 1899, New Brunswick, for instance, had 1,600 one-room schoolhouses. Communities had their local schools, and children generally studied with children who lived within a two-mile radius of the buildings, which served as hubs for the community. It would not be until the early twentieth century that consolidated schools, which were advocated for fervently as a means of equalizing educational services and securing more efficient administration, would be built across the country. With increased consolidation came other administrative challenges familiar to contemporary life: transportation to and from school, community-building, and programme specialization unique to different schools. The swell of urban growth and the mix of various ethnic groups not speaking in a common tongue disturbed the British sensibility for uniformity and orderliness. These social conditions incited the formation of special interest groups like citizen, parent and teacher associations. These associations, despite their specific missions, all sought to strike a political conversation over issues of curriculum. While newspapers and subscription journals had by then become an established industry in the construction of public opinion, these special interest groups began to experiment with these print media and other forms as well, such as published reports of convention proceedings, symposia and town hall meetings (Stamp, 1979). One such association was the Dominion Education Association (DEA). Formed in 1891, the DEA was an association of teachers’ organizations. Its purpose was to advance the interests of a strong public education system across Canada. Robert Patterson observes that in the period between 1916 and 1920 ‘teachers in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Ontario established provincial organizations’ (Patterson, 1970, p. 362). In July of 1920, at the Calgary Public Library, these provincial organizations forged a national coalition, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, with the mandate ‘to provide machinery by which the various provincial and territories [sic] organizations could be kept in touch with one another, and through which mutual assistance could be quickly and readily given’ (Canadian Teachers’ Federation, 2013). The Canadian Teachers’ Federation was founded as a coalition between the five provincial organizations.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 35

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

36

The 1920 mandate established by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation remains in place today. Ontario’s organization was unique, distinguished by level, sex, religion and language. As such the province established the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario, the Ontario Public School Men Teachers’ Federation, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, and L’Association des Enseignants Franco-Ontariens. Parent groups also began forming across the country into various home and school associations. The first ‘was established by Mrs. A. C. Courtice in Toronto in March 1916. The Ontario provincial organization came into existence in 1919’ (Patterson, 1970, p. 362). By 1926, interest groups such as these were common across the country, but they were systematically organized only in Ontario and British Columbia. Their aims and purposes included promotion of cooperation among stakeholders in educational matters, inquiry into educational problems, and the development of a healthy Canadian citizenry. Child study and child health advocates also forged organizations to support their causes. The Association for Childhood Education was established in 1932 as a merger of several associations, including the International Kindergarten Union and the National Council of Primary Education. The organization explicitly stated that its greater size could make its attacks on educational policy more potent, promoting early years education across the country.

The ‘New Education’: Progressivism in Canadian public education Whereas traditionalism in education extols the virtues of rigorous scholarship for the benefit of achieving a disciplinary knowledge of the subject, progressivism in education orients the curriculum around the developmental needs of the child. Since at least the 1870s, a non-sectarian Christian philosophy of education has been woven into the English Canadian public education system. The Irish Readers were utilized as texts to instruct children in the ways of adopting a moral temperance conducive to the interests of the Canadian state. As previously mentioned, they also helped to lay the foundation upon which instruction was to be organized into distinct levels of instruction called ‘grades’ (Gidney and Millar, 2012, p. 198). Gidney and Millar (2012) recently published a work that documents how the designation of the ‘grade’ was used to introduce

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 36

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

37

American terminology in context of Canadian schools while at the same time leading to its increasing standardization in the image of progressivist ideology. For this reason alone, Ryerson’s ideas and vision of schooling could be described as progressivist within their own context, but in the service of traditional social and moral purposes characterizing Canadian education. While the reforms of the 1840s, 50s and 60s were generally marked by a period of centralization – a process by which a uniform system of schooling became the dominant model of education – a new conception of childhood and family life began to take hold in English-Canadian society. Traditional child-rearing practices started to become questioned and the spirit of disquiet gradually made its way into the context of schooling. In brief, a transition occurred from what Tomkins has called a ‘work-centred regime’, a model whereby the child was conceived as instrumental to the needs of labour, to a ‘family-centred one’ in which the child was imagined as malleable and commendable to the force of nurture in a more caring society (Tomkins, 1977, p. 4). Reformers in the middle of the nineteenth century initially conceived the teacher to operate as an administrative agent capable of delivering a standardized curriculum to children of the working classes. As time elapsed and as more schools were introduced in each locality, a disturbing statistic started to appear in the registers of annual reports and in the bureau of statistics Canada. Schools were plagued by an alarming rate of truancy. Many children ended up not attending schools regularly, even though parents of children were taxed to support the educational apparatus of public education (Phillips, 1957). There are a variety of reasons for poor school attendance, including inclement weather, obligations to employment, and general perception of the school being unhygienic and an incubator of illness (Gidney and Millar, 2012). Children younger than ten years old were working in mines (Johnston, 1968). In Ontario and Quebec, a Dominion government Commission in 1882 found that children of eight and nine were working in excess of 60-hour weeks in factories (Johnston, 1968, p. 82). It concluded that the health and safety of the children and the interests of industry was a field fit for provincial legislation. By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century most of Canada had laws in each province designed to protect the interests of industry through safeguarding children from exposure to harmful or unsafe labour practices as structured in factories, mines and other industrial workplaces. These legislative changes and the growth of more specialization in the manufacture of goods in the factory operations led to a growing concern over the lack of ‘practical subjects’ (Tomkins, 2008, p. 76) in the schools. Previously,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 37

17/12/2013 09:38

38

Education in North America

industrial skills had been taught outside the school in the workplace through apprenticeship, but changed industrial conditions were rendering these apprenticeship methods obsolete. In 1910 the federal government appointed a Royal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Education under the chairmanship of Dr James Wilson Robertson. The Royal Commission’s report, presented in 1913, proposed federal financial assistance for manual training and for the occupational training of youths and adults, although the actual control of these forms of education was regulated at the provincial level (Johnston, 1968, p. 121). A series of federal laws that authorized expenditures to promote and establish agricultural, industrial and technical education in the provinces was passed under the Borden government between 1911 and 1919. These laws – the Industrial Education Act (1911), the Agricultural Instruction Act (1913) and the Technical Education Act (1919) – provided funds for the purchase or rental of land, buildings, furniture and equipment, the administration of programmes, teachers’ salaries, teacher training and general maintenance of the training facility. These grants enabled a number of industrial, agricultural and technical colleges to be constructed in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia, and facilitated the construction of vocational education in Canada. Federal involvement in education was in reality a partnership struck between the Federal and provincial governments. Federal assistance was given to provincial programmes in response to pressures felt from industry. A new form of reformist rhetoric emerged on the scene of public education. Educationists loosely used the term ‘New Education’ – a phrase popularized in Great Britain – to describe the influence of American progressivism in their reforms efforts (Tomkins, 2008, p. 173). This rhetoric aimed at utilizing the public school as an even more refined instrument of the state (idem). In midwinter 1917, the DEA invited Superintendent William Wirt as a keynote speaker to address its congregation. Superintendent Wirt was at the time a well-known proponent of American progressivism in education. He hailed from Gary, Indiana. The DEA had requested Superintendent Wirt to share results of his ‘Gary Plan’, a system of schooling by which children would be enrolled into ‘platoons’, that is, one platoon was for the academic classrooms, while the second platoon was divided between the shops, nature studies, auditorium, gymnasium and outdoor facilities (Cohen and Mohl, 1979, p. 13). This brand of progressivist educational thinking was aligned firmly with the tenets of social efficiency, which were heavily indebted to the time-and-motion studies discussed by engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor (Christou, 2012).

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 38

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

39

Social efficiency, which has also been referred to as being administratively progressive, is one of three principal thrusts, or interpretations, of progressive education. Social meliorism, which represented a keen interested in reforming society along with and through the schools, was the second brand of progressive education. Child study, which will be discussed briefly below, as an aspect of human development and applied psychology, was the third. These three threads are tightly intertwined and deeply influential in contemporary educational rhetoric and policy; it is for this reason that we argue in the conclusions that we remain in the wake of progressive education within Canadian education. In the Gary Plan, as Wirt argued nearly a century ago, all of the school equipment remained in use during the entire school day; this system promoted efficiency in the school operations while developing the intellectual, manual and recreational skills of the children (Lane, 1978). Superintendent Wirt was convinced his system of schooling could take shape in Canada at the discretion of school administration. After a morning resolution was adopted on a motion to form a committee to consider how the federal and provincial governments could partner in the design and administration of industrial training and technical education in Canada, the Association adjourned to attend a joint session with the Ottawa Teachers’ Association to hear Superintendent Wirt upon the subject of ‘Progress in Education Through School Administration’; in his estimation: I think the great future for progress in education in our cities depends on the school administration, in utilizing the funds now on hand, in stimulating the home to do more for the children than it is now doing, or in stimulating the teachers to do more than they are now doing, or in stimulating those outside agencies such as libraries, or in stimulating the tax payer to contribute more liberally (1917, p. 74).

The former head investigator for the 1913 Royal Commission on Technical Education, Dr James W. Robertson, and acting chairman of the DEA at the time joined other educators in applause for Wirt’s invigorated speech on the merits of the Gary Plan and its underlying philosophy of progressive education. The infusion of progressive ideas and examples of their application in technical education programmes south of the border continued to receive warm reception in Canada during the greater part of the early period of the twentieth century. While the period between 1910 and 1930 saw the federal and provincial governments join forces to venture on a series of educational initiatives to address labour skills shortages, the 1930s took on a different tone under

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 39

17/12/2013 09:38

40

Education in North America

the weight of the Great Depression. Education historian George S. Tompkins has aptly described the decades of the 1930s as a period of ‘sporadic experimentation’ (2008, p. 174) in the history of Canadian education. The economic depression of the 1930s forced the provincial governments to seek federal financial aid to support the non-instructional aspects of provincial schooling, such as vocational and technical training programmes. The notion of an educative elementary curriculum designed in context of scientific child study together with prescriptions for every aspect of the school environment, including hygiene, discipline, morals, teaching methods, school management, and questioning, helped to mute traditional notions of the curriculum and to phase in ideas expounded by educational theorists like John Dewey, William Heard Kilpatrick and Peter Sandiford. The last of these three established the first centre for scientific study of education while a professor at the Ontario College of Education in Toronto. This emphasis on empirical research to guide educational policy is one that has persisted to this day, which bears rearticulating the argument that the steam engine driving progressive education as an educational tour de force in Canadian education, beginning in the early twentieth century, has not exhausted itself. A federal government commission was struck to examine the relation between labour and capital revenue and it found that public schools were an ideal site to host ‘technical instruction’ (Canada, 1889, p. 119), a term used to describe training programmes that would help students to become fit for mechanical life in industry. A prototype of the Gary Plan could arguably be said to have been implemented into the mainstream of Canadian education.

The Child Study movement The Child Study movement began in the United States in 1879, with the publication of the measurement of the height and weight of several thousand school children of Boston, and was followed a year later in 1880 by a little-known work called Content of Children’s Minds by G. Stanley Hall. The writings of Edward Thorndike soon followed, and the work of teachers like Francis W. Parker and William T. Harris helped to found state-sponsored Child Study societies. The movement was conducted through research in laboratories and the ideas that constituted the framework of child study were based in large part upon the new science of psychology. Ideas of the movement quickly spread to Canada and were taken up by educational figures like James L. Hughes,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 40

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

41

Toronto’s Superintendent of Schools. Parker received a formal invitation to address the Ontario Teachers’ Conventions as a keynote speaker in 1884, Harris in 1881, and Hall three years later in 1884. In 1895 a Child Study section of the Ontario Education Association (a sister affiliate to the Dominion Education Association founded in 1891) was formed (Johnson, 1968). The Child Study movement focused attention of teachers and the general public alike on the need for a more humane and understanding attitude toward the care of children. The practical experience of early child study advocates in Ontario, such as William E. Blatz, was rooted in the rehabilitation programmes for traumatized and wounded soldiers returning from World War I. The principles of child study were, in large part: An outgrowth of the re-education methods and psychological principles that were developed for the muscle-function training of crippled veterans at the University of Toronto during 1916–1919, namely, that patient must not remain passive and psychologically dependent, but must become a participant learner, if he is to master his present limitations and thus be able to meet later situations with confidence. (Bott, 1951, p. 15)

With respect to the study and education of children, ascertaining the stage of the learner’s development and the complexity of the tasks involved were simpler, yet the emphasis on active self-direction and the progressive achievement of small goals was the same (Fleming, 1972, pp. 187–8). In the case of a veteran, rehabilitation was slow progression towards an, often physical, objective. In the case of a child, the objective of progressive education was the successful adjustment into the next stage of human development. The foundation of all learning was perceived to be experiential. The staff of the Institute of Child Study, a centre for research into human development and education, published many books and articles explaining the relevance of child study to learning. The learner’s active engagement with tasks suitable to his or her stage of development promoted both health and happiness; in Blatz’s words, ‘if all reading, grammar, mathematics and other academic subjects were removed from the school time-table, and drawing, modeling, craftwork, music and dancing substituted, we should have in the next generation not more intelligent but happier adults’ (Blatz, 1936, p. 124). The most natural way to educate children, he argued, was through creative and expressive activity. The nursery and laboratory schools that were integral parts of child study were also described as ‘outgrowths […] they came into being at the same time

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 41

17/12/2013 09:38

42

Education in North America

when the human sciences were beginning to speculate upon the significance of childhood for human adjustment’ (Millichamp and Fletcher, 1951, p. 26). These allowed researchers to form developmental hypotheses of real children as they actively engaged in pedagogically progressive activities with their peers. In constructing such environments, Blatz appealed to his experiences at Chicago and to the model laboratory school developed there by Dewey. The children ‘worked on a loom and baked bread. There were school trips to the harbour, to art galleries, and to the train station. A newspaper was launched’ (Raymond, 1991, p. 90). These ideas, commonplace today, were a far cry from the seatwork and rote learning characterizing the traditional classrooms in Toronto at the time. The movement stood in stark contrast to a stern model of schooling known as the Theory of Mental Discipline. Teachers would give performance to the theory of mental discipline through a pedagogy designed to elicit memorization of facts and to acquire literacy and numeracy skills through fear of repercussion at the hands of the teacher, who stood equipped with powers of corporeal punishment. Child study did much to ameliorate the mental discipline model of education.

Manual training The subject of manual training was introduced in the public schools of Ontario and Nova Scotia during the 1880s and 1890s. It was taught in the elementary school where most children completed their education. Manual training was relatively inexpensive to fund as the subject did not require an array of speciality tools nor complex machinery necessary for technical instruction. While the educational apparatus of manual training began in the 1880s, the movement gained real traction in the early twentieth century through the philanthropic work of tobacco manufacturer Sir William C. Macdonald. Macdonald had observed the improvements in dairying resulting from the agricultural education campaign of Dominion Commissioner of Dairying, J. W. Robertson. He partnered with Robertson to construct a new scheme of practical education in public schools from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia. This involved not only agriculture programmes like horticulture but also manual training and domestic science. Starting in 1899, Macdonald designed and set up manual training centres in one or two cities in every province and provided teachers and equipment

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 42

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

43

to enact the manual training curriculum for a trial period of three years. Departments of education in each province soon assumed fiscal responsibility for the administration of these programmes. By 1910, over 20,000 students across Canada (mainly boys) were taking manual training as part of their regular school programme (Gidney and Millar, 2012). Courses in manual training, household and domestic science, as well as vocational training and guidance grew in degree and complexity throughout the 1920s. Despite provincial jurisdiction over education, the Technical Education Act was passed immediately following World War I by the Dominion government. It appropriated ‘$10 million for any form of vocational, technical, or industrial education which would promote industrial development or enhance the lives and/or contributions of the workers’ (Patterson, 1970, p. 362). By 1932, some 27,000 students were in vocational schools. When the Act ‘expired in 1929 only Ontario had utilized much of the available monies’ (Patterson, 1970, p. 362). The Act was renewed three times, each for a five-year interval, ending in 1944. While manual training was designed specifically for boys and enrolment in the programme was restricted to their gender, girls were encouraged to enrol in a complementary course called ‘domestic science’, a curriculum subject that taught the skills of a homemaker. The homemaker was a distinctly feminine identity constructed in the context of chores like doing cooking, sewing and laundry, and taking care of personal cleanliness and physical hygiene (Gidney and Millar, 2012). Adelaide Hoodless was a strong advocate of the Macdonald Movement; she would found the Women’s Institutes of Canada and wed Dr William Blatz of the Institute of Child Study. According to Hoodless, the feminized curriculum of domestic science complemented the overtly masculine aesthetic associated with technical instruction. She is best remembered for her defence of traditional Whig-feminist values in context of the home environment. Reporting to the Ontario Minister of Education in 1909, Hoodless remarked: Whether the homemaker has been, or is a wage-earner, or woman of independent means, the responsibility is the same, and the influence upon the class she represents of equal importance. The standard of honour, obedience to laws, service to humanity, sense of justice, respect for good work and the many other qualities which make the good citizen, be he mayor or mechanic, are directly due to the home training and early influences. (p. 3)

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 43

17/12/2013 09:38

44

Education in North America

Conclusions The history of education in Canada requires a thorough encyclopaedia to be properly discussed. How public education in the country has gone from schoolhouse to SMARTBoard is a tale longer than the one narrated within this chapter. This is not necessarily a story of progress, although progressive education is perhaps the most influential force affecting the country’s schools over the past century. Canadian education today is riding the crest of a progressivist tide, the third such wave to wash over the educational landscape of the country in the past century. The first wave freely flowed throughout the interwar period, intensifying in the years following the Depression. Half a decade after Alberta introduced a revised Programme of Studies for public schools in 1936, every province in Canada had transformed its formal curriculum, infrastructure and examination structures. A new and progressive age was on the horizon, and it demanded that school life adjust to meet the needs of a contemporary world. The second wave of progressive education followed the first by approximately 35 years; an indicative example is Ontario’s Living and Learning document, which was submitted to the public in 1968. More commonly referred to as the Hall–Dennis Report, a name associated with the two chairs of the committee that drafted the document, Living and Learning offered a wide set of recommendations, which challenged educationists to focus on the individual learner’s inclination towards self-discovery and exploration, to limit competition, to re-vision classroom spaces, and to abolish corporal punishment. The third wave of progressivist thinking, which is branded twenty-first century learning, is a tidal force in education today. While mediated within a discourse that concentrates upon the transformative influence of technology on our existence, three themes dominate the rhetoric; these themes have constellated about Canadian progressivist ideas since the 1930s, emphasizing: a) the needs of the individual learner; b) the necessity of cultivating active learning processes; and c) the correlation (integration) of schools with modern social needs (Christou, 2012). Throughout the history of Canadian public education, progressives have largely defined themselves in opposition to tradition, which bears a negative connotation. Traditional schools were derived in, and are associated with, a bygone and obsolete social context. The schools of today must relate to the world of the future, not a world that has passed. This argument is both problematic and persistent in the historical literature, having been addressed 85 years ago by John Dewey. He felt that the dichotomy of ‘traditional’ and ‘progressive’ schools is problematic:

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 44

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

45

The general philosophy of the new education may be sound, and yet the difference in abstract principles will not decide the way in which the moral and intellectual preference involved shall be worked out in practice. There is always the danger in a new movement that in rejecting the aims and methods of that which it would supplant, it may develop its principles negatively rather than positively and constructively. (1938, p. 20)

Dewey challenged progressivists to be more critical of their own pedagogical principles and claims, but also to articulate an educational philosophy that was not defined primarily in opposition to another set of ideas, which is generally depicted in caricature. The tensions between tradition and progress, seemingly irreconcilable concepts despite a century of debate, prevail. Educational technologies are the new idols attracting adherents to the cult of progress. Interactive white boards have taken the place of many play stations in kindergarten classrooms. Laptops and tablets are increasingly supplementing textbooks. Word processing has taken the place of handwriting. An altar to interactive technology is the centrepiece of any modern, progressive learning environment. These are not lamentable changes, but the actual effects of these changes upon social and individual learning processes remain to be seen. Test scores may increase, but education is more than a mark. Future historians will have to comment on the relative progress or regress that Canadian schools have made in the past decades, but the rocking and swaying between progressivist and traditionalist camps has confused the definition of what an educated person is (broadly speaking), and what a rounded education might resemble.

References Adams, H. (1968). The Education of Canadians. Montreal, PQ: Harvest House. Assembly of First Nations (2010). First Nations Control of First Nations Education: It’s Our Vision, it’s Our Time. Ottawa, ON: Assembly of First Nations. Bannister, J. A. (1926). Early Education History of Norfolk County. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Blatz, W. E. (1936). Educational frills. The Canadian School Journal, March, pp. 124–6. Bott, E. A. (1951). Founding of the Institute of Child Study. In Karl S. Bernhardt, Margaret I. Fletcher, Frances L. Johnson, Dorothy A. Millichamp and Mary L. Northway, Twenty-Five Years of Child Study: The Development of the Programme and Review of the Research at the Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, 1926–1951. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951, pp. 15–17.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 45

17/12/2013 09:38

46

Education in North America

Bowers, H. (1939). Guesswork. The School, October, pp. 97–8. Canada (1889). Royal Commission on the Relations of Capital and Labour in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Queen’s Printer. Canadian Teachers’ Federation (2013). History of CTF. http://www.ctf-fce.ca/AboutUs/ Default.aspx?ID=625993&lang=EN [accessed 6 October 2013]. CBC News (2013). Paul Martin accuses residential schools of ‘cultural genocide’. http:// www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/04/26/truth-and-reconciliation-saganashpaul-martin.html [accessed 6 October 2013]. Christou, T. (2012). Progressive Education: Revisioning and Reframing Ontario’s Public Schools, 1919–1942. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Cohen, R. D. and Mohl, R. A. (1979). The Paradox of Progressive Education: The Gary Plan and Urban Schooling. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press Corporation. Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) (2013). Education in Canada: An overview. http://www.cmec.ca/299/Education-in-Canada-An-Overview/index. htm [accessed 6 October 2013]. Curtis, B. (1988). Building the Educational State: Canada West, 1836–1871. London, ON: The Althouse Press. Davin, N. F. (1879). Report on the Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-breeds. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada. Dawson, D. and Titley, B. (1982). The origins of schooling in selected regions in Canada: An interpretation. In E. B. Titley and P. J. Miller (eds), Education in Canada: An Interpretation. Calgary, AB: Detselig Enterprises, pp. 5–24. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Touchstone. Fleming, W. G. (1972). Ontario’s Educative Society: Supporting Institutions and Services (Vol. 5). Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Gaffield, C. (2013). History of education. The Canadian Encyclopedia. http://www. thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/history-of-education [accessed 6 October 2013]. Gidney, R. D. (1972). Upper Canadian public opinion and common school improvement in the 1830s. Social History V, 9, pp. 48–60. Gidney, R. D. and Millar, W. P. J. (2012). How Schools Worked: Public Education in English Canada, 1900–1940. Montreal, PQ: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Government of Canada (2008). Statement of Apology: To Former Students of Indian Residential Schools. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644/1100100015649 [accessed 6 October 2013]. Hall, G. S. (1893). The contents of children’s minds on entering school. New York, NY: E. L. Kellogg & Co. Hoodless, A. (1909). Trade schools in relation to elementary education. In Report of the Minister of Education. Ontario: Ministry of Education. Johnson, F. H. (1968). A Brief History of Canadian Education. Toronto, ON: McGraw-Hill.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 46

17/12/2013 09:38



Educational History: Themes, Movements and Moments

47

Lane, J. B. (1978). City of the Century: A History of Gary, Indiana. Don Mills, ON: Fitzhenry & Whitehead. Lawr, D. and Gidney, R. (1973). Educating Canadians: A Documentary History of Public Education. Toronto, ON: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Legacy of Hope Foundation (2009). Blackboard, Chapter 3: Residential Schools as Policy. http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/en/blackboard/page–7.html [accessed 6 October 2013]. Lipset, S. M. (2001). Defining moments and recurring myths: A reply. Canadian Review of Sociology & Anthropology, 38(1), pp. 97–100. Mark, C. E. (1940,). Some educational pitfalls. The School, March, pp. 564–5. Millichamp, D. A. and Fletcher, M. I. (1951). Goals and growth of nursery education. In K. S. Bernhardt, M. I. Fletcher, F. L. Johnson, D. A. Millichamp and M. L. Northway (eds), Twenty-Five Years of Child Study: The Development of the Programme and Review of Research at the Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, 1926–1951. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, pp. 30–6. Milloy, J. S. (2006). A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986 (5th edn). Winnipeg, MN: The University of Manitoba Press. National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations (1972). Indian control of Indian education: A policy paper presented to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development by the National Indian Brotherhood/Assembly of First Nations. Ottawa, ON: Author. Ontario Department of Education. (1968). Living and learning: The report of the provincial committee on aims and objectives of education in the schools of Ontario. Toronto, ON: Newton Publishing Company. Patterson, R. S. (1970). Society and education during the wars and their interlude: 1919–1945. In J. D. Wilson, R. M. Stamp and L.-P. Audet (eds), Canadian Education: A History. Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall of Canada. Phillips, C. E. (1957). The Development of Education in Canada. Toronto, ON: W. J. Gage and Company. Putnam, J. H. (1912). Edgerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada. Toronto, ON: William Briggs. Raymond, J. M. (1991). The Nursery World of Dr Blatz. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Smith, W. J. and Donahue, H. M. (1999). The Historical Roots of Québec Education. Montreal, PQ: Office of Research on Educational Policy. Stamp, R. (1979). The response to urban growth: The bureaucratization of public education in Calgary, 1884–1914. In David. C. Jones et al., Shaping the Schools of the Canadian West. Calgary, AB: Detselig Enterprises, pp. 109–23. Stout, M. D. and Kipling, G. (2003). Aboriginal People, Resilience and Residential School Legacy. Ottawa, ON: Aboriginal Healing Foundation. The School (1934). Editorial notes: Looking backward. The School, January, p. 370.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 47

17/12/2013 09:38

48

Education in North America

Tomkins, G. S. (1977). Tradition and change in Canadian education: Historical and contemporary perspectives. In H. A. Stevenson and J. D. Wilson, Precepts, Policy, and Process: Perspectives on Contemporary Canadian Education. London, ON: Alexander, Blake Associates, pp. 1–20. —(2008). A Common Countenance: Stability and Change in the Canadian Curriculum. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press. Troniak, S. (2011). Addressing the Legacy of the Residential Schools (Background paper). Ottawa, ON: Parliament of Canada. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2012). Canada, Aboriginal Peoples, and Residential Schools: They Came for the Children. Winnipeg, MB: Author. http:// www.attendancemarketing.com/~attmk/TRC_jd/ResSchoolHistory_2012_02_24_ Webposting.pdf [accessed 6 October 2013]. —(2013). Residential schools. http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=4 Wilson, J. D. (1982). The Ryerson years in Canada West. In E. B. Titley and P. J. Miller (eds), Education in Canada: An Interpretation. Calgary, AB: Detselig Enterprises, pp. 61–9. Wirt, W. (1917). Progress in education through school administration. In The Dominion Education Association Proceedings of the Ninth Convention. Ottawa, ON: Dominion Printing and Loose Leaf Company, pp. 65–78. Write, R. (2004). A Short History of Progress. Toronto, ON: House of Anansi Press. Young, J., and Levin, B. (2002). Understanding Canadian schools: An introduction to educational administration (3rd ed.). Scarborough, ON: Nelson.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 48

17/12/2013 09:38

2

Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide Fiona Walton

Introduction Indigenous education in Canada is a complex and contested field filled with difficult questions and issues but also characterized by resilience and hope. Evidence of positive change, a turning tide, promises a different educational future for the coming generations of Aboriginal people in Canada. This chapter initially provides some background information related to the history of Indigenous education in Canada. It outlines some successful changes in Aboriginal education documented between 1970 and 2005, and then describes factors contributing to positive educational change in two educational jurisdictions in the country. The author selected these two jurisdictions based on her own experience with and knowledge of the public education system in Nunavut, one of the northern territories in Canada, and with Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey, an educational jurisdiction that draws together several Mi’kmaw communities in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, a province in Canada. The chapter does not attempt to present a comprehensive description of Aboriginal education in such a large and diverse country as Canada; instead it provides a more general overview and two illustrative examples.

Statistical background – Aboriginal peoples in Canada The Canadian Census (Statistics Canada, 2011a) identifies the Aboriginal population in Canada at 1,400,685, representing 4.3 per cent of the Canadian population with 851,560, or  60.8 per cent, identified as First Nations (North American Indian). Another  451,795, or  32.3 per cent, identified as Métis; and  59,445, or  4.2 per cent, identified as Inuit. Other Aboriginal identities

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 49

17/12/2013 09:38

50

Education in North America

in Canada accounted for an additional  26,475  people, or  1.9 per cent of the Aboriginal population, and 11,415 people, or 0.8 per cent, reported more than one Aboriginal identity (Statistics Canada, 2011b). The three main groups of Aboriginal Canadians are characterized by significant differences in culture and language but all share special status under Section 35 (1) of the Canadian Constitution (University of British Columbia, 2013). Treaty rights, negotiated land claim settlements or legal challenges brought forward to ensure that the government of Canada fulfils its constitutional obligations have clarified aspects of Aboriginal rights and education is increasingly emerging as an area that still requires significant attention. Given that the Aboriginal population also increased by 45 per cent between 1996 and 2006, compared to the 8 per cent national average (Statistics Canada, 2011b), and is projected to grow to 2.2 million, or 5.3 per cent, of the Canadian population by 2031, increasing attention is now being focused on the need to improve the education of Aboriginal students in Canada and close what is sometimes referred to as the ‘achievement gap’ identified in the performance of Aboriginal students on national assessments (Council of Ministers of Education Canada [CMEC], 2011; Friesan and Krauth, 2012; Richards, 2008). The Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada (AUCC) notes that ‘Aboriginal youth is the fastest-growing segment of the Canadian population. Right now, there are 560,000 Aboriginals under the age of 25. In the first quarter of this century, some 600,000 young Aboriginals are expected to enter the labour market’ (2013, p. 5).

A brief history of Indigenous education in Canada Colonial policies enacted by the government of Canada during the period of time from the passing of the Gradual Civilization Act in 1857 justified moving Aboriginal peoples from their traditional lands into reservations and communities and imposing ways of life that were brought from mainstream Canada. As these communities developed, many First Nations and Inuit in Canada were no longer able to live independent and self-sufficient lives sustained by values and practices successfully maintained over millennia. Beliefs and values brought by missionaries to Aboriginal communities started to replace First Nations and Inuit spirituality and ancient ways of knowing and being. Patterns of Aboriginal governance were replaced by the laws and policies of the Canadian government and enforced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). A cash economy was established in the communities, often by the Hudson’s Bay Company, as

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 50

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

51

part of the fur trade and the sale of foods and supplies brought from mainstream Canada became a part of daily life. Limited access to employment for Aboriginal people ensured that dependency on government financial supports was created. In Inuit communities the slaughter of sled dogs by the RCMP limited access to hunting and transportation on the land, depriving families of traditional country food that sustained their well-being (Qikiqtani Inuit Association, 2010). While some Aboriginal communities in Canada gained self-government through treaty settlements and land claims negotiations over the last 70 years and are now managing their own societies and communities, Aboriginal people in a significant number of locations in Canada live in poverty and depend on social assistance for their livelihood. Establishment of long-term dependency on government support over several generations can be disabling and when programmes offered in schools may not result in academic success, accessing post-secondary education becomes more challenging. Understanding the persistent struggles facing Aboriginal students in Canada requires an informed awareness of the colonial past as well as knowledge related to the long-term traumatic effects of a lengthy residential school era in Canada. Striking right into the consciousness and well-being of Aboriginal families, the removal of children and young people to attend residential schools for long periods of time left communities dealing with a level of grief and loss of purpose that was devastating. During the lengthy residential school era from 1838 until 1996, over 150,000 Aboriginal children were taken away from their families to attend school, often for long periods of time far away from their homes (Milloy, 1999). Residential school policies and practices are now considered genocidal (Chrisjohn et al., 2002; Chrisjohn and Young, 1995). In a Canadian newspaper, 17 February 2012, Justice Murray Sinclair, Chairman of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission states: ‘the reality is that to take children away and to place them with another group in society for the purpose of racial indoctrination was – and is – an act of genocide and it occurs all around the world’ (Puxley, 2012). The racial indoctrination referred to took place in residential schools across Canada, primarily operated by churches. Punitive discipline as well as harsh living conditions and poor nutrition led to illness and the deaths of children and young people who never returned to their families. Students were usually not allowed to speak their Aboriginal languages and cultural customs and practices were set aside. Education was delivered in English with assimilationist intent. Over two decades later, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996, para. 1) noted that the aim of the residential schools was:

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 51

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

52

To ‘kill the Indian in the child’, the department aimed at severing the artery of culture that ran between generations and was the profound connection between parent and child sustaining family and community. In the end, at the point of final assimilation, ‘all the Indian there is in the race should be dead’. Note: 234. (Nock, A Victorian Missionary, cited in note 24, p. 5.)

In spite of a formal apology from the Federal Government of Canada in 2008 for the losses and abuses suffered through the residential school era and the compensation provided to residential school survivors through the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada process (2013), the intergenerational impact of the residential schools continues to adversely affect the education of Aboriginal Canadians. It contributes to a lack of trust in the school system, poor school attendance, low graduation levels, high levels of unemployment, low socio-economic levels, addictions and health issues. Calls to change Aboriginal education in Canada started when the landmark paper, Indian Control of Indian Education, was released in 1972 by the Assembly of First Nations, over 40 years ago. The paper declared: ‘Unless a child learns about the forces which shape him [sic]: the history of his people, their values and customs, their language, he will never really know himself or his potential as a human being’ (Assembly of First Nations, 1972). The Royal Commission on Aboriginal People (1996) made many worthy and important recommendations about improving the education of Aboriginal students in Canada and gradually changes are starting to take place. In November 2005, at a First Ministers’ Conference on Aboriginal Affairs, the government of Canada gained support for the Kelowna Accord, an initiative that promised $5 billion over a five-year period of time to improve the lives of Aboriginal people (Parliament of Canada, 2006). The Accord was cancelled by a new government that took power 12 days after it was passed. The Accord was to include $1.8 billion for Aboriginal education, something described by a Canadian national newspaper, 11 January 2013 (Mitchell and Curtis, para. 5), as a ‘profoundly democratic strategic planning process with specific targets for addressing social inequalities through a $5-billion investment over five years. The Accord involved an agreement to work collectively with First Nations, Inuit and Métis organizations and communities to bring high school completion rates on par with the non-Aboriginal population.’ The failure to implement the Kelowna Accord provided a significant blow to progress towards change for Aboriginal students attending schools across Canada.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 52

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

53

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (United Nations, 2007) was endorsed by Canada on 12 November 2010; however, the official website of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (2010, para. 4) states: ‘While the Declaration is not legally binding, endorsing it as an important aspirational document is a significant step forward in strengthening relations with Aboriginal peoples.’ This statement reveals the position of the federal government with the comment that there is no legal requirement to implement the Declaration, indicating that in spite of the constitutional grounds for supporting changes through the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 Section 35 (1), implementation may not take place until legal challenges are brought against the government. In spite of the development of a First Nations Education Act (Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, 2013) the funding and supports necessary to enable widespread change to take place may require renegotiation through a legal process. The long-term history of failure to adequately address inequities in education that persist between mainstream and Aboriginal learners reflects the reluctance of the government of Canada to uphold their constitutional commitment to Aboriginal Canadians.

Present context of Indigenous education in Canada Governance of Aboriginal education in Canada is complicated. Education for mainstream Canadian and Aboriginal students who attend public schools in Canada is provided at the provincial and territorial, not the federal level. Individual First Nations’ communities, on the other hand, receive funding directly from the federal government through the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (AADNC). In Quebec and Newfoundland, provincial funding arrangements with Inuit, Innu and Cree communities enable governance through boards of education, although there is usually a requirement that Aboriginal jurisdictions in these provinces follow aspects of the provincial curriculum. In the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon, the territorial governments, usually through departments of education, regional offices and/or boards of education, manage public education for students from the kindergarten to grade 12 levels. These territorial jurisdictions also use curriculum documents developed by the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education (WNCP) or draw on provincial curricula from Alberta, British Columbia or other Canadian provinces. All educational jurisdictions in Canada, particularly in jurisdictions serving large numbers of Aboriginal students, have created curriculum documents that are starting to address the needs of Aboriginal learners.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 53

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

54

The repeated and ongoing calls for change in the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis learners over the last 40 years have not yet led to widespread academic success and Aboriginal students in Canada continue to experience significant challenges in completing high school compared to their peers who represent the mainstream. The Canadian Council on Learning states: The familiar and concerning statistics of low high-school completion rates remain an important part of the picture of Aboriginal learning. In 2006, 40% of Aboriginal people aged 20 to 24 did not have a high-school diploma, compared to 13% among non-Aboriginal Canadians. The rate was even higher for First Nations living on reserve (61%) and for Inuit living in remote communities (68%). These numbers are distressing given the importance of a high-school diploma in the pursuit of further education, training and employment. (2009c, p. 5)

Statistics Canada reports that: Between  2007  and  2010, the three-year average dropout rate among First Nations people living off-reserve, Métis and Inuit aged  20  to  24  was  22.6%, compared with 8.5% for non-Aboriginal people. Among young off-reserve First Nations people (North American Indians), the dropout rate was 25.8%, and for Métis, 18.9%. (2010, para. 17)

When over half the students living on reserves or in remote First Nations and Inuit communities are failing to complete a high school education, these Aboriginal young people are very poorly positioned to access post-secondary education, well-paying jobs and employment opportunities that would enable them to raise families and contribute to socio-cultural and economic sustainability. This negatively impacts Aboriginal as well as mainstream Canadian society. Aboriginal groups, Canadian scholars and educators have pointed out that the ‘achievement gap’ tends to perpetuate a deficit model that represents Aboriginal learners as lagging behind mainstream Canadian students when the measures used to identify the gaps are not ethically acceptable given the history of education for Aboriginal students in Canada. For example Marie Battiste, an eminent Aboriginal scholar, summarizes the impact of negative statistics when she comments: ‘Aboriginal people’s experiences are relayed in spoken and unspoken messages, complete with statistics telling them that it is not okay to be who they are’ (2010, p. 16). The Canadian Council on Learning also points out that ‘conventional measurement approaches rarely reflect the specific needs and aspirations of Aboriginal people’ (2009, p. 4). Finally, the Council of Ministers

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 54

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

55

of Education Canada, reporting on the results of a technical workshop on Pan-Canadian Aboriginal data, notes that: A number of workshop participants suggested that a more holistic approach to education and the collection of data would better suit the needs of Aboriginal learners and communities. They urged governments to broaden the approach to indicator development and to incorporate more holistic understandings of learning and performance. (2011, p. 10)

It appears that educational models and assessment approaches presently used to measure academic success among mainstream students in Canada may not address the strengths and needs of Aboriginal learners. However, when education provided for Aboriginal students focuses on students’ strengths and actively maintains culture, language, identity and Aboriginal perspectives, it starts to raise achievement levels to meet the expectations and aspirations of Aboriginal families and communities, sometimes to the extent that students are well positioned to meet the mainstream norms and expectations (Bell, 2004; Fulford, 2007; Haig Brown et al., 1997; Orr and Cameron, 2004, 2006; Tompkins, 1998). A consideration of educational initiatives contributing to success for increasing numbers of Aboriginal students in Canada reveals a turning tide, evidence of what Marie Battiste refers to as the ‘Indigenous renaissance’ (2008, p. 3). We now turn to a description of some of these promising programmes.

A turning tide Changes in Aboriginal education across Canada are increasingly driven by First Nations, Inuit and Métis at the local, regional, provincial, territorial and national levels. Alliances with educators from mainstream contexts who understand the history of educational struggle for Aboriginal students and are committed to implementing an education designed and led by Aboriginal peoples can help to sustain these efforts; however, it is clear that Aboriginal leadership and governance are key factors in promoting deep and sustainable change in education. It is not until this movement becomes visible in all educational contexts serving Aboriginal learners in Canada that it may be said that the tide has fully turned. In the meantime, documenting successful examples of educational change in Aboriginal contexts remains important. Celia Haig-Brown, Kathy Hodgson-Smith, Robert Regnier and Jo-Ann Archibald documented educational success at the local level in 1997 when they

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 55

17/12/2013 09:38

56

Education in North America

published Making the Spirit Dance Within: Joe Duquette High School and an Aboriginal Community. Joe Duquette High School is in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and is now called the Oskayak High School. Many positive programme initiatives at the Oskayak High School integrate Aboriginal culture into the daily activities and curriculum and continue to enable young Aboriginal students to experience success. In 1998, Joanne Tompkins’ book Teaching in a Cold and Windy Place: Change in an Inuit School described an educational transformation over a five-year period of time in a small Inuit community in the Arctic. The book documented improvements in attendance and graduation rates, initiatives related to the professional education of Inuit teachers and changes intended to ensure that relevant Inuit content grounded curriculum and programmes that were delivered as much as possible in Inuktitut. The book also described a growing strength in Inuit governance of education supported by the active involvement of the community. The Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education (SAEE) produced two volumes documenting success in 20 Aboriginal schools across Canada. The first was edited by David Bell and his colleagues in 2004 and the second by George Fulford and his team of scholars in 2007. Common characteristics of these schools were identified by SAEE (2008, p. 10) as: strong leadership and governance structures, often with long tenure; high expectations for students; focus on academic achievement and long-term success; secure and welcoming climates for children and families; respect for aboriginal culture and traditions to make learning relevant; provision of a wide range of programmes/ supports for learning; exceptional language and cultural programmes; high percentage of Aboriginal staff and quality staff development; assessment linked to instructional and planning decisions; and rigorous community partnerships and beneficial external alliances. The Canadian Education Association (Gaskel, 1995) documented exemplary practices in Qitiqliq High School in Arviat, Nunavut, as one of ten exemplary schools in Canada. Arviat is a community known for its commitment to Inuit education and the Inuktitut language. The Inuit Cultural Institute (ICI) was also located in Arviat and, since that time, groundbreaking work conducted with Elders by the Nunavut Department of Education has led to the development of innovative curriculum documents based on Inuit perspectives, history and ways of being (Government of Nunavut, 2008a; McGregor, 2010). The Summer publication of Our Schools Ourselves (Pastré, 2011) was entitled The Voice of Nunavut: Learning from the Eastern Arctic’s Education Challenges. It contained several examples of promising practices including an article on Nunavut Sivuniksavut

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 56

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

57

(Kyak, 2011), an award-winning programme offered to young Inuit high school graduates from Nunavut. Culturally based programmes led by Aboriginal leaders in close collaboration with parents and communities provide a strong basis for educational success for Aboriginal students (Battiste, 2000/2002; Battiste and Barman, 1995; Ah Nee-Benham and Cooper, 2000; Bishop and Berryman, 2006; Haig-Brown, 1995; Lipka, 1998; May, 1994, 1999; Walton et al., 2011). The Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre (ALKC), established by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) in 2003 and directed by the leading Aboriginal scholar Dr Marie Battiste from the University of Saskatchewan, contributed accessible and valuable research related to promising practices in Aboriginal education in Canada. Drawing together Elders, educators, researchers and scholars to develop approaches and models based on holistic Aboriginal learning models, the literature and knowledge organized and generated in a short period of time by CCL created collaborative and collective momentum towards change and provided a venue for the ongoing documentation of educational success across Canada (Battiste, 2011). It is important to point out that most of the successful schools or school systems flourish when they are supported by some form of collective governance such as Aboriginal boards of education or regional organizations that are well positioned to provide a wide range of curriculum and administrative supports that help to bring more equitable and high-quality levels of education to several schools within one jurisdiction. The two examples outlined below provide more specific evidence of successful efforts to enact change against many challenges facing Aboriginal communities and educational jurisdictions.

Changes in Inuit education In 2008, the national Inuit organization, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), led by its President, Mary Simon, held a Summit on Inuit Education that resulted in an Inuit Education Accord signed by governments and organizations in all four Inuit educational jurisdictions in Canada: Inuvialuit, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut (ITK, 2011, p. 96). The Accord established a National Committee on Inuit Education (NCIE) with a mandate to develop a National Strategy on Inuit education. In June 2011 the Strategy was published and launched, outlining a collaboratively endorsed plan for improving Inuit education in Canada. It identifies three broad goals which are to: support students to stay in school;

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 57

17/12/2013 09:38

58

Education in North America

provide a bilingual curriculum in the Inuit language, Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun, as well as English that is based on Inuit culture, history and worldview; and increase the numbers of bilingual educational leaders and educators in schools and early childhood programmes (p. 9). Identifying ten core areas of investment to support these goals, the implementation of the Strategy is beginning at this time. A Research Roundtable was held in Iqaluit, Nunavut in February 2013 and ongoing efforts through the newly established Amaujaq Centre for Inuit Education are engaging and informing the wider Inuit and Canadian public about the purpose and goals of the Strategy (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, 2013). In leading this visionary process, Mary Simon refused to accept that provincial and territorial boundaries should prevent Inuit from collaborating to improve education. The Strategy identified that only 25 per cent of Inuit students across all four regions were graduating from high school, the lowest level for any Aboriginal group in Canada (Richards, 2008). Against this daunting statistic, leaders in the four regions have agreed to promote collaborative change bringing hope for the future. Nunavut, the newest territory in Canada’s North, was established in 1999 as a public government and on 1 October 1 2012 had a population of 34,028 (Nunavut Bureau of Statistics, 2013a). The Department of Education, Government of Nunavut (GN), working with three regional operations offices, delivers educational services to 9,038 students from kindergarten to grade 12 in 43 schools in 25 communities, all of which can be reached only by air from southern Canada during the school year. Eighty-five per cent of the students attending Nunavut schools are Inuit and the Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun language is claimed as a mother tongue by 21,230 people, or 68 per cent of the population (Nunavut Bureau of Statistics, 2013b, para. 3). Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and French are official languages in Nunavut. Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are taught in schools, particularly at the elementary level, but also as a subject at the junior and senior high levels. A bilingual (Inuktitut/English) curriculum is offered in Nunavut schools and though the range and extent of resources supporting the teaching of Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are gradually improving, a full kindergarten to grade 12 Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun curriculum is not yet available in all subjects at all levels. Since the early 1970s the Northwest Territories Government, and after April 1999 the Government of Nunavut, has offered a teacher education programme based in Iqaluit but with a significant number of community-based programmes provided across the three regions of Nunavut. Inuit teachers have graduated with teaching certificates and Bachelor of Education degrees on an

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 58

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

59

annual basis, filling teaching positions primarily at the elementary level and providing students from the kindergarten to the grade three or four levels with the ability to learn to speak, read and write in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun. Evidence of the impact of these programmes over many years can be seen in the report of the Nunavut Bureau of Statistics (2013c, para. 5) based on the 2011 Canadian Census data which states: Youths aged 15 to 24 years had the second highest proportion of Inuktitut as their only mother tongue at 72%. On the other hand, adults aged 55 to 64 years had the lowest proportion (57%) of all age groups to have Inuktitut as their only mother tongue.

Most members of the group of adults aged 55 to 64 did not benefit from programmes offered in Inuktitut in schools and some of this group attended residential schools where they lost their language. While the number of people speaking Inuktitut/Inuinnaqtun at home has declined, the numbers of young Inuit claiming the language as a mother tongue is improving. This would not have been possible without the language being taught in schools by Inuit teachers. Over a period of 40 years, in partnership with McGill University and now the University of Regina, the Nunavut Teacher Education Programme (NTEP) has graduated over 250 teachers and is in the process of implementing a Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme designed specifically to prepared teachers for the middle school years (grades seven, eight and nine) (Manning, 2013). The author of this chapter worked in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut for 17 years, initially as a Special Education Consultant, then as a Supervisor of Schools for eight years, as an instructor at NTEP for four years and finally as a Director of Early Childhood and School Services before moving to the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) in August 1999. Since that time she has helped to start a Specialization in Indigenous Education at UPEI with her colleague, Basil Favaro, as well as a Master of Education (MEd) programme in Nunavut, supported by the Department of Education, Government of Nunavut (Walton et al., 2009). The MEd is the first graduate programme to be offered in Nunavut. A brief history of this programme will help to outline the process that has taken place over the last nine years. In 2004 a team of researchers from the University of Prince Edward Island and St Francis Xavier University, all with over 15 years of direct experience working in education in the Canadian Arctic, applied for a small Social Sciences

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 59

17/12/2013 09:38

60

Education in North America

and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Northern Development Grant to return to Nunavut. The objective was to ask some very experienced Inuit educational leaders and teachers to reflect on progress in Inuit education and identify additional directions that would contribute to positive change. One of those leaders, Peesee Pitsiulak, previous Dean at the Nunatta campus of Nunavut Arctic College (NAC) in Iqaluit, stated: ‘I have waited 20 years for a Master of Education programme. Go back to UPEI and bring a Master’s back to Nunavut’ (personal communication, 29 May 2005). Thanks to unanimous support from the Faculty of Education and the ability of the Department of Education, Government of Nunavut to act very quickly, the first MEd programme began in November 2006 with 27 students. Twenty-one Inuit women received their degrees at a special convocation held in Iqaluit, Nunavut on 1 July 2009. The second iteration of the MEd (2010–2013) saw the convocation of 13 Inuit graduates in Iqaluit on 1 June 2013. Naullaq Arnaquq, a PhD student in the Faculty of Education at UPEI, completed her MEd thesis in 2008 and Jukeepa Hainnu, previous principal of Quluaq School in Clyde River, came to UPEI to complete her MEd degree in 2007. Information about this programme and its successes can be located in a report and a documentary video (Walton et al., 2010a, 2010b), both entitled Lighting the Qulliq: The First Master of Education Program in Nunavut, as well as in two articles (McAuley and Walton, 2011; Tompkins et al., 2010). Reports from the second iteration of the programme will be available in December 2013. The Nunavut educational system provides an example of positive change in Aboriginal education for the following reasons: 1. A public government in Nunavut is committed to ensuring that the Inuit language and culture become the foundation for the educational system (Government of Nunavut, 2010, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2008d). This means there is a system-wide approach to managing and coordinating education with legislation in place to support language of instruction and curriculum content (Aylward, 2011, 2010a, 2010b; McGregor, 2010). While there can be issues involved in government-led initiatives in education, legislation in Nunavut provides for strong local control through District Education Authorities (DEA) and a Coalition of Nunavut District Education Authorities, a body that supports the DEAs (Berger, 2009; McGregor, 2012). 2. A well-established teacher education programme, a graduate programme at the Master’s level, and a Certificate in Educational Leadership in Nunavut (CELN), certified by the University of Prince Edward Island, ensure that

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 60

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

61

university-credited professional learning is available to teachers and educational leaders (Walton et al., 2009a, 2009b). Innovative curriculum approaches and documents based on knowledge shared by Elders are gradually starting to reach the schools (McGregor, 2010, 2011, 2012a, 2012b; Walton et al., 2011, 2012). 3. Graduation rates in Nunavut are now improving. With the lowest rates in Canada in 2006/2007 at 29.6 per cent, Nunavut has nevertheless seen a significant improvement of 69.2 per cent in graduation rates between 2000/2001 and 2006/2007 (Statistics Canada, 2009). While the improvement in graduation levels is encouraging, it still leaves Nunavut at a low level within Canada as a whole. Further analysis of the graduation levels is required and is starting to take place. There is ample evidence of exciting and hopeful educational practices taking place in the school system in Nunavut over the last 30 years. By May 2014, 37 Inuit MEd graduates will be influencing the system, bringing hope that, with increased Inuit leadership, change will continue to take place (Arnaquq, 2008; McGregor, 2010; Walton et al., 2010; Tompkins et al., 2010).

Mi’kmaw education in Cape Breton Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey (MK) is an education authority, like a board of education, located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, serving 13 Mi’kmaw communities and approximately 2,500–2,700 students. In 1999, a unique and first-of-its-kind change took place for this group of Mi’kmaw communities when a Federal Order-in-Council, […] brought force to Bill C–30, the Mi’kmaq Education Act and a provincial Order-In-Council brought force to Bill No. 4, the Mi’kmaq Education Act … [marking] the final steps of the Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia in returning jurisdiction for education on-reserve, to First Nations in Nova Scotia, a process that has been underway since 1992. (Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey, 2012)

Evidence provided in the MK Annual Report for 2011–12 indicates that remarkable progress has taken place in just 13 years to bring MK to educational levels that now see 80 per cent high school graduation rates for 17- to 18-year-old students. This is above the national level of 71.3 per cent graduation rates reported by Statistics Canada for 2006/2007 and the students graduating

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 61

17/12/2013 09:38

62

Education in North America

are younger than is sometimes the case in contexts where some Aboriginal students may need to repeat grades. The MK Annual Report also notes that there are 400 Mi’kmaw graduates from MK schools completing post-secondary education. The Mi’kmaw language is being retrieved, strengthened and maintained and in the 2011 census for the largest MK community, Eskasoni, 2,575 out of 3,250 respondents chose the Mi’kmaw language as their mother tongue (Statistics Canada, 2011). MK has achieved this success through a governance structure that involves regional organization and management as well as local control of education with active consultation and collaboration. This created a strategic plan in 2001 and momentum was maintained by updating the plan on a regular basis, conducting research, focusing on specific instructional objectives and ensuring accountability through annual reporting processes. This came from the regional support staff as well as from each of the communities (Orr and Cameron, 2004, 2006). MK develops and provides culturally based curriculum and is involved in ensuring that the provincial curricula integrate appropriate content, values and principles that reflect the Mi’kmaw culture. Impressive immersion and first and second Mi’kmaw language programmes and resources are also available, with research ensuring that successes are documented and shared (Orr and Cameron, 2004, 2006). MK coordinates and offers a wide range of special student services to provide specific programmes and differentiated instruction to all the schools. The regional coordination of many aspects of the overall education mission for the thirteen communities is hands-on and regular, supported by qualified Mi’kmaw administrators, consultants and coordinators and assisted by the ability to access communities by road. MK is committed to maintaining high levels of accountability and transparency and students’ test results and achievement levels are shared in the Annual Reports and are available on the public website. The decision to report on success in several areas of the curriculum involves a willingness to meet, and in some cases exceed, the expectations and assessment measures that are common within mainstream Canadian education systems. Setting the bar very high and providing a wide range of supports to schools and students has enabled MK to meet its targets and goals in a commendable way. Constant efforts take place to negotiate and secure funding from several sources through Tripartite Agreements with the Province of Nova Scotia, the Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC). The aim is to access federal programmes such as the First

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 62

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

63

Nations Student Success initiative (Kűkner, 2013) and the Red Road Project, a programme to promote healthy choices and combat drug and alcohol abuse in First Nation communities. MK maintains initiatives on many fronts to create success for students in MK schools. A long-term partnership between St Francis Xavier University, Faculty of Education, and MK, supported by a Memorandum of Understanding, has resulted in a number of beneficial outcomes, including the graduation of 130 Mi’kmaw teachers with BEd degrees and over 30 Mi’kmaw teachers graduating with MEd degrees (Tompkins et al., 2009; Tompkins and Orr, 2009). These Mi’kmaw teachers, leaders, administrators and researchers form the backbone of the school system, enabling education to be led and shaped by Mi’kmaw educators. St Francis Xavier has also provided research services, consultation on education and professional learning support over many years, particularly in the area of planning, leadership and assessing change (Orr and Cameron, 2004, 2006; Orr and MacCormick, 2007; Tompkins et al., 2008); instruction and curriculum change (Tompkins and Orr, 2009); and mathematics (LunneyBorden, 2012). A biannual Mi’kmaw Language Conference is coordinated by the St Francis Xavier, Faculty of Education in collaboration with MK and the Mi’kmaw communities. The contribution by the Faculty of Education to the success of MK is significant and commendable. Cape Breton University has recently started a teacher education programme and for many years has acted as a centre for the generation of research, documentation and creation of knowledge as well as advocacy related to Mi’kmaw studies. Through Unama’ki College (formerly Mi’kmaq College Institute) studies at the university level have reached communities across Cape Breton, raising educational levels among mainstream and Mi’kmaw. Access to a university in Cape Breton, as well at to St Francis Xavier in Antigonish, enables graduates from MK schools to study close to home and be able to maintain connections with their families. As we have seen in the examples provided in this chapter, collaborative partnerships with universities that understand the issues and concerns of groups of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people can provide Aboriginal communities across Canada with access to post-secondary education and undergraduate and graduate certificates and degrees, as well as support throughout their studies. Partnerships with universities can also open up other supports through research as well as the documentation of histories, best practices and case studies that provide information that is helpful to Aboriginal communities working towards positive change.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 63

17/12/2013 09:38

64

Education in North America

In the words of John Jerome Paul, the Director of Program Services at MK: ‘Student success will become an expectation, rather than a hope’ (Paul, 2012, p. 11). MK provides a fine example of documented and visionary positive change in one aboriginal educational jurisdiction in Canada and demonstrates the importance of collaborative efforts among Aboriginal communities to improve education.

Conclusion The evidence of a turning tide within Aboriginal education in Canada includes recent movements at several levels, including the grass roots, that speak to a changing consciousness with respect to awareness of the conditions affecting Aboriginal people in Canada. Aboriginal people in Canada are now actively refusing to accept a lack of progress, or a failure to adequately consult them in initiating change processes. The Idle No More movement provides an unusual and peaceful example of a grass-roots movement that is drawing more support as it grows (Idle No More, 2013). Peaceful protests took place in many locations across Canada during 2012, drawing widespread support from the public and other organizations. On 11 December 2012, Theresa Spence, the Chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation in Ontario, started a 44-day hunger strike to protest the government’s failure to implement treaty rights (Galloway, 2013). Inspired by the Idle No More movement, Chief Spence drew attention to the ongoing struggles facing her community where housing shortages, poverty and issues related to the need for a new school kept the community in the news for many years. On 25 March 2013, a group of six young people and a guide from the northern James Bay Cree community of Whapmagoostui, Quebec arrived at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, ending a 1,600-kilometre trek in very cold winter conditions across snow and ice to support the Idle No More movement and bring attention to Aboriginal issues, including education (Bergeron-Oliver, 2013). In Nunavut, protests took place during 2012 to object to the high prices of food. Led by families, particularly mothers, and working through a Facebook group called Feeding My Family (2012), the protests spread to several Nunavut communities. They attracted media attention and raised awareness about food insecurity in Nunavut. It appears that support for Idle No More is growing among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people across Canada who are starting to unite in efforts to be heard and contribute to change. Political activism among Aboriginal peoples in Canada brings hope and energy to what might otherwise remain a future that has relied on task forces, committees, expert panels and a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 64

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

65

plethora of reports, resulting in relatively minor changes at a Canada-wide level compared to their documented needs. Another Government of Canada and Assembly of First Nations’ effort to make change resulted in the formation of a National Panel on First Nations Elementary and Secondary Education to create a Joint Action Plan. The Panel conducted cross-Canada consultations and recommended the development of a First Nations Education Act (AANDC, 2013). While the Education Act can be interpreted as an attempt to create change in response to many demands, the information provided in the 447-word Executive Summary in the Discussion Guide prepared by AANDC uses the terms outcomes five times, standards three times, accountability or accountable three times, monitor or monitoring twice, and includes the words compliance, real results, inspection, requirements and mandatory standards, as well as government monitoring. The language used in this Executive Summary is intended for the First Nations Education Act which is a legal document, but it clearly reflects evidence of the Eurocentrism and cognitive imperialism that Marie Battiste refers to in her writing and presentations (2000, 2010, 2011). The Summary refers to ‘stable, predictable and sustainable funding’ but fails to use the word ‘equitable’ or mention the need to ensure that First Nations receive funding that is comparable to that provided to education at the provincial level. The words culture, language, autonomy, Indigenous knowledge or Elders, that would clearly differentiate the First Nations Education Act from existing provincial legislation, do not appear. While the Act does provide hope for some change in the future, it appears to be based on norms established by the Federal Government, representing mainstream Canadian society, not the interests of indigenous peoples. The First Nations Education Act is to be completed by September 2014 and there is little indication that it will reflect the holistic approaches developed by Aboriginal scholars and educators working within the Aboriginal Knowledge Research Centre. This centre was established by the Canadian Council on Learning and it focused on producing holistic learning models based on Aboriginal perspectives and worldviews (Canadian Council on Learning, 2009). The efforts of Aboriginal educators and scholars who represent a Canada-wide effort to re-vision education for Aboriginal learners are not included in the summary regarding the First Nations Education Act. First Nations educators and Aboriginal people in Canada will need to critically read the documents to ensure their perspectives are reflected. This chapter provides a discussion of issues, challenges and successes related to Indigenous education in Canada. It shares examples of positive change by

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 65

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

66

describing two Aboriginal educational jurisdictions in Canada and referring to other examples of success documented by scholars and organizations. Increasing numbers of Aboriginal people in Canada are completing postsecondary education and adding their voices to the literature, political efforts and grass-roots movements to bring changes in education for their children and future generations. Valuable knowledge, perspectives and wisdom held by the Aboriginal peoples of Canada can enrich and inform Canadian society as a whole. Jose Kusugak (1950–2011), the Inuit leader and former President of the National Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, inspired the development of the National Strategy on Inuit Education and affirmed the identities of Inuit as Canadians when he stated: Do Inuit see themselves as Inuit first or as Canadians first? I have always thought these two sentiments were one and the same. After all, during our many meetings with Inuit from countries such as Denmark, the United States or Russia, we have always been Canadian Inuit. (National Committee on Inuit Education, 2011)

The Canadian Constitution must remain the central guiding force in efforts to ensure that Aboriginal peoples in Canada successfully negotiate, lead and develop educational systems that reflect their visions. Transformative action on a daily basis at local and regional levels is also necessary in creating change, as we have seen in the examples shared in this chapter. Battiste (2011) writes about a ‘renaissance of Indigenous peoples’ (p. xxiv) and argues that: The work of educators, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, is to enable the human potential of all peoples. Indigenous peoples are not just part of the dialogue. They need to advance their own post-colonial trans-systemic discourse. This discourse must interrogate current thinking, curricula, and structures. It must question who benefits from them and how. And it must work actively to transform colonial thought by changing Indigenous thinking and by helping others, especially Indigenous students to understand the roles they must play in effecting change. The efforts of educators need to reveal inconsistencies, challenge assumptions, and expose ills. Educators need to search within themselves and their knowledge systems for principles that will guide all children to lead dignified and respectful lives. (p. xxv)

Battiste suggests the animation of Indigenous education in Canada. Her wisdom represents the efforts of the first generation of respected Aboriginal educational scholars and educators in Canada and provides evidence of a turning tide, a growing renaissance in Indigenous education and scholarship.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 66

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

67

References Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development (AAND) (2013). Developing a First Nation Education Act: Discussion Guide. http://www.aadncaandc.gc.ca/ eng/1355150229225/1355150442776 [last accessed 2 February 2013]. Ah Nee-Benham, M. K. P., with Cooper J. E. (eds) (2000). Indigenous Educational Models for Contemporary Practice: In Our Mother’s Voice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Arnaquq, N. (2008). Uqaujjuusiat, Gifts of Words of Advice: Schooling, education and leadership in Baffin Island. Unpublished thesis. University of Prince Edward Island Assembly of First Nations (1972). Indian Control of Indian Education. http://www. afn.ca/uploads/files/education/3._2010_july_afn_first_nations_control_of_first_ nations_education_final_eng.pdf [accessed 4 February 2013]. Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (2013). Creating Opportunities in Education for Aboriginal Students. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. http://www.aucc.ca/wp-content/ uploads/2013/01/aboriginal-students-report–2013.pdf [accessed 8 February 2013]. Aylward, M. L. (2010a). Culturally Relevant Schooling in Nunavut: Secondary Educators’ Viewpoints. Études Inuit Studies, 33(1–2). —(2010b). The Role of Inuit Languages in Nunavut Schooling: Nunavut Teachers Talk about Bilingual Education. Canadian Journal of Education. http://www.csse-scee.ca/ CJE/Articles/CJE33–2.html [last accessed 10 February 2013]. —(2011). The Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Conversation: The Language and Culture of Schooling in the Nunavut Territory of Canada. In Z. Bekerman and T. Giesen (eds), International Handbook of Migration, Minorities and Learning – Understanding Cultural and Social Differences in Processes of Learning. New York: Springer, pp. 213–31. Battiste, M. (2000/2002). Maintaining Aboriginal Identity, Language and Culture in Modern Society. In M. Battiste (ed.), Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, pp. 192–228. —(ed.) (2000/2002). Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. —(2005). State of First Nations Learning and Education. Canadian Council on Learning, July, Ottawa, ON. —(2008). Keynote Address: Animating Indigenous Knowledge in Education: From Resilience to Renaissance. World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference in Education (WICPE): Melbourne, Australia, 11 December. http://www.usask.ca/education/ people/battistem.htm [accessed 16 February 2013]. —(2009–10). Nourishing the Learning Spirit: Living our Way to New Thinking, Education Canada, 50(1): pp. 14–18. —(2011). Cognitive imperialism and decolonizing research: Modes of transformation. In C. Reilly, V. Russell, L. K. Chehayl and M. M. McDermott (eds), Surveying

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 67

17/12/2013 09:38

68

Education in North America

Borders, Boundaries, and Contested Spaces in Curriculum and Pedagogy. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. xv–xxviii. Battiste, M. and Barman, J. (eds) (1995). First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Battiste, M., Bell, L. and Findlay, L. (2002). Decolonizing Education in Canadian Universities: An Interdisciplinary, International, Indigenous Research Project. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 26 (2), pp. 82–94. Battiste, M., Kovach, M. and Balzer, G. (guest eds) (2010). Celebrating the Local, Negotiating the School: Language and Literacy in Aboriginal Communities. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 32 (Supplement), pp. 4–12. Bell, D. (ed.) (2004). Sharing our success: Ten case studies in Aboriginal schooling. Society for Advancement of Excellence in Education (SAEE), Kelowna, British Columbia. http://dspace.hil.unb.ca:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1882/8733/ SOS2004.pdf?seq [accessed 10 February 2013]. Berger, P. (2009). Inuit Language, Culture, Parental Engagement and Schooling in One Nunavut Community. Canadian Journal of Native Education, (32), pp. 73–92. Bergeron-Oliver, A. C. (2013). Cree Youth Who Walked to Ottawa Celebrated Online. http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/03/cree-youth-who-walked-toottawa-celebrated-online.html [last accessed 25 February 2013]. Bishop, R. and Berryman, M. (2006). Culture Speaks: Cultural Relationships & Classroom Learning. Wellington: Aotearoa. Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) (2009). The State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada: A Holistic Approach to Measuring Learning. http://www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/ StateAboriginalLearning/SAL-FINALReport_EN.PDF [accessed 12 February 2013]. Chrisjohn, R. D., Wasacase, T., Nussey, L., Smith, A., Legault, A., Loiselle, P. and Bourgeois, M. (2002). Genocide and Indian Residential Schooling: The Past is Present. Halifax: Dalhousie University Press. Chrisjohn, R. D. and Young, S. (1995). The Circle Game: Shadow and Substance in the Residential School Experience in Canada. Penticton: Theytus Books. Council of Ministers of Education Canada (2011). Improved Data, Better Outcomes: Strengthening Pan-Canadian Aboriginal Data. http://www.cmec.ca/Publications/ Lists/Publications/Attachments/276/cmec-technical-workshop-aboriginalDatasummaryReport.pdf [accessed 8 February 2013]. Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (2010). http:// www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/361.aspx?lang=eng [accessed 30 October 2013]. Feeding My Family (2012). http://www.feedingmyfamily.org [accessed 11 February 2013]. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (2010, para. 4). Canada Endorses the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. http://www. international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/361.aspx?lang=eng [accessed 15 February 2013].

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 68

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

69

Friesan, J. and Krauth, B. (2012). Key Policy Issues in Aboriginal Education: An Evidence-Based Approach. Council of Ministers of Education Canada. Toronto, Canada: http://www.cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/295/ Key-Policy-Issues-in-Aboriginal-Education_EN.pdf [accessed 20 February 2013]. Fulford, G. (ed.) (2007). Sharing our Success: More Case Studies in Aboriginal Education in Canada. Kelowna, BC. Society for Advancement of Excellence in Education (SAEE). Galloway, G. (2013). Bob Rae Pledges to Take up Cause as Chief Spence Ends Hunger Strike. Globe & Mail, 23 January. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/ politics/bob-rae-pledges-to-take-up-cause-as-chief-spence-ends-hunger-strike/ article7666112/ [accessed 21 February 2013]. Gaskel, J. (1995). Secondary Schools in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Education Association. Government of Nunavut (2000b). The Education Act – Overview. http://www.edu.gov. nu.ca/apps/authoring/dspPage.aspx?page=71 [accessed 22 February 2013]. —(2008b). Foundation Documents for Schooling. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov. nu.ca/apps/UPLOADS/fck/file/K-12/NU%20CUR%20GUIDE%20SEPT%202010. pdf [accessed 19 February 2013]. —(2008c). Official Languages Act. Retrieved from Relevance=1000 – /apps/uploads/ files/consolidated law/current/conssnu2008c10.pdf – 100KB – 3/31/2013 [last accessed 28 February 2013]. —(2008d). Inuit Language Protection Act. Retrieved from Relevance=1000 – /apps/ uploads/files/consolidated law/current/conssnu2008c17.pdf – 162KB – 9/10/2012 [last accessed 28 February 2013]. —(2010). Guiding Principles. http://www.gov.nu.ca/files/IQ_Principles_2010.pdf [accessed 24 February 2013]. Government of Nunavut, Department of Education (2010). Annual Report 2009–2010. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.nu.ca/apps/News/dspNews.aspx?ID=58 [last accessed 22 February 2013]. Haig-Brown, C. (1995). Taking Control: Power and Contradiction in First Nations Adult Education. Vancouver: UBC Press. Haig-Brown, C., Hodgson-Smith, K. L., Regnier, R. and Archibald, J. (1997). Making the Spirit Dance Within: Joe Duquette High School and an Aboriginal Community. Toronto, ON: Lorimer & Co. Idle No More (2012). http://idlenomore.ca [accessed 10 February 2013]. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) (2011). First Canadians, Canadians First: National Strategy on Inuit Education 2011. https://www.itk.ca/publication/national/-strategyinuit-education [accessed 10 January 2013]. —(2013). Opening of the Amaujaq National Centre for Inuit Education. https://www. itk.ca/front-page-story/opening-amaujaq-national-centre-inuit-education [accessed 6 February 2013]. Kűkner, E. (2013). Exploring the Impact of Professional Development Upon the Perceived Roles of Involved Stakeholders in an Aboriginal Educational Context. Unpublished

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 69

17/12/2013 09:38

70

Education in North America

Master of Education Thesis. Antigonish, Nova Scotia: St Francis Xavier University, Faculty of Education. Kyak, M. (2011). Teaching Inuktitut to Young Adults at Nunavut Sivuniksavut. A. Pastré (ed.). Our Schools Our Selves. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/ files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2011/07/7-Martha.pdf [accessed 9 February 2013]. Lipka, J., with Mohatt G. V. and The Ciulistet Group. (1998). Transforming the Culture of Schools: Yup’ik Examples. Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Earlbaum. Lunny-Borden, L. (2012). What’s the Word for…? Is There a Word for…? How understanding the Mi’kmaw Language Can Help Support Mi’kmaw Learners in Mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Journal. Mathematics Education Research Group of Australia Inc. doi: 10.1007/s13394–012–0042–7 Manning, B. (2013). NTEP Students Study Middle School Concentration. http://www. arcticcollege.ca/en/education-news/item/5227-middle-school-concentration-ntep [accessed 13 April 2013]. May, S. (1994). Making Multicultural Education Work. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. —(1999). Indigenous Community-Based Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. McAuley, A. and Walton, F. (2011). Decolonizing Cyberspace: Online Support for the Nunavut MEd. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12 (4), pp. 18–34. McGregor, H. E. (2010). Inuit Education and Schools in the Eastern Arctic. Vancouver: UBC Press. —(2011). Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and the Transformation of High School Education in Nunavut: History, Context and Statistical Profiles of Attagoyuk and Quluaq Schools. Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island: University of Prince Edward Island and Iqaluit, Nunavut. —(2012a). Nunavut’s Education Act: Education, Legislation and Change in the Arctic. The Northern Review, 36 (Fall), pp. 27–52. —(2012b). Curriculum Change in Nunavut: Towards Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. McGill Journal of Education, 47 (3), pp. 285–302. Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey (2012). Annual Report 2011–2012. http://www.kinu.ca/ downloads/MKAnnualReport2011–2012.pdf [accessed 22 February 2013]. —(2013). Documents Related to History, Background, Vision, Direction and Research. http://kinu.ns.ca/downloads/ [accessed 22 February 2013]. Milloy, J. S. (1999). A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential school system 1879 to 1986. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. Mitchell, T. and Curtis, L. (2013). Canada, First Nations Have a Road Map. It was the Kelowna Accord. Globe and Mail, 11 January. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ commentary/canada-first-nations-have-a-road-map-it-was-the-kelowna-accord/ article7210814/ [accessed 1 February 2013]. National Committee on Inuit Education (2011). First Canadians, Canadians First: National Strategy on Inuit Education. Ottawa: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 70

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

71

Nunavut Bureau of Statistics (2013a). Nunavut Population October 1, 2012. http:// www.stats.gov.nu.ca/en/home.aspx [accessed 6 February 2013]. —(2013b). Stats Update: Mother Tongue and Language Spoken Most Often at Home. http://www.stats.gov.nu.ca/Publications/census/2011/StatsUpdate_Mother%20 Tongue%20and%20Language%20Spoken%20Most%20Often%20at%20Home.pdf [last accessed 7 February 2013]. —(2013c, para. 5). Stats Update: Stats Update: Mother Tongue and Language Spoken Most Often at Home. http://www.stats.gov.nu.ca/Publications/census/2011/ StatsUpdate_Mother%20Tongue%20and20Language%20Spoken%20Most%20 Often%20at%20Home.pdf [last accessed 7 February 2013]. Nunavut Teacher Education Program (2012). NTEP News 2011–2012. http://education. uregina.ca/assets/documents/News%20and%20Events/NTEP-News–2011-2012.pdf [accessed 20 January 2013]. Orr, J. and Cameron, C. (2004). ‘We are Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey’: An Asssessment of the Impact of the Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey Self Government Agreement on the Improvement of Education for Participating Mi’kmaw Communities. Research Report Submitted to Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey and Indian Affairs, Canada. kinu. ns.ca/downloads/MK_Best_Practices.doc [accessed 2 March 2013]. —(2006). Research Regarding K–12 Education Second Level Services Administration and Delivery by First Nation Organizations. Research Report Submitted to Indian Affairs, Canada [accessed 2 March 2013]. Orr, J. and MacCormick, F. (2007). A Framework for School Improvement for Mi’kmaw Schools. Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey website: http://kinu.ns.ca/downloads/ Orr, J., Roberts, C. and Ross, M. (2008). First Nations Post-Secondary Education and Training Literature Review and Best Practices: Leading Towards Recommendations for Comprehensive Post-Secondary Planning and Evaluation Framework for Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey. Membertou, Nova Scotia: Mi’Kmaw Kina’matnewey and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. http://www.kinu.ns.ca/downloads/AboriginalPSE_draft.pdf Parliament of Canada (2006). Aboriginal Roundtable to Kelowna Accord: Aboriginal Policy Negotiations, 2004–2005. http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ ResearchPublications/prb0604-e.htm [accessed 4 March 2013]. Pastré, A. (2011). The Voice of Nunavut: Learning from the Eastern Arctic’s Educational Challenges. Our Schools, Our Selves. http://www.policyalternatives.ca/ourPaul, J. J. (2012). Elementary and Secondary Education. Annual Report 2011–2012. http://www.kinu.ca/downloads/MKAnnualReport2011–2012.pdf [accessed 2 March 2013]. Puxley, C. (2012). Residential Schools Called a Form of Genocide. Globe and Mail, 17 February. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/residential-schoolscalled-a-form-of-genocide/article547129/ [accessed 26 March 2013]. Qikiqtani Inuit Association (2010). Qikiqtani Truth Commission Final Report: Achieving Saimaqatigiingniq. QTC_Final_Report_EN13_Oct_2010–2.pdf [last accessed 2 February 2013].

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 71

17/12/2013 09:38

72

Education in North America

Richards, J. (2008). Closing the Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal gaps. Toronto: C. D. Howe Institute. http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/Backgrounder_116.pdf [accessed 17 February 2013]. Royal Commission on Aboriginal People (1996). Volume 1, Section 10 (3) Residential Schools – Discipline and Abuse. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ webarchives/20071211055821/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg31_e.html [accessed 4 January 2013]. Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education (SAEE) (2008). Sharing Our Success: Promising Practices in Aboriginal Education: Proceedings of a National Conference. http://aned.sd61.bc.ca/edsrvs/ANED/educationalResources/ StudentSuccess/Sharing_Our_Success_Proceedings_of_a_National_Conference.pdf [accessed 5 March 2013]. Statistics Canada (2009). Percentage Change in Number of Graduates Between 2000/2001 and 2006/2007, Canada Provinces and Territories. http://www.statcan. gc.ca/pub/81–595-m/2009078/c-g/c-g002-eng.htm [accessed 10 March 2013]. —(2010). Trends in Drop-out Rates and the Labour Market Outcomes of Young Dropouts. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/101103/dq101103a-eng.htm [last accessed 10 March 2013]. —(2011). Population with an Aboriginal Mother Tongue by Language: Table 1. http:// www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98–314-x/2011003/tbl/tbl3_3– 1-eng.cfm [last accessed 10 March 2013]. —(2011a). Aboriginal peoples in Canada in 2006: Inuit, Metis and First Nations. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/130508/dq130508a eng.htm [last accessed 10 March 2013]. —(2011b). Population growth: Chart 2 growth rate (%) between 1996–2006 by Aboriginal identity. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/111207/ dq111207a-eng.htm [last accessed 10 March 2013]. —(2011c). Census Information 2011: Eskasoni, Nova Scotia. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/ mobile/2011/cp-pr/table-eng.cfm?SGC=1217020 [last accessed 10 March 2013]. Tompkins, J. (1998). Teaching in a Cold and Windy Place: Change in an Inuit School. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. Tompkins, J. and Orr, J. (2009). ‘It Could Take Forty Minutes; it Could Take Three Days.’ Authentic Small-group Learning for Aboriginal Education. In C. Craig and L. Deretchin (eds), Teacher learning in small group settings. Teacher Education Yearbook XVII. Toronto, ON: Rowman & Littlefield Education, pp. 261–77. Tompkins, J., McAuley, A., Walton, F., Metuq, L. and Hainnu, J. (2010). Carrying the Suppivik: Protecting Embers to Light the Qulliq of Inuit learning in Nunavut communities. Etudese/Inuite/Studies, 33 (1–2), pp. 95–113. Tompkins, J., Orr, J., Paul, J., Meader, J., Paul, S., Sock, S. and Stevens, D. (2008). In S. Niessan (ed.), Aboriginal Knowledge Exchange Project. Self-study Compilation and Report: Aboriginal Ways of Knowing in Teacher Education. Regina, Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan Instructional Development and Research Unit (SIDRU), pp. 156–68.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 72

17/12/2013 09:38



Transforming Indigenous Education in Canada: A Turning Tide

73

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2013). Reconciliation …Towards a New Relationship. http//www.trc.ca/websites/reconciliation/index.php?=312 [last accessed 15 March 2013]. United Nations (2007). United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf [accessed 12 March 2013]. Walton, F., McAuley, A., Tompkins, J., Fortes, E., Frenette, D. and Burgess, J. (2010). Lighting the Qulliq: The First Master of Education Program in Nunavut. Research Report. Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island: Centre for Education Research, University of Prince Edward Island. http://education.upei.ca/nunavutmed/ programs/first-master-education-documentary [accessed 30 October 2013]. Walton, F., Sandiford, M. and Frenette, D. (2010). Lighting the Qulliq: The First Master of Education Program in Nunavut. Documentary Video. http://education.upei.ca/ nunavutmed/programs/first-master-education-documentary [accessed 30 October 2013]. Walton, F., Sandiford, M. (producer), Pitsiulak, S. and Flaherty, E. (2011). Going Places: Preparing Inuit High School Students for a Changing, Wider World. A Documentary Video. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island. Authors. http://nunavut. upei.ca [accessed 16 October 2013]. Walton, F., Wheatley, K. and Sandiford, M. (producer) (2012). Alluriarniq/Stepping forward: Youth Perspectives on High School Education in Nunavut. A Documentary Video. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island. http://nunavut.upei.ca [accessed 16 October 2013].

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 73

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 74

17/12/2013 09:38

3

Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses Ali A. Abdi

Introduction This chapter critically engages the general intersections of schooling and social justice, and  intends to highlight  the positive contributions of difference  in building educational equity and social well-being in Canada. With a population that has now surpassed the 35 million mark, Canada is one of the most multiethnic and multicultural countries in the world. As the saying goes, there is at least one person in Canada from the other 192 countries in the world. With the inception of its Multicultural Policy in 1971, which became the Multicultural Act of 1988, which made Canada the first country in the world with an official multicultural policy, the country’s politics and social expectation have partially fulfilled its demographic realities, which have especially changed with the rescinding of the exclusionary immigration policies that previously admitted people of European ancestry into the country. Today, Canada’s so-called multi-ethnic mosaic is as active as ever, and while visible minorities (people of non-European descent) constitute about 5.5 million of the population, in 15 years that number is expected to rise to 14.5 million, which will represent over 30 per cent of the country’s population. Indeed, some of Canada’s biggest cities such as Brampton in the province of Ontario, with about 500,000 people, may already be called a ‘visible majority’ city, for it already has a non-Euro-Canadian majority. It is with these realities in mind that the interactive interplays of difference, educational equity and social justice should be analysed with the objective of advancing debates on how these issues should be reconciled so that Canada can remain at the forefront of global educational and social development privileges. That is important, for this northern country is already one of the most educated

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 75

17/12/2013 09:38

76

Education in North America

countries in the world, with 50 per cent of its population having completed some form of tertiary education including post-secondary technical certificates and diplomas, four-year university degrees and advanced graduate qualifications. That number actually puts Canada at the forefront of educational achievements vis-à-vis other OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, which are by themselves so much ahead of the rest of the world in schooling/university enrolments and completion rates. Canada is also endowed in relation to the quality of its schooling platforms; Canadian children consistently do well in international tests competition, which despite their importance should be qualified in terms of their inclusivity with respect to different populations in the country (an issue I will not be dealing with in this chapter). In tertiary education quality, Canada is generally ranked the third best in the world (after the United States of America and Japan). While all these educational situations currently favour Canada as an educational powerhouse, a note of caution must be adopted, especially as things in the global context are moving fast and changing fast. With the rise of some previously so-labelled ‘third world’ countries including China, India, South Korea and Brazil, the competition to create the best schools and students is more intense than ever, and when this is complemented by the fact of ever more intensive and extensive systems of globalization (Held and McGrew, 2007), then Canada cannot afford to forget the needed focus, not only on educational quality, but also on social justice-oriented learning possibilities that are achieved through educational equity. I will relay my observations on the important interplay of social justice and educational equity later, but let me immediately say that with the increasing diversity of the population, which includes a good number of new learners coming from educationally less endowed places and others from more precarious situations such as war-ruptured societies and refugee camps, the future (indeed, current) development of Canadian education must think about and embrace the diversity (backgrounds, cultures, languages and certainly social class) of the classroom population more than ever. Later of course, the schooling preparation of these learners will greatly affect their access to, and achievement in, specialized postsecondary institutes and universities. It is also important to take a critical note of how, in many contemporary discussions on educational and student development, educational equity is juxtaposed with educational equality. For most of those reading this chapter and this book, the massive difference may be not difficult to comprehend, but for many others, including some practitioners and policymakers, the divide might not be as clear as it should be. A hint here (to

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 76

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 77

be expanded later) is that while educational equity can achieve social justice, educational equality, especially in multi-ethnic and multicultural democracies such as Canada, cannot. One main argument in this chapter, therefore, is that in order to achieve educational equity and social justice (here at least, I am giving a more agentic status to educational equity in relation to social justice – i.e., the former can lead to the latter), we must also appreciate the constructions of difference, not as something that divides societies and communities, but as a platform of dignity and inclusion that circularly elevates the socio-subjective promise of fulfilled potentialities for all (Ghosh and Abdi, 2013). Needless to add that with the quasi-consensus that education, at least formal education, leads to some realities of social development (intended here as the cultural, educational, political, economic, technological and emotional well-being of individuals and groups), and by extension to the positive relationship between schooling and achievement (Fagerlind and Saha, 1989; Mandela, 1994; Abdi, 2006), processes and relationships of learning that are as pragmatically inclusive as possible are, ipso facto, required for Canada’s educational contexts. In the following, I engage the conceptual/‘practical’ constructions of difference, followed by some analysis of educational equity and social justice (social justice education), and should conclude with some suggestions on the need to achieve an actively positive learning experience in Canada’s difference-rich classrooms.

The fundamental(ity) of difference In using the word fundamental(ity), so deployed provisionally for my purpose here, I do not intend to do a scientific excavation of the term and/or examine its possible physical properties and effects. Simply, I intend to point out how basic, indeed essential, our differences are to our existential realities. Difference, one can say, is so fundamental a trait to our being that it might tentatively be described as the sine qua non of our lives. And it should not stop at the level of basic survival; difference also certainly makes our lives more interesting, socially richer, and collectively capable of achieving what we have achieved together as different human beings. Indeed, our talents and, yes, potentialities, are outcomes of the fact that the 7.2 billion people who currently inhabit this earth, including identical twins, are all and each different from one another. For any scientific excursions on the topic, therefore, this could be one of the most interesting projects: how could we have that number of people who are all different from one another? Certainly, such debates would not be limited to

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 77

17/12/2013 09:38

78

Education in North America

the bio-genetic corners of research, but could also be expanded to the realm of the divine and attached belief systems. At the general social level, we could see difference as implying how someone is different from someone else based on his or her gender, levels of education, employment position, income categories, skin colour, externally discernible ethnicity, linguistic qualities, or other observable/ knowable characteristics of people. With the natural and socially established fundamental(ity) of difference, therefore, and with the important Canadian demographic realities mentioned above, one needs to critically think about ways of relocating the way teachers and educational researchers think about, approach, and deal with the central life of difference in learning, teaching and related instructional situations. The point of this thinking is especially important in that the way difference is bio-emotively discerned by majority populations has not been as constructive as it should be with respect to those who have been labelled as different, not only in Canada, but, as well, in many other Western poly-cultural democracies that have been receiving increasing numbers of immigrants from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. While difference, in its fundamental social categories, focuses on how all of us are different from one another, or how it should be constructed and analysed in learning contexts, as I am doing in this chapter, with respect to its thick attachments to the historical and cultural locations of individuals, groups and societies, the educational locations of difference in Canadian schooling have not been as constructive as they should be. Certainly, the association of difference with multicultural education has been an issue of concern, with difference in schooling contexts mainly seen as something that only concerns the lives of immigrant or refugee communities who are not of European background. Historical associations and the issues of learning enfranchisements or disenfranchisements that are attached to them are a function of the perceptions as well as the operationalizations of multicultural education itself, which has been an outcome of Canadian multiculturalism and is usually undertaken by provinces that have jurisdiction over education. As has been critiqued over the years (e.g. Ghosh, 1996), multicultural education discussions and practices in Canada seem to have avoided the needed criticalizations and their outcomes by mainly focusing on the symbolism of culture, where, just like in old anthropological studies, culture was viewed as a piece of exotic artefact that was fixed, and left on a shelf, to be de-shelved for curiosity-inspired ceremonial purposes. Without any inter-discursive analysis of culture, therefore, the educational project basically represented some occasional exposure to the unique ways

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 78

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 79

that those identified as cultural communities (read, non-white) practised food, costumed themselves and danced. More than anything else, therefore, multicultural education became something ‘good’ that was pedagogically constituted via the surface festivities of the now celebrated multicultural school days. For me, telling this ‘lowly’ story of multicultural education is important for two or three reasons. The first is that it violates the real meanings of culture. It also commits the same epistemological violation that culture was subjected to via the colonial encounters that took place in the same countries new immigrants and refugees are now coming from. So, here again, culture is being re-shelved for simplistic symbolisms that render it so much less than what it is in real, lived terms – this even when, in the past thirty years or so, the liberation of culture as a way of life and cultural studies as central discipline in the social sciences have been established. Indeed, even the more than half-a-century-old work of John Dewey, Experience and Education (1963), among other important works, can be seen as one of the first oeuvres that have initiated the liberation of the culture of education from its exile in spaces of descriptive fixity and analytical degeneration. Even when one reads Clifford Geertz (2000 [1973], p. 89), widely recognized as one of the first cultural studies scholars to have appreciated the active comprehensiveness of the cultural, his definition of culture as ‘a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life’ should help us sense the complexity as well as the unrivalled expansiveness of culture as the ‘total’ way we live in the given tempospatial intersections of our existences. With my understanding of culture as such, I submit there is hardly anything attached to our realities that is not culturally constructed or intended. Indeed, the way we view and establish historical events, practise political projects, relate to our economic situations, approach our business deals or no deals, use technology or define success and failure, which are only some aspects of our elemental life, are all defined, mediated, even commanded by culture. As such, I have a few times asked students in my teacher education classes at the University of Alberta to consider the following question: are we more psychological, cultural or something else? That is, do we design our lives and/ or respond to our life contexts based on our psychological being (i.e. our individual needs and wants) or on our cultural being (i.e. based on what we are taught by society and as we know society wants us to behave and do things) – to put it crudely in both ways since there is so much more to these assumptions – and the interesting answers I receive from these young scholars are always

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 79

17/12/2013 09:38

80

Education in North America

instructive for me. Indeed, I have more often than otherwise marvelled at the sophisticated thinking of these young people, who, while many of them are thinking about these not-simple issues for the first time, start with expanding or at least problematizing the meanings of both the psychological and the cultural. In most cases, I delightfully hear the refusal to abandon the golden mean of the epistemological in the story; that is, we should be, to some and varying extent, both psychological as well as cultural. But my next question to the group brings in the issue of praxical primordiality, or the theoretical and practical formulations of the psychological and the cultural – i.e. which of the two influences the other most – and the answers overwhelmingly favour the latter. While it may be easy to ‘rest my case here’, I actually want to go back and return to the trigger point for all of this analysis, which is to enfranchise culture as the most comprehensive aspect of the learning and other lives we lead. As a reminder, I was talking about the problematic conceptualizations of difference as emanating from the weaknesses of multicultural education, which I attached to the less active perceptions about culture, which, to say it now, diminishes the emergence of critical multicultural education that should go way beyond pure symbolism and engage a multi-level excavation of savagely uneven societal and institutional power relations (to borrow just a point of description from Jonathan Kozol, 1992) that affect the lives of those who are selectively located as different, not necessarily in their humanness since that is common to all, but in their social and cultural capital locations with respect to prevailing schooling contexts. It is with respect to widely diffused ethnically associative power relations, therefore, that the meanings of difference in classroom situations have been proscribed and reconstructed as depictive of certain school populations, mainly visible minorities (whether immigrants or Canadian-born) and Aboriginal peoples. The latter, of course, are the original owners of contemporary Canada; they are also the most deprived in all educational contexts in Canada (King, 2013). Others who are educationally marginalized include African-Canadian youth who, irrespective of their immigration or citizenship status, and as they are negatively and differently constructed, are not being served well by current schooling situations (Dei et al., 1997; Abdi, 2012). Regardless, the way difference is understood, established in classroom situations, and who it is problematically associated with, should be an ongoing point of concern. Indeed, when a group of researchers that I was part of (ongoing research) asked a number of teachers and student-teachers who would they see as different in their classrooms, the hesitation was palpable as we expected, but as we pressed them and asked them not to focus on the now, but to try to recall their experiences, the majority of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 80

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 81

their observations were depictive of that proscribed construction of difference where only ethnic groups were perceived as different, and, by extension, those implicated in the non-mainstreamed categories of life (even without any proof beyond one’s looks) were seen as different. With this being one problematic way that difference is conceptually constructed and practised in Canada’s multicultural learning contexts, two other bad learning effects also occur. The first is the falsity of what I would tentatively call ‘limited difference’, where people outside the visible minority and Aboriginal categories somehow rescind themselves from the fundamental(ity) of difference, and by some hitherto unknown bio-genetic de-evolutionary processes, become un-different from one another and presumably all the same. No, the process is not real, and no one can prove it, but the story is again about attachments to societal and institutional power relations where difference is no longer categorized as the fact that we are all different from one another, irrespective of our observable physical characteristics. In addition, the non-tenable characterizations of difference are also extended into the cultural sphere, when, even as I am writing this chapter in early 2013, and despite the voluminous works available, culture is still viewed through the prism of the old depictions, and via the pure symbolism of multicultural education, which also affirm for some that because they are neither visible minority not Aboriginal, they do not have much to do with culture. It is via these assumptions that we always hear the expression ‘cultural minorities’ and hardly ‘cultural majorities’. With these reconstructions of difference and the cultural in Canada’s educational spaces, both concepts and their practices are decoupled from the right power contexts, with those associated with difference and culture de-associated with power and achievement. It is via this reality that difference, instead of being seen as a societal asset and as a platform of dignity (Mahdavi and Knight, 2012), is actually portrayed as deficiency and is assumed to segmentarily represent the lives of the non-achieving. To qualify my point, many visible minority and Aboriginal students are certainly achieving a lot in Canada’s multicultural classrooms, and you could always hear about the so-called ‘model’ minorities (selectively Asian-Canadian students) who are doing well, but that shouldn’t minimize the reality that the biggest number of learners who would benefit, if their different cultural backgrounds, linguistic characteristics and ways of learning are somehow enfranchised in their schooling contexts, are visible minority and Aboriginal learners. With respect to holistic and identity affirmation realities, I would also add the ‘model’ minority students. In terms of the usual concern from some corners: ‘How can we respond to all cultural ways,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 81

17/12/2013 09:38

82

Education in North America

teach all languages and use all epistemologies?’, that shallow concern should be immediately disqualified as a descriptive and analytical non-sequitur. The issue is not about doing any or all of those, but empowering culture and difference, and allowing all learners to flourish in pedagogical environments where their difference is not a liability but a natural point of life that is common to all. This, of course, includes discussing and approaching difference as something specific to all, so that for all members of the classroom, irrespective of whether their socio-biological package is different, one’s difference is not a liability, but our collective differences are what assures our humanity’s multiple capabilities, achievements and relationships.

Constructive difference into educational equity The construction of difference as a positive, all-encompassing human trait that is common to all, without anyone’s difference being less than someone else’s, can actually represent the first building blocks for educational equity. Indeed, educational equity is also fully attached to the perceptions and actions of culture. As indicated above, the early and still ongoing focus (albeit with less horizontality) on educational equality in difference-rich societies (that should be all societies, but also selectively in multicultural Western countries such as Canada) can be useful up to a point, and may be especially functional in communities where social class differentials are limited. With its major focus on the physical equalization of teaching spaces and resources for all students, educational equality, despite some obvious advantages, can suppress one important form of difference that needs to be addressed in all classrooms: children coming to school with highly differentiated home means, thus starting early different and differentially endowed relationships with the teacher and the locus of education. Educational equality also tends to systematize learners who, as components of the system, should perform the task assigned to them via the dominant structural schemes already in place. As an epistemic and policy category, therefore, it is possible to place educational equality in the structuralist-functionalist traditions of society and education promoted by, among others, such previously prominent sociologists as Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton. While I shouldn’t claim any discrediting of such a tradition (it is alive and well in many academic circles and practised in many educational and other public institutions), the idea of achieving specific functions on an already present social structure may be less complicated than what people actually face in today’s interconnected, networked and highly

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 82

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 83

globalized societies. In order to participate in the structuralist-functionalist prescriptions of a certain location, so many of us may have to learn things anew so as to fit the new platforms of learning and life we have voluntarily joined as immigrants and refugees, or as Canadian-born minorities who were not socio-culturally exposed to the schematic intersections of this social paradigm. As should be clear, this paradigm doesn’t necessarily accommodate the type of difference I am talking about. Indeed, instead of growing diverse subjectivities that can inter-subjectively and inter-discursively realign the world so it fits the emerging and changing needs of people, the restrictions of this old epistemic/ action regime would not be that helpful. And with respect to educational equity, such a platform shouldn’t be conducive to the expected promise from difference-friendly and critical multicultural contexts of schooling. The place of educational equity should, therefore, be paramount in Canada’s schools and other spaces of learning. Unlike educational equality, which, as I said, mainly focuses on the countable equalization of learning resources without much attention to the differentially capacitated realities of learners, educational equity actively aims to understand and analyse the full shots of subjective/physical differences, multiculturalism and social class-constructed privileges or lack of these, among the general student population. To further my analysis here, let me use the example of social class and cultural capital. Social class realities should be one of the most important denominators that interact with educational opportunities, especially with respect to the factedness of how cultural capital informs, indeed shapes, such opportunities. Deducing from the writings of Bourdieu and Passerson (1990), I am currently redefining cultural capital as the ensemble of linguistic and related expressive styles as well as behavioural dispositions that children/learners harness from their social environment including the home and the neighbourhood, which are achieved through the availability of diverse learning resources that include books, electronic resources, entertainment devices/access and patterns of communication that are inter-subjectively conveyed. As should be clear, these styles and behaviours of life will be greatly affected by the learners’ household realities, where the availability of resources will be greatly affected by the socio-economic well-being of the family. Without belabouring the point, one learner’s social class (parents’ education, income, etc.) will equip him or her with higher cultural capital, while another’s situation will demonstrate depreciative reality that immediately affects her or his relationship with the schooling context. The example I have used in my teaching (without any measurable claims but as only one possible life/learning scenario) is asking

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 83

17/12/2013 09:38

84

Education in North America

students to imagine two young learners, each six years old and both starting grade one in the same class on the first day of the school year. One comes from a middle- or upper-class family where the father is a teacher and the mother is a lawyer. The other comes from a working-class, an ‘under-class’ (a term I try to avoid using but seems important here, for it generally connotes, for me, families who, for various reasons, are without work and cannot find or cannot actually work) or from an immigrant/refugee family. The indicated interchangeability of immigrant/refugee may be problematic here, for, in the case of Canada, immigrants who are chosen on a point system that includes education, specialized skills and language proficiency should be usually better endowed in the schooling possibilities of their children than refugee families, but, many times, the two sets of children will have corresponding linguistic realities, for both would be most probably foreign to the English language. With the two six-year-olds arriving from those two divergent cultural capital backgrounds, we discuss what learning and personal relationships the two students would establish with the most important individual in the situation, their grade one teacher, on that first day of schooling. The relationships would be established through the linguistic repertoire that each learner shares with the teacher and, by extension, with his or her classmates. To make the story shorter (it usually takes about 40–60 minutes to openly discuss the situation), the child who speaks the language of the school and that of the teacher immediately acquires a special privileged rapport with his or her teacher, who praises him or her for his or her writing and speech ‘excellence’, and with that elevates his or her self-esteem, which in Albert Bandura’s terms (see Bandura, 2006) is the main precondition for self-efficacy, which as one’s psycho-practical capacity to define and achieve tasks, would aid any learner to fulfil his or her education mission. This actually goes beyond the teacher and the overall schooling context of admiring one learner’s high cultural capital and expressive dexterity; the other child may not only earn the early label of not being as good as his more endowed classmate – this is already clear to both – but could actually ‘suffer’ due to the neutrality of his imposed linguistic package. By and large, the limited linguistic toolbox he or she is carrying is not only limited, it could also contain many expressions that are counter-school/teacher culture that may put her or him in trouble. Certainly, therefore, the issue also involves clustered schemes of pedagogical misrecognition where, without necessarily analysing the different contexts the two learners are coming from, the potentially disturbing labelling can start. More often than otherwise, the de-critical association of linguistic, expressive and behavioural capacities with intelligence, success and achievement, with a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 84

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 85

complete alibi for the commissions and omissions of cultural and social capitals, immediately eschews most schooling benefits in favour of those who become qualified as the teacher’s knowledge and etiquette friends. Here, there are of course always some exceptions. My points actually should never be construed as deriding learners from non-middle-class and non-upper-class situations to be linguistically or otherwise deficient. No, many of these are not, and even among immigrant refugee students whose first language is not English or French, there are those who will be aided by their unique innate linguistic capacities or by the fact that they are fluent in their native language, which always supports the learning of a new language. But to speak about the general school population in multicultural, multilingual Canada, especially from an analytical non-quantifying perspective, one has to claim the right to generalize with the already established contexts where none of us should be arguing against the power as well as the learning outcomes of the social and cultural capital collective. Certainly, we would not need new statistics today to figure out who succeeds in schools, in what socio-economic neighbourhoods these schools are in Canada and North America, or who goes to the best universities based on those early and mid-time achievements that were long ago constructed by the enduring regimes of the said capitals. To say it again, and as should be gleaned from, among other sources, Paul Willis’s classic study, Learning to Labor (1981), and its sequel by Dolby et al., Learning to Labor in New Times (2004) – the latter more relevant for our discussions here, but both affirming the educational privilege of the upper/middle classes – the situation heavily favours the needs of those who are socially and culturally more endowed. Going back to the point on learning/pedagogical recognition and misrecognitions, I believe the seminal works of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor are important. Although these works are not selectively detached from the self-esteem/self-efficacy conjecture and do not necessarily focus on children’s learning or specifically on the pedagogical, they nevertheless should entice us to rethink the way we unintentionally label or know others in our social actions or in related social imaginaries (see Taylor, 1995, 2004). In his oft-referenced essay, ‘Politics of Recognition’, Taylor (1995) talks about how we are either recognized or misrecognized in our identity formations, where out of that we either achieve our authentic identity, or are subjected to an imposed identity that is damaging to our being. The main difference between the two cases is that in the first, the source of identity is the subject of such identity, i.e. the person who is being identified is empowered to tell us who they are. In the second, the power relations in identity formations are disturbed, and usually an external agent

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 85

17/12/2013 09:38

86

Education in North America

imposes identity on the subject of identity. Taylor’s points are geared towards the broader social and global spaces, with the understanding that imposed identity imprints a sense as well as a practice of misrecognitions that damage one’s being, apply demerit points on her or his self-esteem, and, by extension, lower his or her self-efficacy, which in educational terms would be detrimental to one’s schooling successes and to her or his citizenship achievements later in life. Indeed, I believe these processes of misrecognition will happen in schools that do not take into account the important differential social and cultural capitals of life, especially in places like Canada where these are not only determined by social class status, but, as well, on the basis of being a new immigrant or a refugee learner. More often than otherwise, many teachers, including some at the tertiary level like myself, may subconsciously distinguish the ‘brilliant’, ‘good’ learners from the ‘not-so brilliant’ and potentially ‘bad’ scholar based on first day or second classroom experience-based speech patterns, behavioural intentions, perceived repertoires of knowledge, and even modes of dressing and popular fashion qualifications. Again, I am not saying this happens in every school, but, wherever it happens, it could happen so subliminally that the teacher may not even know she or he is subconsciously making these powerful decisions that could have an educationally liberating or hindering prospect on the life of the learner. With the subconscious decisions already made, the teacher’s behavioural outcomes may not lag behind, many times in the form of praising, helping more, responding to requests more favourably, or even ‘befriending’ the ‘good’ learner. While there is nothing wrong with doing all the good we can for all learners, the pedagogically ‘abandoned’ learner is not critically unaware of how things are transpiring around his or her world. Even when they are only five or six years old, children have been already reading the world for some time. They have developed a high sense of relative endowments or deprivations, and are actually surprised when they realize they may not be as important to the teacher or other figures of authority in the schooling location as other learners. These realities disturb children who may not be valued as others of similar ages and needs; they certainly know it is wrong. Indeed, as researchers at Yale University’s Child Study Center found not long ago, children as young as six months old are moral beings who can distinguish wrongs from rights, and associate goodness with the contexts they see as good for them. Pre-school children can also constitute for themselves and actually practice behavioural regimes they copy from their social, family and playground environments. It is, therefore, the danger of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 86

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 87

missing the complexity of the small learners we are dealing with that could, more than we may recognize, derail our pedagogical mission as teachers, who, at first assumption, want the success of all the students we teach. Indeed, the mission is teaching all of them, in ways that are less rationalist, less economistic, less statistical, and desirably more humanist, more constructively distinguishing and more inclusive in both their design and outcomes. The example I usually use for analytic purposes is a simple comparison of the way an economist will measure success vis-à-vis how a teacher would do it. In the world of economics, one usually looks for the positive sign, i.e. most things that score over 0.5 in the statistical model should be good; 0.6 is very good, and 0.8 is phenomenal. For teachers, though, who are especially focused on educational equity achieved through difference with the aim of attaining social justice, the statistical representations are, by and large, not that meaningful – well, maybe except one: a 1.0 statistical score; in other words a ‘perfect’ rendition of the learning project that assures the success of all students. Needless to add that the way schools and teachers should define perfection and success are also different from the straight analysis of economics. For us, success should be measured more by where the learner was yesterday and where they are today, complemented by some observable promise (not necessarily measurable) in the student’s educational trajectory that points to the realization of their potential. Certainly learners are not of the same personal drive to achieve, they do not have the same inherent capacities to face tasks and confront problems, and, to repeat, are not socio-culturally endowed with the same means. Educational equity should actually take all of these into account, hence the qualifying point on defining and doing success. In a more concise manner that has been already alluded to above, educational equity is more focused on facilitating potentialities and less about producing pupils who are all the same in their test scores and graduation rates, and the journey towards that perfect statistic of 1.0 should be about assuring the move towards the promised achievement of the potential. After all, no schooling context that I know of promises other than the full support of the students’ needs to achieve that noble and humanist forward movement objective.

Educational equity into social justice prospects Discussions and debates on social justice and social justice education have gained some new, increasing momentum in academic circles in the past little while (see, among many others, Newman and Yeates, 2008; Apple, 2009; Coleman,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 87

17/12/2013 09:38

88

Education in North America

2011; Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2011). There is also the Handbook of Social Justice in Education (Ayers et al., 2008), and even the Routledge International Handbook of Social Justice (forthcoming in late 2013). Certainly there are more scholarly expressions and teachings in the area that I can remember in the past 20 or so years in Canadian universities and academic conferences. One could wonder why the newly found enthusiasm for something that really sounds so simple and right; perhaps the issue is more difficult to achieve than it descriptively sounds. For Saltman (2008), the new focus may be a response to what he identifies as the radical rise in social (in)justice. At any rate, the issue is about the rights of all, and while the term ‘social’ in social justice is about society or societal contexts and relationships, the term ‘ justice’ should be a little bit more complicated to analytically and pedagogically locate. First, in its legalistic terms, justice is about crime and punishment; as such, in educational contexts and scholarship, the point should be clarified that we are not dealing with the legalistic intentions of the case, but the division between legalistic social justice and educational social justice may not be as separated as it looks. Indeed, if I had the space or the topical disposition to analyse the relationship, especially the lack of social justice education and the celebrated failure of the justice system, I could do some good in illuminating some important learning and living connections that should help us think more about educational equity and the indispensability of social justice education. I will not go there for now, but certainly that is a topic worthy of our energy, time and observational investment, for one might tentatively claim that there is a measurable correspondence between lack of social justice education and preventable incidences of crime and punishment. The early written analysis on social justice was undertaken by some Jesuit scholars who referenced the works of Thomas Aquinas, which generally spoke about the need for a more equitable distribution of society’s resources. Basically, the current usage of social justice is not totally delinked from those previous intentions. Before I say more about that, though, let me state a few things about the social science conceptualizations of justice, especially with respect to the works of the late John Rawls. Rawls’s classic work, Theory of Justice (1999 [1971]) was more attuned towards the rationalizable liberal notions of justice where all should be capable of achieving their potential if accorded similar or quasi-similar circumstances that facilitate their intentions and actions. Such characterization of justice, generally known as Rawlsian justice, is a very liberalist interpretation of the social contract, and has the potential to disregard a major perspective in this chapter, i.e. difference and the need not to just equalize social and educational circumstances, but to ‘equiticize’

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 88

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 89

these. Such possibilities of ‘equiticization’ are, by and large, removed from the overall political philosophy of Western liberal democracies with the cardinal principle of focusing on the rights of the rational, self-actualizing individual who competes with everyone else, with the role of public institutions basically to be limited to mediating such competition so it enhances one’s capacity to maximize their own benefits. Indeed, while different governments in Canada may claim such different political party labels as conservative, liberal or democratic, at the end of the night they are all located on a single political spectrum called liberal democracy that doesn’t believe in social justice or the equitable redistribution of resources. Yes, it sometimes happens that one political party in power will do things differently than the previous one, including investing more in public projects such as education or giving more viable income to the elderly, the unemployed and people on social assistance, but none of those acts changes the overall liberal philosophy of governance and public policy. Hence the socio-political currency we associate with the Rawlsian analysis. But Rawls himself somehow seems to have figured out the limiting nature of his earlier observations. In a book posthumously published from his lecture notes at Harvard, Justice as Fairness, Rawls (2002) intermeshes the rational with the reasonable, thus eventually concluding that without factoring in individual and group differences and needs in the practice of justice, we may come short of both the spirit and practice of justice. Indeed, looking at the way Rawls related this important addendum to his impressive scholarship in the area, it may not be too elastic to assume that he might have been at least partially responding to the changing demographics of Western countries where even the basic understanding of the issues now has multiple histories, cultures and, by extension, epistemic and epistemological possibilities. Or perhaps he didn’t have any of these in mind, but simply came to the observational conjecture of justice’s reasonable praxis or reasonableness (as he put it) via the complexity or the deliberate simplification of his own analysis and as an outcome of a very long scholarly relationship with the area’s conceptualizations and perspectivalizations. Certainly, social justice education, which – for me at least – tentatively talks about the equitable distribution/re-distribution of educational resources, should not totally disavow the latter Rawlsian revelations of justice. Indeed, while I am not arguing for even the sharing of all resources (admittedly I do not know how to do that, or if it is even reasonable or feasible), I can categorically say that in educational contexts such as Canada, where access to quality education is so much mediated by social class, linguistic, and select ethnic and national status

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 89

17/12/2013 09:38

90

Education in North America

affiliations, a deliberate and equitable redistribution of educational resources, i.e. the achievement of social justice education, is not only desirable, it is actually doable and can yield the best and most inclusive learning and related social development realities for all Canadians. Indeed, social justice education subsumes into its sphere of intentions, analyses and practices of divergent learning and teaching elements that are not necessarily all attached together, but certainly inform each other, and mediate not only the interconnections of the subjects students study, but, as well, the constructive realignments of their cultures, experiences and aspirations. So by appreciating difference as a dignity and as an asset that enhances the classroom experiences for all members of the schooling context (Shultz et al., 2013), we can build interconnected parcels and blocks of educational equity that do not only enfranchise the educational possibilities of those who may be disadvantaged, but, as well, those who, although they may be privileged, should learn so much by knowing, interacting and co-developing (as learners and future scholars) with their fellow citizens. Based on the above points, therefore, social justice education is not only about the equitable redistribution of educational resources, it is also attached to Taylor’s above focus on the importance of the authentic recognition that all people must be accorded. Certainly, the positive recognition of one’s personal attributes (and not highlighting the perceived negative differences – basically what is perceived as bad about the less powerful – and from there, difference being isolated to them) can include the challenges certain populations face, which should be descriptively and analytically minimized by the fact that they are now here in the classroom to achieve (despite all the challenges). With that in place, they can create inclusive and empathetic spaces of schooling that legitimize the necessary intentions and actions to use education as an uplifting project that responds to the reasonable needs and expectations of complex, interdependent national contexts such as Canada (Shultz and Abdi, 2008). As such, with respect to the exchange, for example, between the well-known social justice and recognition theorists Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth, in their book Redistribution or Recognition (2003), this issue, while of course important, for me at least, shouldn’t be deliberatively prolonged. Social justice education as an outcome of the new pragmatic thinking (even philosophies) of constructive difference and active educational equity should accord to all expansive platforms of representational redistribution and recognition that are not limited to the epistemic and the pedagogical, but, as well, be extendable to political and policy spaces, and admirable to the social, the cultural and the personal. All of these inform and colour issues of identity, belonging and related harnessable blocks of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 90

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 91

learning and social development for all. Indeed, as the late educationist Harold Rosen said: ‘you never judge a system by those who succeed in it, these people will likely succeed in any system; you judge it by those it fails’. So while multi-ethnic and multi-background Canada may be seen across the globe as an educationally achieving nation, at the end of the school year, for teachers and educational researchers such as myself, the way educational equity and social justice education are constructed so they meet the unique needs of those hitherto asscociated with falsely and selectively created negative difference, becomes the sine qua non of achieving a viable, inclusive and identity-affirming teaching and learning project. To do so, the location of the teacher in the uneven power relations that characterize the educational platform becomes paramount. It is not uncommon for me to hear from teachers in Canada that their power to reconstruct difference as positive, as dignified, and as characteristic of all, is not easy, for they do not have the time to figure out the needs of each and every child in their classrooms, for they have to fulfil regimentally prescribed curricular requirements that forces them to just convey the lesson plan and from there, basically see what happens. Clearly this represents for me what I have termed the subjective disempowerment of the pedagogue, with teachers concretely missing the interactive lines of the power categories they could deploy in making sure that difference is not limited to some segments of the class population, but that every one, irrespective of their background, is different, and difference itself is a fundamentally enriching terrain for all of our lives. It is with that immediate relocation of the meaning as well as the pragmatizations of difference that can be initiated to achieve the all-too-important issue of authentic recognition. That, in turn, clarifies educational equity and social justice education, not as burdens on the teacher, but as desirable outcomes of the already established inter-subjective/ inter-group notations and practices that should now see the pedagogical project as belonging to all and beneficial for all. With that attitude and understanding, the teacher is no longer a quasi-mechanical ser humano who only conveys select epistemic fragments which can be caught and used by the background-wise endowed and the most capable (i.e. those whose culture, language and social background are closest to the school’s), but, as well, by those who are new to the context, whose learning chances have been hampered by colonization and racist exclusions (e.g. the Aboriginal people), and whose families have transported them to a new land in search of economic/educational opportunities or as a way to save their lives from wanton destruction in zones of conflict and social upheaval. After all, all of these are now in Canada for good, and as indicated above, in today’s knowledge-based, highly networked, globally interconnected

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 91

17/12/2013 09:38

92

Education in North America

world, the situation is extensively open for the active and inclusive learning competitions where those countries that best educate all of their citizens will achieve the best in their social, cultural, educational, economic, political and technological realities. That is, some viable achievement in all of these is factually essential, and none of them is unimportant.

Conclusion In this chapter, I have employed a very generalized and theoretical focus on the interrelated learning and social well-being issues of difference, educational equity and social justice. With Canada not only being one of the most multi-ethnic and polycultural countries in the world, but, as well, the first Western nation to adopt a Policy of Multiculturalism in 1971, which later became the Multicultural Act of 1988, the country’s educational institutions need to achieve constructive and positive difference-friendly learning intersections and relationships that could lead to expansive possibilities of educational equity and attached social justice outcomes. In arguing for these, I have given a mainly theoretical focus (with some descriptive tendencies) that should challenge the conventional approach where difference in classroom situations was associated with non-white students (in Canada’s case and in general terms, learners from Aboriginal, immigrant and refugee families), and thus constructed as non-normal and implicated with possibilities of deficiency and lack of achievement. When difference (certainly the most fundamental trait of human life, which should be applied to each and every student, since they are all different from one another) is established as such, it can stifle the probabilities of educational equity. Unlike the liberalist notion of social justice where, through rationalist calculations, it suffices to talk about equal access for all, educational equity goes many miles beyond that and attempts (as much as possible and not in absolute terms) to aim for learning and teaching prospects that critically elevate the positive difference-based diverse needs of all learners, so as to achieve (again as much as possible) campus-wide and community-wide platforms of social justice that affirm the rightful educational and social well-being claims and needs of all.

References Abdi, A.A. (2006). Culture of Education, Social Development and Globalization: Historical and Current Analyses of Africa. In A. Abdi, K. P. Puplampu and G. J. S.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 92

17/12/2013 09:38



Difference, Educational Equity and Social Justice in Canada: Critical Analyses 93

Dei (eds), African Education and Globalization: Critical Perspectives. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. —(2012). Social justice and educational equity: Canadian teachers engaging African immigrant and refugee students. Faculty of Education Distinguished Speaker Series Keynote Address, Ontario: Brock University, St Catharines. Apple, M. (2009). Global Crises, Social Justice and Education. New York: Routledge. Bandura, A. (2006). Toward a Psychology of Human Agency. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2 (1), pp. 164–80. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/ download?rep=rep1&type=pdf&doi=10.1.1.212.3068 [accessed 27 October 2013] Bourdieu, P. and Passerson, C. (1990). Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Coleman, S. (2011). Social Justice. Saarbrucken, Germany: LAP Lambert Publishing. Dei, G., Mazzuca, J. and McIsaac, E. (1997). Reconstructing ‘Dropout’: A Critical Ethnography of the Dynamics of Black Students’ Disengagement From School. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Dewey, J. (1963). Experience and Education. Chicago LT: Chicago University Press. Dolby, N., Dimitriadis, G. with Willis, P. (eds) (2004). Learning to Labor in New Times. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Fagerlind, I. and Saha, L. (1989). Education and National Development: A Comparative Perspective. New York: Pergamon Press. Fraser, N. and Honneth, A. (2003). Redistribution or Recognition: A Politicalphilosophical Exchange. New York: Verso Press. Geertz, C. (2000 [1973]). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Ghosh, R. (1996). Redefining Multicultural Education. Toronto: Harcourt & Brace. Ghosh, R. and Abdi, A. A. (2013). Education and the Politics of Difference; Select Canadian Perspectives. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press. Held, D. and McGrew, A. (2007). Globalization Theory: Approaches and Controversies. London: Polity Press. King, A. L. (2013). ‘United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights’. Lecture Presented at the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta. Kozol, J. (1992). Savage Inequalities; Children in America’s Schools. New York: Broadway Press. Mahdavi, M. and Knight, A. (eds) (2012). Towards the Dignity of Difference?: Neither ‘End of History’ Nor ‘Clash of Civilizations’. Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing. Mandela, N. (1994). Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Toronto: Little, Brown & Co. Newman, J. and Yeates, N. (2008). Social Justice. Birmingham: Open University Press. Rawls, J. (1999 [1971]). Theory of Justice (revised edn). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. Rawls, J. (2002). Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. Saltman, K. (2008). Historical and theoretical perspectives. In W. Ayers, T. Quinn and D. Stovall (eds), Handbook of Social Justice in Education. New York: Routledge.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 93

17/12/2013 09:38

94

Education in North America

Sensoy, O. and DiAngelo, R. (2011). Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Shultz, L. and Abdi, A. A. (2008). Schooling and Social Justice. In Education for Social Justice. Ottawa: Canadian Teachers’ Federation. Shultz, L., Abdi, A. A., Van Beers, R. and Wittes, S. (2013). ‘Dignity of Difference: Do You Know Your New Student?’ Paper presented at the Alberta Teachers Association Conference, March, Edmonton, Alberta. Taylor, C. (1995). Philosophical Arguments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. —(2004). Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Willis, P. (1981). Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 94

17/12/2013 09:38

4

Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered: Community-Based Education as a Response to Changing Times Roger Saul and Naomi Nichols

Introduction In Canadian teacher education programmes, a practice teaching component, or practicum, is a standard degree requirement. To obtain their teaching degrees, Canadian teacher-candidates, also known as pre-service teachers, usually have one of two options. If already holding a Bachelor’s degree, they may participate in a one- to two-year post-degree teacher training certification programme (often called a ‘Consecutive Teacher Education’ programme). If not holding a Bachelor’s degree, they must participate in a four- to five-year ‘Concurrent Teacher Education’ programme (where a Bachelor of Education degree is pursued, concurrently, with another).1 Teacher training is typically conducted both in institutes of post-secondary education and in schools; students receive theoretical and methodological training in university faculties of education and conduct their practicum placements in schools. In every case, the practicum placement, where a novice teacher conducts classroom teaching under the tutelage of a more experienced one (often referred to as field-based learning), is an essential aspect of teacher training. Some programmes also include a short ‘alternative practicum’ placement – an opportunity to gain practical educational experiences in non-mainstream education settings (e.g. an outdoor education centre or a museum). It is less typical that a full-year teaching practicum occurs entirely in a community organization operating outside the purview of traditional schooling. This chapter describes a Canadian faculty of education’s innovative efforts to re-conceptualize teacher education by doing just that. It was born out of a desire to prepare more socially inclusive and culturally responsive teachers in

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 95

17/12/2013 09:38

96

Education in North America

addressing the increasingly diverse needs of student and teacher populations in Toronto, Canada’s largest and most ethnically diverse city. York University, the Toronto university that houses this Community Practicum Programme (from here on referred to as the CPP), designed and implemented a compulsory, community-based, concurrent education course that privileges learning in and with communities. This community-based turn represents an orientation to education premised on supporting the localized needs of school stakeholders – students, teachers, parents and administrators – by linking them to community organizations that offer school communities a vast complex of educational supports, often underused, and usually operating outside of formal schooling structures. The programme’s momentum further grew out of the observation that Canadian teacher-candidates often graduate from faculties of education well versed on learning theories and practices, but without an expansive enough understanding of the shared fields of influence that best promote student learning and best support young people’s diverse educational needs. For most of the past decade, all first-year concurrent education students in the CPP have participated in a community-based practicum and associated seminar. Rather than completing the bulk of their first-year placement in a school, students complete a 50-hour practicum in a community or social service organization (e.g. an alternative school programme for young children of HIV+ parents, a homework club, a public library, an immigration settlement agency – students only enter schools as student teachers in each subsequent year of study). This represents a departure from much teacher training in Canada, where students are placed in schools from the outset, or where a proxy to community education – called service-learning – is emphasized. While service-learning models (described in detail later on) are increasingly common in post-secondary settings, we see the CPP as having a different orientation. Distinguishing features of the CPP model include: fostering a sustainable relationship between university faculties of education and the community organizations where teacher-candidates are placed; emphasizing a focus on mutual engagement and reciprocal learning between both entities; and making a concerted effort to dismantle server-served dichotomies that are often endemic to service-learning approaches. Both authors of this chapter taught in the CPP and have since moved on to teach in other education programmes in Canadian universities. We believe the CPP’s emphasis on community education represents an interesting response to current educational contexts in urban Canada, where diversity, equity and social justice remain major issues of importance, and are perhaps

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 96

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

97

intensifying, given current imperatives aimed at standardizing both curricula and achievement markers in North American schools. This chapter provides readers with a description of the CCP and its influences; it points to patterns of social and educational inequality in Toronto that the CPP aims to address; and, in aspiring to inform educators who might wish to emulate aspects of the CPP for implementation elsewhere, it explores the constructive role that communitybased education can play in diverse, cosmopolitan, urban settings.

Community-based education in context In this section, we situate our experience within the CPP in relation to what North American research informs us about other teacher education programmes that have sought to foster links with communities, and we explore contemporary debates surrounding community-based education. Further, we elucidate the differences we see between the imperatives of the CPP and those of service-learning, the model of community-based education that has tended to dominate North American research on links between education and community life. Lastly, we locate the CPP in relation to both service-learning and community-based education in order to explore the significances of the CPP in context of what we argue are its primary strengths: the production of equitable and just educational relations.

What is community education? The conceptualization and implementation of community-based education, especially as a response to the perceived inadequacies of mainstream education, is not a new one in North American education circles. Beginning at the turn of the twentieth century, John Dewey popularized positioning education as a vehicle for integrating young people into civic life (see Dewey, 1916, 1938). In this model, schools were conceived as sites for addressing the values, interests and concerns of the communities they serve. Over the next century, Dewey’s ideas took root in teacher-education programmes. Programmes experimented with approaches to ensure teacher-candidates were constructing educational experiences that referenced – and were relevant to – the lived experiences of their students and their students’ communities, often a contrast to teacher training approaches previously in vogue favouring instructional methods based on abstract, decontextualized notions of effective teaching (McDonald et al., 2011, p. 1671).

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 97

17/12/2013 09:38

98

Education in North America

Alternately referred to as ‘service-learning; community field experience; community-referenced learning; community experiential learning; situated social practice or situated learning’ (Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003, p. 130), community-based education references any pedagogical initiative designed to link institutional and community learning. Specifically, community-based education is a ‘model that links critical thinking about education and schooling, civic responsibility and community action’ (Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003, p. 131). It is built on the Deweyian principle that education should provide students with opportunities for meaningful participation in community life (Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003). Community education recognizes that ‘education for community life’ depends on the integration of ‘self-knowledge and collective-knowledge’ (Noddings, 1996, p. 267). In recent times, community-based education in North America has been positioned as a means of preparing teacher-candidates to work productively and ethically in diverse educational settings (McDonald et al., 2011). Increasingly, education scholars have recognized a growing interest in integrating servicelearning approaches and other community-based education initiatives within teacher education. Emerging quantitative evidence has in recent years begun to add to already existing qualitative and anecdotal evidence in justifying this interest. For example, in one particularly comprehensive study, Colby et al. surveyed 413 elementary education teacher-candidates over a three-year period and found, among other factors, that ‘service-learning has broadened students’ understanding of social issues; helped them to examine their own views and biases; provided them with a greater responsibility to community; and assisted them in acquiring skills useful in their career’ (2009, p. 20). Given that out-of-school factors (e.g. socio-economic status, health, neighbourhood) are paramount in determining North American students’ in-school success, community based education is routinely intended as a means to address this inequity (Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003). The rationale at work is that providing teacher-candidates with community-based experiences can more fully inform their understandings of the contexts of their students’ lives. This knowledge can in turn be applied to their future teaching practices as they seek to understand the needs and interests of their students in ways that schools have, arguably, inadequately addressed (Carrington and Saggers, 2008, p. 796). Whether programmes provide students with opportunities to participate in community-based work in the same neighbourhood or city as the university, participate in ‘cultural immersion experiences’ in locations that are further afield, or take part in the work of community-based organizations (McDonald

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 98

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

99

et al., 2011), the focus is on creating opportunities for transformational learning. Community-based field placements are seen as a way to foster reciprocal relations between teachers, community organizations, school administrators, teachers and students; support teacher-candidates’ efforts to leverage diversity (socio-economic, ethnic, racial, cultural) as part of a strengths-based educational model; engender reflection on the expanse of learning that occurs in out-of-school contexts but that is not often honoured within them; and position ‘students, families, neighborhoods, and communities at the center of teaching and education’ (McDonald et al., 2011, p. 1669).

The CPP approach to community-based education Community-based education often calls itself service-learning and vice versa. Yet the CPP approach to community-based teacher education is located in both a history and a critique of service-learning models. As described earlier, completing the CPP is a mandatory programme requirement for all firstyear Bachelor of Education students wishing to earn teaching degrees in the programme where we both taught. Uniquely, students in this programme do not enter schools to practise teach as part of their formative first year of educational study. The CPP curriculum combines three main elements: once a week for the entire Canadian school year (September to May), teacher-candidates are required to devote their day to work in a community organization. Concomitantly, students are required to attend an accompanying 24-hour (eight-class) seminar, also spanning the course of the school year, where they engage in various forms of reflective practice about their community work. Upon completion of these prior two steps, students close their year by being placed in an elementary or high school where, during a week-long guided observation period, they are encouraged to forge links between their learning in communities and what they observe in schools. Placements in community organizations are not randomly self-selected by students. The CPP employs a full-time coordinator, one of whose mandates is to foster sustainable university-community partnerships for the purpose of placing teacher-candidates in said organizations. Typically, teacher-candidates sign up for community placements by choosing from among a list of partner organizations in a seminar during their first week in the programme. They are likewise placed in a partner school later in the school year. The CPP’s seminar component, in particular, provides a space for teachercandidates to think and talk about links between communities and schools.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 99

17/12/2013 09:38

100

Education in North America

Students are encouraged to explore learning as something that happens in various contexts: on community streets, in parks, at home, in traditional academic contexts and in various types of public sector community organizations. Drawing on experiences in communities as learners, teacher-candidates begin to articulate a personal educational philosophy, particularly as it relates to the expanse of contextual factors that affect students’ educational and emotional lives (i.e. beyond those factors emphasized in school assessment and achievement standards). In the spirit of disentangling notions of education from the narrow emphases on assessment standards often favoured in school settings, students in the CPP are not assigned formal grades at the conclusion of their year in the programme, but rather receive a pass/fail grade based on their professors’ assessment of their overall work and commitment.2 In concert with Noddings’ positioning of relational learning as being at the centre of community education, other scholars (e.g. Boyle-Baise and Efiom, 2000, in Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003, p. 130) conceptualize service-learning as a combination of experiential and relational learning – the community, the self, and one’s classmates represent important sources of knowledge. The CPP adopts these common tenets of service-learning, but aims to distance itself from the charitable model that is also often associated with it (Boyle-Baise et al., 2006, p. 17). Citing Murrell (2001), Boyle-Baise (2005) critiques traditional service-learning models, which both authors suggest do not adequately prepare teacher-candidates for the realities of teaching; do not sufficiently involve faculty members in sustainable relationships with community groups; and, consequently, fail to build reciprocal learning relations between communities, schools and faculties of education. Further, most service-learning experiences fail to draw on the particular educational expertise of community organizations. Many universities remain protective of their expert roles, positioning communities as having a deficit that university resources and expertise can help solve (d’Arlach et al., 2009, p. 13). The CPP therefore expressly rejects what is often referred to as the charity model of service-learning, which too usually enacts simplistic server-served dichotomies (Kahne and Westheimer, 1996). Within a charitable framework, privileged university workers (university students and professors who are bearers and ‘servers’ of expert knowledge) are positioned as teachers to less privileged community workers (receivers of knowledge, i.e. the ‘served’). A predominant model in many school-community partnerships, the serverserved dichotomy often implicitly enacts a power relationship that fails to honour the particular kinds of knowledge and training that community workers

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 100

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

101

possess (Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003; Dippo et al., 2008). The CPP, on the other hand, emphasizes an analysis of the various interrelated factors shaping patterns of inequality in large urban centres. The programme supports students’ critical analytic work by inviting them to view their involvement in community organizations as opportunities for learning above all else. Ironically, while class readings and seminars focus on the differences between charitable and transformational community-based learning models, students often participate in community placements where community workers themselves have not entirely eschewed the charitable model. Yet this occurrence, too, is approached as an opportunity for student learning about how deeply notions of ‘helping’ the underserved through private charity in North American societies is entrenched in the popular imagination, and about the ways in which this private charity approach can unwittingly obstruct efforts towards social and educational equality by absolving the responsibility of elected officials and the allocation of public funding toward these issues. That said, while teacher-candidates are encouraged to contribute to the change-making efforts of the community-based organizations where they are placed, as well as to see community-based learning opportunities as potentially transformative, they are discouraged from initiating activist or advocacy projects. On the contrary, the idea is for them to engage in an eight-month critical consciousness-raising endeavour as a precursor to engaged education and/or positive teacher/activism down the road, an engagement that we suggest is best undertaken, at the outset, from the position of ‘learner’ (Boyle-Baise et al., 2006). Over the course of eight months, teacher-candidates interrogate previously held assumptions about the communities they are working within, their roles as teacher-candidates, and the purposes of public schooling. In their seminars and assignments, CPP students are further invited to make connections between their practicum placements and larger social, political and economic issues impacting the city (Wade, 2003). Teacher-candidates are told to procure field notebooks to record their developing observations about their experiences. Their field notes are then used as source notes for a year-long journalling assignment and a reflective essay they are to produce as part of their seminar work. They are also given a sparse selection of readings to complete from section to section, and encouraged to participate in an online class discussion platform. All the while – and perhaps most importantly – class participation itself becomes an important source of dialogue among teacher-candidates, and between teacher-candidates and faculty members. As a framework for their ongoing learning – and meant as a strategy to upend the

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 101

17/12/2013 09:38

102

Education in North America

traditional server-served relation – teacher-candidates are pointed toward using their field notebooks, their ideas about their readings, and the class discussion platform to make observations and ask critical questions. In sum, the community-based practicum serves as a point of entry for an examination of social and structural inequalities in schools that, as we will describe next, persist in Toronto and in other Canadian urban centres. The community-based placement offers students an opportunity to reflect on their own learning trajectories – particularly their experiences as learners in a university classroom – with their experiences of learning in a community. The focus on participant observation positions them not as teacher-trainees, but as learners (Cushman, 1999, p. 330). This inquisitive stance is integral to the programme’s ability to centralize learning within communities, and to position the city’s changing urban context as a resource to be leveraged, rather than a set of problems to be managed.

The case of Toronto The aim of this section is to briefly describe the social and educational landscape where our teacher-candidates are learning before going on to expand upon some of the particulars of the CPP. Informed by an ecological model of human development (Derksen, 2010; Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the CPP recognizes an adaptive relation between people, the evolving settings where people live, and the larger contexts in which such ‘mutual accommodations’ occur (Derksen, 2010, p. 329). Given the importance we place on the context of student learning in the programme, we want to be clear about the contexts of teacher-candidates’ learning in their community placements. Each year, the Community Foundation works with researchers to produce Toronto’s Vital Signs Report – an annual snapshot of the issues and trends impacting quality of life in the city of Toronto. In this section, we explore findings from the 2012 Report, findings which professors in the CPP annually share with teacher-candidates as they embark on understanding the contexts of their students’ lives.

General demographics The City of Toronto has a population of 2.75 million; 20.3 per cent of Ontario’s population and 7.8 per cent of Canada’s reside in the City of Toronto (18.1 per cent of Canada’s population lives in the Greater Toronto Area). Of interest to us

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 102

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

103

are ongoing shifts in the demographic composition of Toronto’s population. By 2031, the Vital Signs Report suggests that nearly 80 per cent of Toronto residents will be immigrants or children of immigrants (p. 17), and by 2025, almost 60 per cent of Toronto neighbourhoods could be considered low income (p. 83). Of significance for this chapter is the projection by Canadian demographic researchers that over the next 12 years many of Toronto’s middle-income neighbourhoods will virtually disappear – from 66 per cent of Toronto’s neighbourhoods in 1970 to 20 per cent in 2025 (p. 83). The starkest change – one that we are already beginning to see – is the changing proportion of very high- and very low-income neighbourhoods within the city.

Gap between rich and poor In terms of income distribution, Toronto is already Canada’s least equitable metropolitan region. In this regard, the Vital Signs Report suggests that: ‘Between 1980 and 2005, median earnings of full-time workers in the top income group increased 16.4 per cent while median incomes of full-time workers in the bottom group declined 20.6 per cent’ (Toronto Star, 2012, p. V4; see also Toronto Vital Signs, 2012, p. 83). In 2010, close to 400,000 (families and single-person) households, or approximately 810,000 residents (30.3 per cent of Toronto’s population), were living in poverty (p. V4). While the Toronto Region scores high on labour attractiveness on a global scale (fifth out of 24 global centres according to the Vital Signs Report), in July 2012 approximately 10 per cent of Toronto’s workforce were unemployed, while the youth unemployment rate in the region hovered just under 20 per cent (p. 18; see also Toronto Star, 2012, pp. V4–V5). The employment situation is particularly dire for visible minorities and immigrants, who are over-represented in low-paying, inflexible entry-level positions. It is striking that ‘university-educated immigrants have the same levels of low income as non-immigrants without high school completion’ (Toronto Star, 2012, p. V4). This income disparity has significant implications on young people’s health, housing, quality of life and, as the CPP aims to point out to its pre-service teacher-candidates, their education.

Community-based education in Toronto As we have seen, community-based education represents a move away from a particular iteration of service-learning and toward another: one that favours

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 103

17/12/2013 09:38

104

Education in North America

socially inclusive and culturally responsive teaching. Given the demographic realities described in the previous section, those who designed the CPP embraced this model out of a desire to better meet the contemporary needs of its students and teachers, as well as to build mutually beneficial relations between the university and its surrounding neighbourhoods (Dippo et al., 2008). Operated by the Faculty of Education at York University, the CPP is located in the northwest quadrant of Toronto – Canada’s largest and most diverse urban setting. This northwest corner of the city is home to some of the city’s most stigmatized neighbourhoods, and many teacher-candidates in the CPP conduct their field-based placements within community organizations in this region of the city. This falls in line with one of the central purposes of the CPP, which is to challenge teacher-candidates’ deeply held assumptions about the young people and families who populate neighbourhoods that they have come to think about as ‘at-risk’, disengaged and even dangerous.3 The programme further responds to the observation that in large North American cities, white middle-class women are an over-represented demographic among teachers, this despite the fact that growing numbers of racial and ethnic minority, as well as immigrant, children populate public schools. The programme thus takes up Cooper’s suggestion that faculties of education ‘need to transform how we prepare our pre-service teachers. Those ways include understanding and learning about other cultures’ (2007, p. 245). Finally, the programme is informed by the observation that pre-service teachers ‘arrive at faculties of education speaking a language of “proto-professionalism”’, seeking to affirm what they already believe about teaching and learning, rather than taking an opportunity to confront previously held beliefs about the purpose of public education and their roles as educators (Dippo et al., 2008, p. 2). Community-based learning opportunities thus provide opportunities for teacher-candidates to spend time in new social settings, encounter diverse perspectives, and challenge how they think about the relationship between schooling and social justice. Through their community-based placement activities, teacher-candidates discover and challenge their own stereotypical ‘beliefs about their learners’ communities’ and foster an appreciation of the strengths that characterize the neighbourhoods where they work and learn (Cooper, 2007, p. 245). The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is Canada’s largest and most diverse school board, and one of the largest in North America. Many teachercandidates in the CPP programme will go on to teach in the TDSB and other urban boards across the Greater Toronto Area. A foundational opportunity to

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 104

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

105

interact with young people and their families outside of mainstream educational settings provides teacher-candidates with crucial insights for ‘connecting learners with the content to be studied, and with forming beneficial social relationships that can enhance learning’ (Cooper, 2007, p. 245). Given that Toronto is also a case study in economic inequality, teacher-candidates’ community-based placements may provide a lens through which they begin to understand the vast economic disparities shaping the city, and the implications of these inequalities for public schooling.

Teacher training reconsidered: Three central tenets of the CPP While a steady stream of research exists on service-learning and communitybased training opportunities in North American pre-service education programmes, the literature offers few practical examples to support the design and implementation of such programmes (McDonald et al., 2011). We have written this section to respond to this gap in the existing literature. We highlight three curricular features of our CPP work, which we refer to as: Envisioning the Community as Pedagogical, Envisioning the Teacher as a Critical Ethnographer, and Locating the School Within a Set of ‘Community Interrelations’. Before moving on to describe these initiatives, it is worth reiterating that like other community-informed teacher education programmes currently arising in North American cities, the CPP sees its broad educative mission as nurturing reciprocal relationships between teachers, community organizations and schools; centralizing a strengths-based view of learners; and conceiving of education and learning as processes which occur in multiple social contexts – that is, not simply in schools (McDonald et al., 2011, p. 1669). In support of these aims, the CPP facilitates mutual engagement between teacher-candidates, community-based professionals and community members, coupled with regular and structured opportunities for teacher-candidates to observe, reflect on and discuss their learning on their own (again, in field notebooks, through readings, and in assignments) and with their professors and peers (on electronic class message boards and in face-to-face small and large group discussions). The invitation to students to reflect on, interrogate and collectively make sense of their learning during their community placements can lead to challenging conversations within the group and uncomfortable realizations among individuals. Our view is that the primary responsibility of professors is to cultivate students’ emerging understanding of relationships between schooling, communities and learners.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 105

17/12/2013 09:38

106

Education in North America

Initiative No. 1: Envisioning the community as pedagogical Our community-based approach to teacher education is based on the premise that in our city, as in many large North American centres, a parallel yet largely hidden system of education exists alongside the traditional one. In fact, we believe this parallel system is for many young people a dominant pedagogical force in their lives. We refer here to the expanse of community organizations – committed to education but usually non-school affiliated – that populate Canadian cities, and to the learning that takes place within them. While our work as professors is guided by the knowledge that learning transcends the objectives of the standardized curriculum and the walls of schools, we observe that teacher-candidates often enter their first year in the programme with a different sense of their purpose as educators. In short, they often see their roles as purveyors of knowledge that uncritically perpetuates the purposes and values of mainstream schooling imperatives (competition, stratification, standardization) rather than as critical agents who might seek to question or improve upon the these processes and their effects on the student populations who may struggle as a result of them. An issue that comes up early and often in our work in this programme, and that has for many professors become a foundational point of address, could be distilled to this common refrain among teacher-candidates: ‘Why am I doing this?’ Initially, teacher-candidates approach their community-based placement with a sense of charitable purpose, and a sometimes reluctant charitable purpose at that. Teacher-candidates are aided by a cultural imagination that fuels these ideas (e.g. popular Hollywood films such as Freedom Writers and Dangerous Minds are favourites among many in our classes). They enter the programme with a deeply held belief that mainstream education represents a ‘way out’ of struggling communities, which they see as lacking or undesirable, rather than an institutional force that contributes to race-, class- and genderbased inequality. They are often surprised to learn that those learning and working within these communities do not share their view. Learning to see the communities where their students learn and live as sources of knowledge therefore requires a significant shift in orientation. Rather than suggesting that teacher-candidates construct or develop a teacher identity during their community practicum experiences, we ask instead that they adopt the stance of active learner. From the beginning, our role as professors is to stress the relational aspects of teaching and learning. The community-based placement is not an opportunity to serve an underprivileged

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 106

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

107

‘other’, but an opportunity to learn across difference. The shift we ask of students is met with trepidation (i.e. with fear of working in communities they see as dangerous) and resistance. But by the end of the year teacher-candidates’ assignments often suggest a fundamental shift in their orientation to the course and its objectives. Teacher-candidates describe the experience of discovering that their way of knowing and being in the world is not one that is shared by everyone. The placement is an opportunity to experience diversity as a resource. As they participate in and contribute to the work of community centres, religious organizations, settlement agencies, shelters, homework clubs, sports clubs, museums, public libraries and elsewhere, teacher-candidates discover that much teaching and learning take place outside of traditional purviews of schooling. In our city, as in many others, hundreds of such community organizations exist. Those who work within them are often not designated as teachers by sanctioned professional bodies, yet those they teach often ascribe to them this status. In this sense community workers, indeed community teachers, are often crucial educational resources for young people. Not only do they frequently take on the instrumental roles most often associated with the work of teaching – illuminating subject matter, helping with school assignments, offering supplemental instruction – but in our observation they often attend to a variety of peripheral yet no less crucial aspects of educational work that students struggling in schools often identify as lacking. People who work in community-based organizations offer individualized support, encouragement, care and motivation; they connect students and their families to a range of social and institutional supports, facilitate life-lessons that often don’t see their way into school curricula, and they are confidantes on matters of public and private concern to students. In this sense, community teachers working in community organizations are often able to forge deep connections with their students who, in turn, are willing to work and think with them in ways they might not otherwise attempt in schools. Perhaps it is because these community teachers operate outside of traditional schooling structures – and so interact with young people outside of the system of hierarchies, judgements, promotions and disciplining mechanisms endemic to school life – that the relationships young people form to these teachers usually take on a markedly different dynamic than in schools (see Dimitradis, 2001). Our own experience teaching in a community-based teacher education programme suggests an additional dimension to this analysis: we envision the community itself (as both a place and an idea) as central to the learning relationship in our programme. Because community teachers often reside in

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 107

17/12/2013 09:38

108

Education in North America

or have strong ties to the communities that young people come from, they are more likely to understand the particular needs of the young people who live in them. They are able to empathize. They have a vested interest in the well-being of these students – a personal interest and a self-interested interest (e.g. your community success is my community success). These community teachers have highly specialized and intimate knowledge about how young people live and what is important to them in particular communities. The teacher-candidates in the CPP therefore benefit from an opportunity for mentorship in this dynamic space. Becoming an effective teacher, we suggest, requires knowing something about the context that your students come from (James and Saul, 2007; Solomon and Levine-Rasky, 2003). In this model, knowledge acquisition is not didactic and abstracted from the experience of students, it is embedded in their lives – embedded in the kinds of daily educational practices they take part in, in where their families come from, in the things that are important to them, and in the challenges their communities face. The CPP counsels that a good teacher taps into these ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonzalez et al., 2005, in Conteh, 2012), and it aims ultimately to provide teacher-candidates with the opportunity, through work in community organizations, to discover these for themselves.

Initiative No. 2: Envisioning the teacher as a critical ethnographer We see a critical ethnographic approach as imperative to community-based teacher-candidate work because of its focus on learning to ‘see’ students (McDonald et al., 2011); on engendering reflexivity or becoming conscious of how you inhabit a space (Hammersley and Atkinson, 2007); and on taking a socially and politically active approach to teaching and learning by critically examining existing social systems and structures. Our approach to ethnographic work with students is critical – that is, it is both pedagogical and political (Simon and Dippo, 1986). Students are taught basic ethnographic skills – largely participant observation, but also informal interviewing and mapping as a way to investigate and assess the social contexts where people teach and learn. Professors endeavour to help students discover ‘why things are the way they are and what must be done for things to be otherwise’ (Simon and Dippo, 1986, p. 196). We introduce teacher-candidates to critical ethnography because observing, listening and talking with people, writing extensive notes, and participating in the activities one hopes to understand are ways to support an emphasis on

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 108

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

109

learning and discovery in the field (Tedlock, 2000). These qualitative research practices also have a place in the classroom. In the CPP seminar component, teacher-candidates are encouraged to set aside their imagined roles as ‘protoprofessionals’ (Dippo et al., 2008) for the role of participant observer – people who participate in the activities of a community organization, while paying close attention to its unfolding events. In their field notebooks, assignments, and on class message boards students are asked to pose and explore challenging questions. Students’ questions also form the basis of an instructor’s planning, thus supporting the dialogic aims of ethnographic work in general and the course in particular. The focus on asking challenging questions based on one’s field-based experience allows teacher-candidates to ‘see fieldwork itself as a profoundly deliberative and negotiated moral practice’ (Dimitriadis, 2001, p. 579). The overtly dialogic approach to the course ‘foregrounds the ethical responsibility of the researcher as a participant in the construction of emergent realities he or she constructs’ (Dimitriadis, 2001, p. 579). The approach deepens and complicates teacher-candidates’ understanding of learning and teaching as processes that transcend schools, linking them with a broader network of other institutional and community-based organizations where young people and their families are active. When teacher-candidates enter community settings as participant observers – that is, as learners – they disrupt traditional notions of educational engagement. Typically, when people talk about engagement in schools, they are referring to the engagement (or more often, the disengagement) of young people and their families. School works smoothly when families do the things that schools expect of them (e.g. come to parent-teacher conferences, ensure kids get their homework done, provide sufficient and nourishing food, effectively coordinate home-school calendars, and so forth). When families do not take up the supplementary educational work (Griffith and Smith, 2005) that schools increasingly depend on for optimal functioning, teachers and school leaders have to reorganize their work to accommodate these gaps. As a consequence, educators and school leaders, educational policymakers and educational researchers dedicate significant energy to cultivating family and youth engagement in school. When teacher-candidates adopt the tools of critical ethnography and participate in community-informed teacher-education programmes, however, they begin to conceive of educational engagement differently. By embodying educational engagement as a reciprocal and dialogic relation, teacher-candidates consider how schooling might be constituted as a mutually beneficial relation.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 109

17/12/2013 09:38

110

Education in North America

We invite our students to explore what it means to be engaged educators – educators who seek to learn from and be involved in the broader communities within which schools operate. Teacher-candidate are encouraged to consciously and consistently learn from and with the communities they teach. We teach our students to observe as much as they teach.

Initiative No. 3: Locating the school within a set of ‘community interrelations’ As mentioned earlier, observations and reflections that are captured in teachercandidates’ field notebooks or field journals become the basis for ongoing classroom discussions. They also ultimately contribute to a final, culminating ethnographic mapping assignment that asks students to cartographically convey interrelations between schools and various other institutions, communitybased organizations, and the life-worlds of children and youth in a designated Toronto community. The mapping exercise is guided by Smith’s observation that map-reading is a dialogic process: ‘The reader of the map is referring to the actual terrain on which they’re travelling or plan to travel. In a sense, it explicates those aspects of the terrain that will enable the traveler to find where she is and where she is going’ (2005, p. 161). The exercise aims to expand pre-service teachers’ knowledge of the communities where they teach and to locate schools within them, thereby enabling their creation and implementation of relevant learning opportunities for their students. This culminating assignment requires that students map out the extensive network of community-based, public, charitable and social service organizations, actively shaping their students’ experiences in their communities and subsequently in schools. The mapping assignment has a dual purpose. It was created so that pre-service teacher-candidates would begin to see: (1) how various other social and institutional relations are shaping young people’s experiences in school; and (2) how schools – and the work of educators – are shaped by other institutional and professional networks (e.g. child protection services, police services, the courts, the provincial numeracy and literacy secretariat, popular media and so forth). The assignment is an effort to link the work teacher-candidates have done throughout the year in a community-based or social service organization with the week-long observation placement they conduct in a mainstream school at the close of their year. Students draw on observational and informal interview data – from these two field-based placements – in order to map out the wider

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 110

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

111

social terrain upon which teaching and learning happen. These two sources of data (i.e. their field notebooks and their maps) then ground a detailed exploration of one or two questions which teacher-candidates consider particularly stimulating or provocative. The mapping assignment is vital to our vision of community education because it requires students to make visible the connections between schools and the broader networks of activity where young people and their families are actively learning. The expectation is that time spent observing community spaces, talking with parents, students and community leaders, and writing as well as reflecting on their field notes supports teacher-candidates’ efforts to design and implement ‘lived curricula’ (Aoki, 1993) – that is, opportunities for learning that link the standardized curriculum with students’ lived priorities and interests. As one example, students in one of Nichols’s education courses designed a teaching unit, which asked elementary students to explore historical relations between immigration, settlement, social housing and urban planning, in the context of a current neighbourhood revitalization project that involved the demolition of the social housing projects where many students were living. By creating, reflecting on (e.g. through academic papers and curriculum design) and sharing their ethnographic maps, students are invited to think of schools as part of a larger complex of social and institutional relations. They begin to see that what happens in schools is coordinated with things that are happening in other settings: local parks and gardens; Ministries of Education; recreation centres; immigration settlement offices; Children’s Aid Societies; family law courts; homeless shelters; after-school homework programmes; art galleries; Police Departments; Public Health offices; museums; and so on. In order to articulate specific links between institutional settings, students identify the texts (e.g. policy, legislation, curricula, daily use forms) that are essential to the coordination of activity across local settings. Students’ maps indicate how inter-institutional relations are coordinated through advertisements for early childhood centres; correspondence courses for teenage parents; school websites that publish test scores; progress reports created by tutoring agencies; settlement websites that offer guides for parents with children who are new to the Toronto school system; legislation regarding a teacher’s ‘duty to report’ evidence of abuse; Ministry of Education policy documents; media representations of particular neighbourhoods or schools; Child Protection and Supervision Orders granted through the courts; and so on. As students create their maps, the complex factors that shape teaching and learning become evident to them.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 111

17/12/2013 09:38

112

Education in North America

Conclusion Community-based teacher education: An ethical response to contemporary Canadian schooling contexts Schools are not divorced from the societies that produce them. They are instruments of social organization, implicated in the perpetuation of social inequalities – class, race and gender disparities among them – endemic in any society. When teacher-candidates’ field-based experiences occur solely in schools, they miss the opportunity to engage in an analysis of public schooling that is often inaccessible from within the system. A structured and sustained opportunity to learn with communities disrupts teacher-candidates’ tidy knowledge of the aims and practices of public education. Most of the teacher-candidates we teach have had highly successful experiences as students in school, and so are inclined to uncritically endorse the meritocratic tenets of the Canadian system in which they have succeeded, even if this very system has failed a large number of others. They are often surprised to learn that many people do not see schooling in the same way, nor uphold it as a vehicle for opportunity or a ‘way out’ of their communities. By ‘shifting the emphasis from “studying” to “participating” in community’ (Dippo et al., 2008, p. 9), the CPP approach to community-based education interrupts dominant notions about the purpose and processes of education. The alternative, an approach to teacher education that simply teaches teachers to work within the system, risks supporting inequitable relations already in existence. In the combination of teacher-candidates’ field-based placements, in their training within critical ethnographic research orientations, in our encouragements toward their understanding and appreciation of ‘community interrelations’, and in accompanying discussions that take place within our seminar classes, the CPP approach we have described therefore offers a glimpse at an alternative method of Canadian teacher education. In doing so, it aims to contest educational inequities in the exercise of promoting more socially just and inclusive schooling experiences for greater numbers of Canadian students. By way of concluding, more can be said about the centrality of the last of the community-based tenets just listed, that of providing students the opportunity to discuss their experiences in seminar classes. In many ways, these discussions are the substance that unites and extends all of the other curricular initiatives we have listed as foundational to the CPP approach, because these initiatives

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 112

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

113

are forever given form in novel and unpredictable ways in the combined expressions of students. Crucially, the CPP’s orientations to experience are therefore guided by the observation that experience is a meaningful pedagogical resource only when it is brought into social visibility, debated, and explored from various theoretical vantage points (Dippo et al., 2008, p. 9). Put differently, a community-based teacher education field placement is only […] as educative as the pedagogical structures, discussions, literatures, and conflicts brought to bear on them. The meanings of the placement experience are not transparent to either the students or the course directors. Something must be actively made of those experiences if they are to become pedagogically meaningful. (Dippo et al., 2008, p. 9)

Teacher-candidates require opportunities to explore issues of concern to them – a space where they can speak about their experiences on their placements and try to make sense of them with others. This process of learning – of bringing experience into discourse – is essential to the CPP approach’s educational model. The goal of professors is to support an interrogation of discourses and practices of educational professionalism from various locations outside of the mainstream system. More so, the goal is for teachercandidates to discover that to teach well is not about teaching a prescribed set of attributes, but of learning to be flexible in meeting the needs – and capitalizing on the strengths – of students. In this way, they can learn to negotiate a planned curriculum in conversation with the unpredictability of a lived one (Aoki, 1993). Rather than teaching teacher-candidates to merely teach, the CPP approach we have described invites them to explore the interrelated projects of teaching and learning. In particular, it draws teacher-candidates’ attention to how people (themselves included) learn. The goal, in the end, is to help teachercandidates think through what it means to be a responsive and engaged educator – to map their approach to teaching onto their students’ needs and desires for learning.

Acknowledgement The authors wish thank Marcela Duran, Community Practicum Coordinator at York University (Toronto, Canada) for inspiring many of the ideas put forth in this chapter.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 113

17/12/2013 09:38

114

Education in North America

References Aoki, T. (1993). Legitimating lived curriculum: Towards a curricular landscape of multiplicity. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision 8 (3), pp. 255–68. d’Arlach, L., Sanchez, B. and Feuer, R. (2009). Voices from the community: A case for reciprocity in service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 16 (1), pp. 5–16. Boyle-Baise, M. (2005). Preparing community-oriented teachers reflections from a multicultural service-learning project. Journal of Teacher Education, 56 (5), pp. 446–58. Boyle-Baise, M. and Efiom, P. (2000). The construction of meaning: Learning from service learning. In C.R. O’Grady (ed.), Integrating Service Learning and Multicultural Education in Colleges and Universities. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 209–26. Boyle-Baise, M., Brown, R., Hsu, M. C., Jones, D., Prackash, A., Rausch, M., Vitols, S. and Wahlquist, Z. (2006). Learning service or service learning: Enabling the civic. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18 (1), pp. 17–26. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Carrington, S. and Saggers, B. (2008). Service-learning informing the development of an inclusive ethical framework for beginning teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, pp. 795–806. Colby, S., Bercaw, L., Clark, A. M. and Galiardi, S. (2009). From community service to service learning leadership: A program perspective. New Horizons in Education, 57 (3), pp. 20–31. Conteh, J. (2012). Families, pupils, and teachers learning together in a multilingual British city. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33 (1), pp. 101–16. Cooper, J. E. (2007). Strengthening the case for community-based learning in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 58 (3), pp. 245–55. Cushman, E. (1999). The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, and Activist Research. College English, 61 (3), pp. 328–36. Derksen, T. (2010). The influence of ecological theory in child and youth care: A review of the literature. International Journal of Child, Youth & Family Studies, 1 (3/4), pp. 326–39. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: Macmillan. —(1938/1997). Experience and Education. New York: Simon and Schuster. Dimitriadis, G. (2001). Coming clean at the hyphen: Ethics and dialogue at a local community center. Qualitative Inquiry, 7 (5), pp. 578–97. Dippo, D., Duran, M., Gilbert, J. and Pitt, A. (2008). Public schooling, public knowledge, and the education of public school teachers. In C. Levine-Rasky (ed.),

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 114

17/12/2013 09:38



Canadian Teacher Training Reconsidered

115

Canadian Perspectives on the Sociology of Education. Toronto: Oxford University Press. Griffith, A. I. and Smith, D. E. (2005). Mothering for Schooling. New York: Routledge. Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnographies: Principles in Practice. New York: Routledge. James, C. E. and Saul, R. (2007). Urban schooling in suburban contexts: Exploring the immigrant factor in urban education. In W. T. Pink and G. W. Noblit (eds), The International Handbook of Urban Education. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 841–58. Kahne, J. and Westheimer, J. (1996). In service of what? Phi Delta Kappan, 77 (9), p. 592. McDonald, M., Tyson, K., Brayko, K., Bowman, M., Delport, J. and Shimomura, F. (2011). Innovation and impact in teacher education: Community-based organizations as field placements for preservice teachers. Teachers College Press, 113 (8), pp. 1668–700. Murrell, P. (2001). The Community Teacher. New York: Teachers’ College Press. Noddings, N. (1996). On community. Educational Theory, 46 (3), pp. 245–67. Simon, R. I. and Dippo, D. (1986). On critical ethnographic work. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 17 (4), pp. 195–202. Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People. Toronto: Altamira Press. Solomon, P. and Levine-Rasky, C. (2003). Community involvement: A service learning approach to teacher education. In Teaching For Equity and Diversity. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, pp. 129–151. Tedlock, B. (2000). Ethnography and ethnographic representation. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications, pp. 455–86. Toronto Star (2012). Toronto’s vital signs report, 2 October, pp. V4–V5. Toronto’s Vital Signs (2012). 2012 Report: A Report on the Overall Quality of Life in the City of Toronto. Toronto Community Foundation. Wade, R. C. (2003). Teaching preservice social studies teachers to be advocates for social change. Social Studies, 94 (3), pp. 129–33.

Notes 1 Length of programmes, as well as programme options, varies by university and by province. 2 The meaning of the term professor varies according to country and context. For clarity, we use the term professor to denote university-based CPP educators, and to distinguish these educators from school-based teachers and teacher-candidates. CPP educators usually comprise a mix of university faculty and doctoral candidates. 3 They are often aided in these beliefs by a steady stream of news media accounts supporting this view.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 115

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 116

17/12/2013 09:38

5

Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative (Online)School Culture Maryam Moayeri

Education and the social web The present literature and discourse around the web makes continuous mention of the second generation of the web – what is now referred to as Web 2.0 or the social web. The 2.0 r/evolution is a social movement. The web has now become a social and democratic place where any individual with internet access and literacy skills can contribute to it. It is a new movement of collaboration, participation, knowledge creation, democratization of knowledge, and ease of information dissemination in multimodal ways, which as a result holds enormous potential for education. It stands apart from the first generation of the web, where only a few individuals who were highly literate in both language and technology could contribute to it. This chapter explores the practices of educators within a Canadian school district that have set as their goal to incorporate digital literacies, especially Web 2.0 practices, within the curriculum.1 Research has shown that in spite of Web 2.0’s much talked-about promise as a new medium for learning in North American schools, traditional practices of knowledge transmission remain dominant among educators seeking to incorporate its tenets (Warschauer and Ware, 2008; Lankshear and Knobel, 2007; Ertmer, 2005). Contrary to Web 2.0 ideals, digital learning strategies in schools are rarely democratic, participatory, collaborative, distributed or multimodal. Canadian teachers seldom use the internet in new Web 2.0 ways, but instead assign projects that do not lead to novel internet use. As a result, a disconnect often builds between students’ internet use and online practices prescribed in schools. Making a shift away from this model requires a broad cultural shift at the school level. To explore the stated problems, I asked the following questions: (1) (a) How are the administrators of a Canadian school district and the teachers at

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 117

17/12/2013 09:38

118

Education in North America

a Canadian school (who have set as their goal to incorporate digital literacies within the curriculum) using and encouraging the use of the social web to support learning in different disciplinary areas?, and (b) what tensions may arise as a result of the imposition of these uses on the traditional structures of schooling?; (2) How are Canadian students using the social web to assist their school content learning?; (3) To what degree is this school district’s goal of mandating digital literacy within the curriculum being adopted by its students?

New literacies, Web 2.0 and the new knowledge economy This study joins ongoing research conversations on the intersections of new literacies theory, Web 2.0 and the arguable emergence of a new knowledge in North America. Literacy has historically been defined as the ability to decode and comprehend text. This definition was limited even before the advent of digital technologies. Still, several schools today embrace this definition (Warschauer and Ware, 2008) and consequently may focus only on decoding activities that involve much memorization and rote and have less room for critical analysis, creation or collaborative activities. Literacies can be viewed as plural, with each literacy requiring different types of skills and capabilities depending on the function and context that structure that literacy (Luke and Freebody, 1999; New London Group, 1996). The perspective of new literacies then focuses on more than the basic traditional literacies. It broadens its view to include ‘skills, knowledge, and attitudes that enable complex ways of getting and making meaning from multiple textual and symbolic sources’ (Warschauer and Ware, 2008, p. 215). To consider a literacy new, it needs to involve not only new technology, but also a new ethos (Lankshear and Knobel, 2007). The new ethos refers to the fact that: […] new literacies are more ‘participatory,’ ‘collaborative,’ and ‘distributed’ in nature than conventional literacies. That is, they are less ‘published,’ ‘individuated,’ and ‘author-centric’ than conventional literacies. They are also less ‘expert-dominated’ than conventional literacies. (Lankshear and Knobel, 2007, p. 9)

These new literacies are gaining social value (Warschauer and Ware, 2008). This is happening because culture and literacy cannot be separated from technology. They are complexly and intricately connected to one another (Warschauer and Ware, 2008). Because literacies are shifting in society, a major disconnect is

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 118

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

119

becoming apparent between the self- and school-selected literacy practices of adolescents (Warschauer and Ware, 2008). Regardless of whether schools value the myriad of ways that students construct meaning with text, all the different ways remain an inherent part of the definition of literacies. This move to new literacies has arguably accompanied what researchers have suggested is a broad transition away from hierarchical organizational structures (often referred to as ‘Post Fordism’ and ‘Fast Capitalism’) and towards more collaborative learning and decision-making. Gee (2002) suggests that although elements of this transition are also perceptible in schools, they often lag behind. He explains how knowledge was viewed in schools: knowledge was created and owned by experts and enforced on students. Traditional literacies focus on academic languages (which are used in places other than schools as well). Castells described the idea of decentralization breaking hierarchical structures of organizations: ‘The main shift can be characterized as the shift from vertical bureaucracies to the horizontal corporation’ (2000, p. 176). Instead of focus on hierarchy, there is now a focus on collaboration. Instead of workers being skilled in one small facet of production, they are expected to be multifaceted individuals who can contribute in a variety of ways (New London Group, 1996). In this new knowledge economy of the information age, progressive organizations (and schools) are beginning to empower their employees (and students) at all levels to make significant contributions and decisions. They are expected to identify problems, locate, evaluate and understand information related to the problem, and then synthesize and present this information (Leu et al., 2004). Will policymakers, educators, parents and even students embrace such a shift? The growth of Web 2.0 allows for youth to be contributors to the new knowledge economy. However, many of today’s youth are exposed to richer learning experiences outside of schools than in schools (Gee, 2002). This is seen with gaming that includes factors like learning in engaging forms. It is difficult for youth who are engaging with this sort of learning experience at home to then go to school and be engaged in a more one-dimensional learning style in a top-down setting with no networks or affinity groups. The growth of Web 2.0 allowed for youth to be contributors to the new knowledge economy. A major reason for this is because the internet is owned by the collective and is different from media that preceded it because it is a democratic medium that allows for the dispersing of ideas (Lessig, 2001; Benkler, 2006; Fabos, 2008). However, one major difference between the

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 119

17/12/2013 09:38

120

Education in North America

internet and former media is that the internet remains open to the public, allowing any user to contribute to its development for public good, personal gain or commercial interest. With Web 2.0, publishers and editors no longer have exclusive control of the content.

Background and aims of the study I chose Pacific Coast School District (pseudonym) as the site of study. From that point, I identified Stoneledge Secondary (pseudonym) as the focal school because of its keen adoption of the district’s digital literacy goals and then identified three teachers at the focal school who were attempting to incorporate the social web into their teaching practices. Pacific Coast School District had 6,500 students housed in 17 schools. The students came from high socio-economic backgrounds and, therefore, the district dealt with some unique pressures. For example, they dealt with high academic and professional expectations from their community and parents. Consequently, ‘the district strives to develop a comprehensive and elite level of delivery from a broad education sense’. As described by the participants, they ‘have a vision of being the finest education system in the country’. The main goal of the district stated in their Achievement Contract was literacy, with one of the objectives of that goal being ‘to improve the digital literacy of all students’. Digital literacy was defined as ‘the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, use and create information using digital technology’. Somewhat of a paradox existed within the district’s philosophy and infrastructure. On one hand, the district aimed to be on the cutting edge of digital literacy by promoting mostly unrestricted access to equipment, software, applications and web pages. During the lengthy observation period of this study, student mobile phones were never confiscated, students were welcome to bring mobile devices and laptops to the school to use, no signs were posted in the school limiting access to websites or software use, and the librarian, administrators and teachers never asked their students to cease their activities on a school computer because it was not deemed educational in nature. As a matter of fact, at times teachers even encouraged such activities. For example, the focal teacher-librarian showed me an online game that all the students had been playing and then explained that one of the grade 10 students in the school had a hand in developing the game. On the other hand, the district moved to a closed portal system to enhance privacy, security and function. Although the main reason the district moved

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 120

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

121

to the portal system was to provide a safe environment for its students, it remained fairly open to allowing access to most websites. They did not ban or block any sites beyond what was already restricted through the Provincial Learning Network (PLNet). The PLNet is a province-wide government network infrastructure for schools including post-secondary institutions that attempts to safeguard its community by preventing access to some websites, including pornography and gambling sites. Beyond the PLNet, the district did not have added filters and, therefore, sites like YouTube, Facebook and Hotmail were readily accessible to students and staff. To conduct my study, I employed a variation of the triangulation mixed method design. I used participant observation, interviewing and surveys to derive my findings about the uses of Web 2.0 within the Pacific Coast School District. In particular, I used purposive sampling to gather data from administrators at the school and district levels, as well as from students and teachers at the school level. What follows is a brief methodological overview of my study: MM

MM

MM

MM

I interviewed three district administrators to learn about the goals of the district and their digital literacy initiatives, all of who valued technology and showed particular interested in the potential of the internet to enhance student learning. I interviewed three school principals who valued the internet but identified the following potential challenges: cyberbullying, students creating inappropriate groups, students mistaking inaccurate information for truth, students’ inability to handle the enormous quantity of information, students’ intentional and unintentional plagiarism, the loss of instructional time to a very seductive World Wide Web, and parents’ notions that the school is open 24 hours a day. I surveyed 54 of the 60 teachers at Stoneledge Secondary School, as well as conducted interviews and participant observation with many of them, to get a closer look at the practices of Canadian teachers who were purposefully attempting to incorporate social media tools within their courses. Most of these teachers were female with between four and seven years’ teaching experience. I surveyed 224 students in grades 8 and 10 and conducted focus groups with another 51 grade 10 students.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 121

17/12/2013 09:38

122

Education in North America

Major findings and conclusions This study found that although the Canadian district and school self-identified themselves as places where digital, internet and new literacies were highly valued and implemented, in fact the majority of teachers and students were not using social media tools for learning purposes. Teachers were using social media tools far more often for self-selected practices than school-selected ones and they were using social media far more to retrieve information than to contribute to it. Furthermore, the large majority of teachers did not assign work that was conducive to preparing or presenting with social web tools. The most frequent form of assignment was still completed on paper. Consequently, similar to the findings in previous studies (Cuban, 2001; Leander, 2007; Lankshear and Knobel, 2007), the majority of students were not using the internet in participatory, democratic, collaborative, distributed and multimodal ways for learning purposes. This being said, there were a handful of administrative staff and teachers who purposefully made an effort to incorporate new internet tools within their classrooms to assist in student learning and increase motivation. Those administrators and teachers who were attempting to incorporate new tools within the district were highly valued by their superiors. The reason for valuing these individuals stemmed from two opposite reasons. One reason they were valued was because the people in positions higher than theirs were unfamiliar with these same tools and therefore valued having their expertise within the district. As with the stance of the new knowledge economy, they valued the ability of their staff to learn from one another and teach them as well. Conversely, they were also valued by those superiors who held the expertise themselves because they were eager to have these tools implemented within the district and expand on the initiatives that they had started. I considered the focal teachers and administrators in this case study as digital literacy leaders because they looked to implement new technologies and practices within the schools and curriculum. They were constantly learning about new teaching and learning tools and attempting to incorporate them into their practices. All nine of the district and school administrators and teachers believed that it was important for students to be familiar with new online environments and worried that if they did not provide the opportunity for them to partake in these environments in a school setting, those students who would not partake on their own accord would be disadvantaged in society. Furthermore, all these participants identified social websites as motivational tools that had the potential to get students excited about learning.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 122

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

123

Similar to Lankshear and Knobel’s (2007) view, the focal teachers implemented social media tools, not solely for the sake of the tool itself or its motivational value, but because of their belief that the particular tool, beyond being a new technology, was a literacy that held enormous potential for expression and learning. Therefore, they had begun to adopt the new literacies perspective. Multimodality became an important concept for the teachers. Just the same way as we teach our students to write, or at least allow them the opportunity to do so, we might consider allowing opportunities for students to express themselves using images, video, text, sound, hyperlinks and other modes. Connecting these modes and understanding the relationships that they hold with one another and with learners, and providing opportunities for students to use them in spaces that allow for collaboration and distribution to make learning more active. The focal teachers began using these tools because they wanted to improve their practices and stay current. Also, they wanted to use new resources that might be beneficial in student learning. They were particularly interested in enhancing student motivation and creating respectful classroom environments. Although the focal teachers had genuine aims in using Web 2.0 tools and were using them in an attempt to improve learning and increase motivation, not all the practices met this goal. Similar to Leander (2007) and Cuban’s (2001) studies where teachers sustained traditional practices with new technologies, the teachers of this study didn’t always use the social internet tools in their capacity of being participatory, distributed, democratic and multimodal. For example, the majority of teachers, including the focal teachers, did not assign work that was conducive to preparing or presenting with social web tools. The most frequent form of assignment was still completed on paper. They did, however, put focus on the collaborative nature of the tools and did value the other components, especially their multimodality. Some repeating motifs that inhibited social web tools from being implemented in classrooms were lack of non-instructional time to learn the tools, lack of instructional time to implement new ideas, lack of understanding of the tools, and lack of money, resources and programmes to learn to implement new tools. These same issues plagued teachers who were implementing the tools and inhibited them from using them in more dynamic ways and fitting these new practices in the traditional structures of their classrooms. The focal teachers, for example, had difficulties with assessing online work that involved social media tools.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 123

17/12/2013 09:38

124

Education in North America

The lack of money, resources and programmes is of particular concern considering that the study took place in a high SES Canadian community and school where resources are much more available than in districts and countries with fewer financial means. This raises major implications for districts and helps explain one reason why implementation of new literacies or any change takes a long time to permeate schools. The lack of focus on internet tools was in direct contrast with students’ preferences. As Williams and Rowlands (2007) found, the internet was the students’ primary source of information for personal and schooling reasons. The majority of students favoured internet use over offline text for retrieving information to assist with their schoolwork. For example, the internet was highly favoured over library books for completing schoolwork. Some of the reasons given for favouring the internet over offline resources included its ease and efficacy in locating information, the fact that it required less effort than searching for information offline, students’ comfort with the technology, and their perceived incapacity to find similar needed information on their own without the assistance of a search engine. Although students preferred to use the internet as a resource to assist with their schoolwork, they identified it as a highly distracting place that lured them off task. Furthermore, this study found that the internet is a highly engaging medium for students. The study was in line with previous research (Synovate, 2007) that found that the internet was students’ main form of technology use for entertainment, communication and learning. They used it more often than the television and the telephone. The focal teachers’ personal and professional internet practices were very similar. They frequently mirrored each other. Their main internet use for both personal and professional use was to retrieve needed information. Students’ self- and school-selected internet practices, on the other hand, were not similar. The students’ self-selected reasons were linked mostly to entertainment and communication while their school-selected reasons were linked mostly to retrieving information. Moreover, students’ self-selected internet practices were far more participatory and social. They used the internet for recreational purposes mostly to socialize on Facebook, watch clips on YouTube, communicate through various applications, share music and games. Students’ school-selected internet practices were far more passive. For example, the Web 2.0 tool most popular with students for retrieving information for school-selected reasons and learning in general was Wikipedia. It was a highly valued information source. However, as Luckin et al. (2009) found, the majority of students in this study never or rarely

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 124

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

125

contributed to information on Wikipedia. They used it only as an information source to gather the data they needed. Wikis, however, were the only tool that students were using more frequently for school-selected reasons than self-selected ones for both retrieving and contributing to information. This fact was attributed to the fact that the teacherlibrarian was an advocate of wikis and frequently used them with students and teachers. Therefore, this one practice did filter down from district mandate to teacher practice to student use. Students valued Wikipedia for accessing information for self-selected reasons as well. They frequented it regularly to find answers to questions they had. The self-selected practices, however, did not translate to contributing to wikis. In addition to Wikipedia, student participants visited YouTube frequently to retrieve information. Other than using YouTube for entertainment purposes, many students frequented it to watch how-to videos to learn a specific task. Canadian students are using social media tools far more to retrieve information than to contribute to it. The Web 2.0 tool most popular with students for contributing information was Facebook. However, this was a self-selected practice that did not translate to school. Overall, students’ contributions to the internet happened in small ways. Very few students made large contributions such as uploading original videos, photos, music or articles. Most did contribute in smaller ways, however, by commenting, editing, reviewing, tagging and acknowledging while on the web. This finding was contradictory to Lenhart et al.’s study (2007) which found that many teens chose to share their creative work online.

Implications This study has several implications for the field of Literacy Education as well as for policymakers, administrators, and teachers.

Implications for policy Research has the capacity to shape policy. As research continues to expand the definition of literacy, it becomes neglectful not to include the variety of literacies within the Canadian curriculum. Economic, social and cultural equity play a large role in our approach to learning and the pedagogical and purchasing decisions we make. Until less traditional and undervalued literacies such as

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 125

17/12/2013 09:38

126

Education in North America

multimodal and internet literacies are recognized by Canadian policymakers as relevant and important, they will continue not to be incorporated into schools and consequently widen the digital gap that has already begun to form between youth who engage in these practices on their own initiative and those who don’t. This study suggests that new tools like wikis, blogs and podcasts have the capacity to be used in traditional ways or be seen as new literacies. Similar to Leander (2007), Ertmer (2005) and Cuban’s (2001) findings, this study found that new social tools are rarely being used in schools and, even when used, are frequently being used like traditional literacies instead of new literacies. Technology itself does not automatically improve learning or life. It is the manner in which the technology is used that will benefit users. Therefore, although it is a genuine attempt to move towards broadening literacies in classrooms by incorporating these tools, it is not adequate to integrate them without considering the tool as a genre in itself that has capacities beyond traditional literacies. Some reasons that attributed to these new tools being used in traditional ways during the study included a lack of understanding of the tools, their newness (especially in schools), and teachers’ lack of time to learn how to use them and incorporate them into their practices. These considerations need to be addressed for policy to have an effect at the school level in Canada.

Implications for teachers According to Mark Prensky (2001), the focal teachers at the Canadian focal school would be considered digital immigrants. I would argue that instead they are digital pioneers leading their students and their colleagues into uncharted territories. I prefer using the term digital pioneers over digital immigrants, as it is mainly those born before 1984 who are the ones building the digital applications and the ones perceiving novel ways for them to be used. It is these digital pioneers who are paving a new frontier of possibilities. Furthermore, the notion of a generation gap between Canadian teachers and their adolescent students is more of a perception than a reality, as many new educators are quite close in age to their students and are part of the same generation and have many of the same cultural interests. The generation gap develops rather as a result of the identities that each party ends up forming because of the place they have taken in society (Lewis and Finders, 2002). Just as it doesn’t ring true to believe that teachers are all-knowing and must fill the empty vessels of students with their knowledge, it is important that educators do not dismiss themselves as unsuitable candidates to teach new

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 126

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

127

technologies and assume that their students are all-knowing or even that they know more about digital tools than they do. I perceived the focal teachers in this study, regardless of their ages, as new literacy leaders within their schools and community because they were keen to learn new technologies, implement them within their practices and share their knowledge with others. In many areas, such as information and critical literacy, they were significantly more knowledgeable and skilled on the internet than their students. Consequently, they were capable of assisting their students. Nevertheless, greater focus on digital tools is still required. This study highlighted the importance of revisiting terms like literacy and technology, gaining a deeper understanding of each and balancing their importance into classroom settings. For example, at Stoneledge Secondary, it was clear that teachers found great value in new technologies as tools to aid learning. Teachers were beginning to adopt different forms of technology in some way into their classrooms. Very few teachers, however, used these technological tools as new literacies. Some of these new technologies are not just tools, they are new genres, new literacies. Keeping this in mind, it may be advantageous to expand the manner in which we use these technologies/literacies. As more and more new technologies surface, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with them or to incorporate them into classrooms. As Gee (2002) suggests, in this time of new capitalism where shifts happen rapidly, it is more productive to collaborate and share knowledge with one another than to approach it by ourselves. Therefore, instead of teachers spending their time learning about new tools and figuring out how to use them and preparing instruction for students, it may be more productive to create an environment where students are learning from one another. This also diminishes the top-down system of teaching criticized by researchers such as Gee and distributes power and knowledge from the perceived ‘expert’ to a classroom of students whose total knowledge, as the New London Group (1996) suggests, would surpass that of the teacher. An alternative approach would be for Canadian teachers to select one or two tools and to use them in the curriculum as a literacy to learn and a literacy that helps learning. This step involves recognizing the innate features that new literacies have and considering how to optimize on these features. At Stoneledge Secondary, very few teachers were implementing new literacies in distributed, participatory, democratic, collaborative and multimodal ways. Only one or two of these characteristics played a part during assignments. By deliberating the purposes of integrating such tools ahead of the actual implementation, we

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 127

17/12/2013 09:38

128

Education in North America

might come up with practices that value them more and consequently incorporate the many facets. This conveys the importance of regularly refining our practices by exploring new tools and partaking in professional development workshops that demonstrate ways to incorporate these tools to assist with the learning process. Also, it reminds us that valuing new forms of literacy can be empowering to students. Canadian teachers must constantly unravel how to balance regular effective classroom practices with new developments and pressures from administrators, policy and research. It is not necessary to pit new practices against traditional ones, but rather to assess which might be most fitting for our current students and their future needs. Students identified specific ways that their teachers could help them learn using the internet. They recommended that teachers ameliorate their own internet practices so that they could better assist them, yet at the same time remembering that students are knowledgeable and capable, especially in the field of digital technology. Furthermore, students requested that teachers provide them with reliable sites to frequent for needed information and to assist them in finding more useful information on the web. Lastly, they recommended allowing more in-class time on the internet and assigning more projects that would be conducive to internet use.

Theoretical implications Web 2.0 tools are not being used in highly distributed ways, as teachers fear the dangers that the boundaries outside school walls might hold for students and because teachers still do not know how to make work more distributed. Like Leander’s (2007) laptop study, where the faculty was concerned with protecting its students from online predators and other dangers, one constant worry of educators in this study was the fear of exposing their students to dangers by making their work visible to the world. Although the internet is a public space that allows for greater distributed potential and provides accountability to the public, it is important to realize that content posted by most students on the internet will probably only be seen by a select few and buried in the deep web unless contributions are made to highly visible sites. School internet practices are not particularly multimodal either, as teachers put a higher value on text than other forms of literacy and are more competent in teaching that form over other forms like video. Although incorporating multimodal content such as song, video and images to complement content

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 128

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

129

being taught is enhancing, the practice of using these same modes to create projects is still not prevalent in Canadian schools. Also, using different modes as a complement to text does not necessary make a practice multimodal. The interplay between the modes that creates the narrative or argument has far more impact. Web 2.0 tools are, however, being used in much more collaborative ways as students begin working together to create their vision. For example, the woodworking students worked together to create their podcasts and the science students collaborated on the wiki assignment. However, teachers face difficulty in evaluating collaborative work and sometimes find themselves piecing assignments apart to grade them. These social web tools are no more participatory than other activities. Teachers’ main suggestion for students frequenting the web was to access information and not to contribute to it. Even for the focal teachers who had begun to take this step, they often stopped short of encouraging publication of student work because they didn’t deem it of high enough quality to be posted online for a wider audience. For example, the science wiki stayed offline throughout the whole process and was published only after having been edited by the teachers. In past years, the teachers had chosen not to publish the wiki at all. Similarly, in the past, the woodworking teacher had his students create podcasts and vodcasts, but had not taken the final step of having students upload them onto the web, deeming that the work was not strong enough to be made public. Castells (2002) suggests the lack of opportunity to contribute to today’s networked society is damaging as it excludes individuals from the culture and economy. Without incorporating the knowledge-creating component of the web, we risk excluding our students from the new knowledge economy. As Jenkins (2006) and Lankshear and Knobel (2006) suggest, Web 2.0 applications enable participation, invention and knowledge-building and as a result are associated with empowerment. Until teachers begin encouraging the online contributions of student work by making it far more participatory and distributed, this empowerment will lack and it therefore makes it difficult to see these tools as democratic either. Although the venue exists for students to have voices, teachers are not willing to give them the broader voice yet. They are, however, beginning to show them these tools which will allow them to further explore them on their own accord and use them in ways that are meaningful to them.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 129

17/12/2013 09:38

130

Education in North America

A shift in school culture If the culture of pedagogy remains unaddressed and unchanged, only surface changes will occur at the school level. Making shifts to school culture may be the most effective way to make core changes. One recommendation is to move to a more participatory culture – a culture that is distinguished by the promotion of civic engagement and artistic expression (Jenkins, 2006). This is a culture where members feel like their contributions count, where more experienced members share their expertise with the less experienced, where social connections are valued and creations are shared. Therefore, it is a distributed culture as well, where work is seen by others in the community. Most importantly, ‘participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement’ (Jenkins, 2006, p. 4). This then encourages a highly collaborative culture where members of the community work together in the creation process. As suggested by the knowledge economy perspective, a focus on collaboration can dismantle a reliance on hierarchical structures. Students can be empowered to make significant decisions about their learning. Binding well with this participatory, distributed and collaborative culture is the addition of a multimodal culture where a variety of modes are valued as highly as printed forms of text for learning and expression. Literacy is not about reading and writing. It encompasses listening and speaking. It goes into the visual realm to include seeing and understanding images, colour, spacing, structure, movement and more. A concept can be explained through an image, a movie, an essay, a poem, a play, a lecture or other form. Expression in these forms has existed for decades and in some cases for centuries, but never have schools had the opportunity to partake in them with more ease and efficiency as in the internet era. Unfortunately, though, the recognition of these different forms of literacy appears only on a surface level. For example, the main focus of literacy associations and conferences continues to be on reading and writing, and provincial and state exams almost exclusively assess reading and writing skills. When students learn content from one another instead of reading a text, or when they listen to an audio recording of a book instead of reading it, society considers this as cheating. If we truly valued different forms of learning and recognized them as important literacies, then they would be more apparent in practice and not just in theory.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 130

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

131

The NCTE (2008) recommends that the ‘use of different modes of expression in student work should be integrated into the overall literacy goals of the curriculum’ (n.p.) and that these uses should go beyond complementing textual work through illustrations. When combined with the participatory, distributed and collaborative culture, a multimodal culture encourages the creation of artistic and academic work that could include text, physical movement, painting, drama, speech, and much more. This involves complex processes including critical thinking, ethical consideration, artistic skill and academic understanding. Together the contexts of a participatory, distributed, collaborative and multimodal school culture have the potential to move schools towards a democratic culture where all modes and opinions are valued, where individuals have a voice and choice. The internet, as a potential democratic medium, can provide an environment conducive to such uses. Youth already communicate using the social web in creative ways that are suitable for learning and consequently they deserve attention within the educational setting. Instead of banning such features within Canadian classrooms, schools, districts and libraries, the option exists to encourage their use in conscientious ways. Perhaps instead of posting warnings that read no txting, no instant messaging, no chatting, no Facebook, no twitter, we can post notices that read know txting, know instant messaging, know chatting, know Facebook, know twitter. When incorporating new tools in schools, however, it is important to distinguish whether these tools are being used in new ways or only as technologies that mimic more traditional literacies. For example, if a wiki is being used by one person to post static information with no visuals or video, then it does not warrant to be categorized with wikis that are collaborative and multimodal works. Just as with print we have different textual genres, online contributions, too, have characteristics that distinguish them. Implementing new technologies such as wikis, blogs and Soical Network Sites without considering the manner in which they are being used will not contribute to changing school culture. Rather, each instance needs to be regarded and assessed individually for its potential impact. Although the internet is already prevailing, it is still in its infancy, with growth spurts still to come, leading to the possibility for considerable shifts in the ways that it is used. In Canadian schools, the internet is being used mostly in the same ways traditional texts are being used – for acquiring, memorizing and parroting information. With a shift in school culture, the internet instead has the potential to be used in collaborative, participatory, democratic, distributed, multimodal and knowledge-creating ways.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 131

17/12/2013 09:38

132

Education in North America

Extending new literacies theory I aim to extend the ongoing discourse around the new literacies theory in two ways. First, I recommend that no one form of literacy supersedes or holds more value than another. Second, I suggest that we take care not to devalue existing forms of literacy when we begin to integrate new forms. No form of literacy is more important than another. Rather, literacies have different uses and purposes and play different roles in the educational context. For example, although tensions do arise between new and traditional literacies, new literacies, in fact, offer a relief to traditional classroom practices as they allow us to value an array of modes that can assist in the learning process. I suggest that instead of placing a hierarchical value on different literacies, we aim to see literacy through a folksonomy lens, where the hierarchy of literacy practices are flattened and can connect to one another through a variety of possible connections or be enjoyed individually through its innate characteristics. For example, a textual poem in itself is a beautiful art form and a valued form of literacy. However, as a genre, is it more or less valuable than a song, picture, essay or film? This comparison need not be made. In fact, a poem has the potential to interact with other genres. For example, combining text with a visual can create a shape poem. If in schools we flatten the hierarchy of literacies so text holds no more importance than other literacies, then the potential for new literacies to form and grow expands. And more student voices will have avenues for expression. Second, when extending the theory surrounding new literacies, we must take care not to devalue existing forms of literacy in exchange for new forms. Oral literacy, especially in the form of discourse, may be diminishing because of the manner in which we are using social web tools. We see this shift in society where emailing, txting and instant messaging are replacing some previous oral communication practices like speaking face-to-face or over the telephone. Similarly, using new social web tools to encourage written discourse around classroom topics has the capacity to suppress the oral discourse that may have taken place otherwise. Regardless of which tools are adopted by Canadian educators, I suggest that it is the manner in which those tools are incorporated that determines their usefulness for learning and whether they hold the necessary ‘ethos’ (Lankshear and Knobel, 2007) to be considered a new literacy. Also, it is important to assess whether other forms of literacy are being suppressed as a result of incorporating these new literacies in the classroom.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 132

17/12/2013 09:38



Moving Towards a More Independent and Collaborative Culture

133

References Benkler, Y. 2006. The Wealth of Networks. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Castells, M. (2000). The Rise of the Network Society (2nd edn). Maeden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. —(2002). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cuban, L. (2001). Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ertmer P.A. (2005). Teacher pedagogical beliefs: The final frontier in our quest for technology integration? Educational Development Research and Development, 53, pp. 25–39. Fabos, B. (2008). The price of information: Critical literacy, education, and today’s internet. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear and D. J. Leu (eds), Handbook of Research on New Literacies. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 839–70. Gee, J. (2002). New times and new literacies. In M. Kalantzis, G. Varnava-Skoura and B. Cope (eds), Learning for the Future: New Worlds, New Literacies, New Learning, New People. Australia: Common Ground Publishing, pp. 59–84. Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Chicago, IL: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0A3E0–4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF [last accessed 31 December 2006]. Lankshear, C. and Knobel, M. (2006). New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning (2nd edn). Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press. —(2007). Sampling ‘the new’ in new literacies. In C. Lankshear and M. Knobel (eds), A New Literacies Sampler. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 1–24. Leander, K. (2007). ‘You won’t be needing your laptops today’: Wired bodies in the wireless classroom. In C. Lankshear and M. Knobel (eds), A New Literacies Sampler. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 25–48. Lenhart, A., Madden, M., Macgill, A. R. and Smith, A. (2007). Teens and Social Media. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewInternet.org/Reports/2007/ Teens-and-Social-Media.aspx [accessed 16 February 2013]. Lessig, L. (2001). The Future of Ideas. New York: Random House. Leu, D. J., Jr, Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. and Cammack, D. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the internet and other information and communication technologies. In R. B. Ruddell and N. Unrau (eds), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (5th edn). Newark, DE: International Reading Association, pp. 1568–611. Lewis, C. and Finders, M. (2002). Implied adolescents and implied teachers: A generation gap for new times. In D. E. Alverman (ed.), Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 101–13.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 133

17/12/2013 09:38

134

Education in North America

Luckin, R., Clark, W., Graber, R., Logan, K., Mee A. and Oliver, M. (2009). Do Web 2.0 tools really open the door to learning? Perceptions, practices and profiles of 11–16 year old students. Learning, Media and Technology, 34 (2), pp. 87–104. Luke, A. and Freebody P. (1999). A map of possible practices: Further notes on the four resources model. Practically Primary, 4 (2), pp. 5–8. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) (2008). The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies. A position statement of the NCTE Executive Committee. http:// www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition [accessed 1 May 2010]. New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66 (1), pp. 60–92. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon. http://www. marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20 Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf [accessed 11 March 2009]. Synovate (2007). Leisure time: Clean living youth shun new technology. http://www. synovate.com/current/news/article/2007/02/leisure-time-clean-living-youth-shunnew-technolgy.html [accessed 20 September 2008]. Warschauer, M. and Ware, P. (2008). Learning, change, and power: Competing frames of technology and literacy. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear and D. J. Leu (eds), Handbook of Research on New Literacies. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 215–40. Williams, P. and Rowlands, I. (2007). Information behaviour of the researcher of the future: The literature on young people and their information behaviour. http://www. jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/ggworkpackageii.pdf [accessed 20 September 2008].

Note 1 This chapter covers a portion of a Canadian study conducted as part of my doctoral dissertation.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 134

17/12/2013 09:38

Part Two

The United States of America

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 135

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 136

17/12/2013 09:38

6

Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview Kelly Kolodny

At the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century, 49.5 million children are enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools. Another 5.5 million children attend private and religious schools (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). Roughly 17 per cent of the population of the United States, children who attend these schools are an exceptionally diverse group. They are of different ethnicities, races, linguistic backgrounds and economic circumstances. They represent diverse religions, genders, sexual orientations, learning styles and exceptionalities. They come from different familiarities and lived experiences. For these children, their families, and the wider society, schooling often is a vision of promise, a passport to the future, and a prospect of worldchanging possibilities. As schooling is a course of action in which great faith is placed, it understandably has merited careful study and foresight. In this chapter I explore some of the timeless questions connected to the processes of providing an education to children in the United States. Why do we educate? How do we organize and oversee the formal schooling experiences of children? What should be the focal points of their learning practices? What philosophical and legal frameworks guide the teaching and learning of children? And how do socio-economic factors connect to these encounters? The chapter also addresses the critical matter of the education of teachers. The number of full-time equivalent teachers who work on a daily basis with children in public and private schools is approximately 3.7 million (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). They play a critical role in both the preservation and transmission of school practices. Some argue that they are asked to do more each day, as our society becomes increasingly complex. They are the first line of defence not only in school but also in world matters. Throughout their professional lives, teachers are guided and informed by the enduring inquiries which

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 137

17/12/2013 09:38

138

Education in North America

shape their work. The education and guidance of aspiring teachers need to be central to our reflections, actions and mandates concerning schooling, particularly when it is an undertaking marked by numerous nuances and competing opinions.

Why do we educate children? The term ‘educate’ is a broad one connected with various characteristics and meanings. In the wide-ranging sense, we educate because we want to transfer knowledge and skills from one group to another. Gutek has written that education ‘refers very broadly to the total social processes that bring a person into cultural life’ (Gutek, 1997, p. 4). Jane Roland Martin too has reflected on the term ‘education’ and considered the reproductive processes of society, specifically routes of rearing, bringing up and providing instruction. In Martin’s consideration, concern for people and interpersonal relationships are central (Martin, 1981). Connected to schooling, the term ‘education’ often assumes more specific connotations. Historically children were educated in public schools, or in common schools as they were first named in the nineteenth century, to acquire citizenship training, equality of economic opportunity and to assist with the reduction of crime. Schooling was connected to increasing the general wealth of a community. As public schooling evolved, additional goals surfaced which were linked to fostering racial equality, cultural harmony, linguistic rights and a reduction of poverty. In the twenty-first century, schooling prepares children to work with technology and to participate in a global community. Yong Zhao has suggested that ‘globalization is likely to turn the world into a global village where geographical distance matters little, and other lives are affected by and impact people and places across the world as much as, if not more than, our next door neighbors’ (Zhao, 2008). In school, children are prepared for the global nature of societal issues and to appreciate the interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples. In private and religious schools, children undertake an education for similar reasons, yet also for more specific motives. Catholic Schools, for example, foster a strong Catholic identity, doctrinal teaching and a sacramental focus (National Catholic Educational Association, 2013). Jewish Day Schools provide children with both a Jewish and secular education. Mennonite Schools blend culture, religious faith and social actions (Waite and Crockett, 1997). Montessori

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 138

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

139

Schools are based on a model of human development. Through Montessori schooling, children and developing adults engage in psychological selfconstruction by means of interaction with their environments (The Montessori Foundation, 2013). Waldorf Schools, located in the United States and in countries throughout the world, have roots in the spiritual-scientific research of Rudolf Steiner, who believed that humans are threefold beings of spirit, soul and body (Barnes, 1991). Although no two Waldorf schools are exactly alike, some common characteristics are shared, such as having children relate what they learn to their own experiences. Waldorf teachers strive to develop the aesthetic, spiritual and interpersonal sensibilities of children (Easton, 1997). The Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, another type of independent day school, in contrast, fosters an environment where ‘students from preschool through high school age explore the world freely, at their own pace and in their own unique ways’. Classes are not required of children at the Sudbury Valley School; rather the students are encouraged to direct their lives through self-initiated activities (Sudbury Valley School, 2013). The Walnut Hill School, another private school founded in 1893 and located in Massachusetts, prepares students for the arts in ballet, music, theatre, visual art, and writing and publishing (Walnut High School, 2013). Administrators and teachers of private and religious schools have additional goals which guide the education of children. For some, American formal education appears to lack consensus and unity. Others believe, however, that aspects of the initial goals of nineteenth-century public schooling carry through broadly and widely in the contemporary context. In 2009, Diane Ravitch wrote in the New York Times Magazine that: We educate because we want citizens who are capable of taking responsibility for their lives and for our democracy. We want citizens who understand how their government works, who are knowledgeable about the history of their nation and other nations. We need citizens who are thoroughly educated in science. We need people who can communicate in other languages. We must ensure that every young person has the chance to engage in the arts. (Ravitch, 2009)

Yong Zhao has written that we have a moral responsibility to prepare students to lead successful lives (Zhao, 2008).

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 139

17/12/2013 09:38

140

Education in North America

How do we organize and oversee the formal schooling experiences of children in the United States? Children are compelled to participate in formal schooling through compulsory school attendance laws. These laws have roots in the 1642 and 1647 rulings of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which focused on parental responsibilities for bringing up children with instruction so they would be properly prepared as good Christians. Compulsory school attendance laws also have a strong foundation in the 1852 Massachusetts law which required children to attend school at least 12 weeks a year, six of which needed to be consecutive. This Massachusetts law followed the start of the nineteenth-century common schools, the precursor of the contemporary public school system, which were shaped by educational reformers such as Horace Mann and Henry Barnard (Katz, 1976). Although children are required to participate in formal schooling in the United States, the age for school attendance statutes varies, with nine states requiring the start of school at age five and two states, Pennsylvania and Washington, at age eight. In some states children may terminate formal schooling at age 16 while other states require attendance until 18 (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). There also are options with regard to the routes in which children pursue formal schooling. Most children in the United States attend public elementary and secondary schools in kindergarten through grade twelve settings. These often are organized as elementary, middle, junior high and high schools. There also are some recent movements to incorporate universal public pre-school programmes, although they currently are not available for all children. On 14 February 2013, for example, the Huffington Post published an article titled ‘Obama On Preschool Education: “Let’s Give Our Kids That Chance”’. In the article it was suggested that the new universal pre-school programme would […] guarantee federal funding to states for the schooling of 4-year-olds for families that earn below 200 percent of the poverty line, or approximately 1.85 million kids. The new program would be part of a slate of services that support underprivileged children, expanding things like childcare, Early Head Start and the availability of home visits by nurses and social workers. (Resmovits, 2013)

Viewed as the responsibility of states, public schools nonetheless are influenced strongly by federal laws and mandates. At the state level, public schools are overseen by a state board of education, often appointed by the governor, which exercises general control and supervision of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 140

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

141

the schools in the state. State departments of education are responsible for implementing educational policy on a day-to-day basis. At the district level, schools are overseen by a local school board, a group of lay citizens who are responsible for setting policies that determine how school districts operate. Recent studies have suggested that local school boards, although at one time a relatively homogenous group, have become more diverse (Samuels, 2011). At the same time, however, there has been a noticeable shrinkage of public participation in school governance (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). Research also suggests that twenty-first century school boards have moved away from a focus on books, buses, budgets and buildings, to a focus on student achievement and school reform measures (Samuels, 2011, p. 1). At the local level, the superintendent of schools has oversight of public education in specific geographical borders. Individual schools further are guided by the work of principals and teachers. Charter schools, a form of public schooling, are accountable to some of the rules and regulations which guide traditional public schools. They differ, however, in that they have greater autonomy and flexibility. Some charter schools are guided by distinct missions. Founded by parents, community groups, non-profit organizations and teachers, charter schools require a formal agreement, a memorandum of approval, from a lead organization. Some states issue the approval, the charter, from the state department of education, whereas in others the charter is issued at the local level. One example of a charter school is the KIPP Philadelphia Charter School. A unique aspect of this school is that the teachers undertake home visits before the school year begins so they are better able to understand and reach their students (Rix, 2012). Advocates of charter schools may suggest that school choice is complementary to living in a democratic society (Meier, 2003). During the 2009–2010 academic school year, charter schools operated in 40 states (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). The number of students who were enrolled in charter schools had grown steadily to 1.6 million during the 2009–2010 year (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). Some suggest that the governance of private and religious schools poses less constraints than those of the public sectors. Catholic schools, for example, are connected to the work of the National Catholic Educational Association through which the Department of Boards and Councils is the source for information and services related to governance (Haney, 2010). Independent day schools own, govern and finance themselves. Public schools, unlike private and religious schools, are subjected to a greater degree to court litigation regarding the free and equal treatment of students.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 141

17/12/2013 09:38

142

Education in North America

A growing population of children also are homeschooled in the United States. In 2007, 1.5 million children were homeschooled. Homeschooled students are school-age children (ages 5–17) in a grade to at least kindergarten and not higher than the twelfth grade (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2009). These children receive instruction at home instead of at a public, private or religious school. The most common reason parents and families cite for homeschooling children is to provide religious and moral instruction. Concern with safety of the school environment, along with dissatisfaction of academic instruction, also are cited as motivations for homeschooling. Waite and Crockett have suggested that there are different levels of bureaucratic control in US schooling which are shaped by federal, state and local governing bodies. Each of these bodies has its own authority, which contributes to the diverse educational landscape in the United States (Waite and Crockett, 1997).

What should be the focal points of the learning practices of children? Raising academic achievement is a central focus of the formal educational experiences of children. In the process of taking part in schooling, children are exposed to curricula and expected to demonstrate proficiency in key areas. Gutek has written that curriculum, however, functions as a ‘locus of the sharpest controversies. Decision making in curricular matters involves considering, examining and formulating the ends of education’ (Gutek, 1997, p. 5). In this process, critical questions are explored. What content should be introduced to students? What content is valuable for students to learn? What curriculum is most important? Curriculum may be categorized into two areas: the explicit and implicit or hidden curriculum. The explicit curriculum focuses on academic content knowledge, learning objectives and standards. It is a programme of studies, skills and content matter offered to the learner in a formal sequence. It is commonly believed, for example, that children need to be proficient in reading, writing, mathematics and science to successfully participate in the workforce and a global society. The Common Core State Standards, a twenty-first century state-led effort, resulted in the establishment of a single set of educational standards for kindergarten through twelfth grade in English Language Arts and Mathematics in public schools. At the start of 2013, 45 states, the District of Columbia, four territories and the Department of Defense Education had adopted Common Core standards. State curriculum guidelines also guide the teaching and learning of children.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 142

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

143

High stakes testing often is connected to the explicit curricular requirements of children. Some have argued that high stakes testing places greater accountability on schools to make sure that children achieve certain benchmarks. Eliminating achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students also is connected to high stakes testing. Critics, in contrast, have described the high stakes testing movement as punitive, judgemental and as a shamming ritual. The proficiency targets have been described by some as ‘ludicrously unrealistic’. Others have argued that ‘public school teachers in the US are teaching under what might be considered the “New Taylorism”, where their labour is controlled vis-à-vis high-stakes testing’ (Au, 2011, p. 25). In the area of curriculum, federal policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Race to the Top shape the day-to-day encounters of children. The No Child Left Behind Act, developed with bipartisan support, promotes standards-based education. When initially implemented in 2001, the Act required states to develop assessments in basic skills. These assessments were to be administered to all students at select grade levels and tied to the ability to receive federal school funding. Title I schools, connected to the United States Department of Education initiative of improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged, were required to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Increased accountability was placed on schools and teachers. In addition, school choice was provided to students in schools which failed to meet AYP. The Act also mandated that all English Language Learners achieve English fluency and was viewed as countering efforts of bilingual education programmes (No Child Left Behind Act, 2013). The Race to the Top was introduced as a funding initiative to spur innovation in state and local district K–12 education. Part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, states applied for funding as part of the Race to the Top competition. The US Department of Education website suggested that ‘Race to the Top winners will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for States and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades to come’ (Race to the Top, 2013). In addition to being exposed to a formal curriculum in their schooling, students are exposed to an implicit or hidden curriculum. This is the informal curriculum which involves students in internalizing a ‘program of social norms for training in order to function effectively as members of a smaller society, the school’ (Wren, 1999, p. 594). Henry Giroux and Anthony Penna have described the hidden curriculum as ‘the unstated […] values and beliefs that

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 143

17/12/2013 09:38

144

Education in North America

are transmitted to students through the underlying structure of meaning in both the formal content as well as the social relations of school and classroom life’ (Giroux and Penna, 1979, p. 22). Elliott Eisner has suggested that both compliant and competitive behaviours are fostered in schools as part of the hidden curriculum (Eisner, 2001). The hidden curriculum, too, shapes the learning experiences of children in school settings.

What philosophical points guide the teaching and learning of children? Diverse educational philosophies guide the formal teaching and learning of children in school settings. These philosophies are more than pedagogical theories; they are ones of metaphysical, epistemological and axiological statements. Realist and Essentialist philosophies centre on preparing children to learn the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic through the study of organized bodies of knowledge. For Realists and Essentialists, the role of school is to advance human rationality; the task is primarily intellectual. Theistic Realism differs from Realism in that there is a combination of both human reason and human spirituality. Theistic Realism is often connected with the work of Catholic schools which incorporate religious and theological studies. In addition, there is formal exposure to religious ‘practices, habits and rituals’ (Gutek, 1997). Pragmatist and Progressivist ideologies, in contrast, shape the schooling experiences of children through an experiential curriculum. John Dewey, a prominent educator connected with these ideologies, challenged the traditional practices associated with formal schooling. He believed that problem-solving techniques introduced in schooling would and should transfer to the larger society. Dewey argued that the starting point of a learning situation was with the learner’s needs. Pragmatist and Progressive schools emphasize group learning and project-based curricula. Duffy and Cunningham have written about Constructivism, another philosophy, which they believe has come to serve as an umbrella term for a diversity of views that focus on (1) learning as an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge, and (2) instruction as a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge. As popularity has grown, Meyer has suggested that ‘Constructivism can no longer be viewed as an exercise in radical thinking primarily aimed at generating innovative teaching. It has become an integral part of the pedagogic mainstream’ (Meyer, 2009, p. 334). Behaviourism, an educational theory connected to the field of psychology, alternatively shapes the schooling experiences of children in school through

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 144

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

145

reward systems. Radical Behaviourism, developed by B. F. Skinner, examines interactions between organisms and environmental circumstances. In the school setting, Behaviourism has led to praise for desired outcomes and discouragement of unwanted habits of students (Moore, 2011). Although widely supported, opponents of Behaviourism offer caution. Kohn, for example, has written that ‘When we’re preoccupied with behaviors, we’re less likely to dig deep in order to understand the reasons, values, and motives that give rise to those behaviors’ (Kohn, 2004, p. 25). He fears that one loses the human being behind the actions. Expectedly, conflicts and competing opinions have emerged with regard to the philosophical considerations of schooling in the United States. Educational philosophies have been embraced, dismissed and redefined, and in the process have shaped schooling and the ways through which teaching and learning unfold.

What legal frameworks guide the teaching and learning of children? The US Constitution and amendments, and the constitutions of the 50 states, are sources of valuable information with regard to school law and with the legal frameworks which guide schooling. Historically, school-related court cases have focused on issues related to freedom of speech, school dress codes, strip searches, instruction of religion, the rights of immigrants without documentation, and special education. The Supreme Court case of New Jersey v. T.L.O. in 1985, for example, a situation involving a student strip search, resulted in the ruling that school leaders have the right to search a student’s outer clothing, such as a jacket or backpack, if there is a reasonable chance of finding some incriminating evidence (Torres et al., 2011). The issue of strip searches addresses concerns of school safety as they link to the rights of personal freedom of students. The Abington v. Schempp case of 1963, ruled on by Justice Clark, in contrast, examined the teaching of religion in schools. Justice Clark declared that ‘one’s education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization’ (Marshall, 2003, p. 242). The case of Plyer v. Doe 1982, decided on in the United States Supreme Court, extended the right of children without an authorized immigration status to education. It ruled that ‘public P–12 schools must provide access to children without legal immigration status’ (Radoff, 2011, p. 436). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal initiative, extends educational rights to students with disabilities with parental involvement as a cornerstone. With regard to IDEA, the case of Schaffer v. Weast, decided on in

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 145

17/12/2013 09:38

146

Education in North America

the Supreme Court, addressed the question of which party has the burden of persuasion in due process (Yell et al., 2009). Legal cases also have focused on efforts to desegregate public schools and the rights of all children to receive an equitable education. Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, for example, struck down the ‘separate but equal doctrine’ which was put in place as a result of the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Brown v. Board of Education ruled that separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, prohibiting de jure segregation. Twenty-first-century research, however, has suggested that contrary to the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, school segregation continues to exist. Jonathan Kozol has written compellingly that public schools which were deeply segregated 25 to 30 years ago continue to exist in this manner (Kozol, 2005). In some areas, schools are rapidly re-segregating. Nationally, ‘two in five students of color go to schools where enrollments are 90 percent or more non-white, and many of those schools are among the poorest with the least amount of resources’ (Wiggins, 2011, pp. 40–1). The 2007 Supreme Court case of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 examined school districts’ practices of preserving the freedom of parents to select which school their children attended, while maintaining an integrated school system that relied on racial classification of students assigned to particular schools. Petitioners contended that assigning students to schools on the basis of race, however, was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The outcome of the case of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, delivered on 28 June 2007 by Chief Justice Roberts, delivered the affirming opinion, ‘asserting that diversity is not a “compelling interest” and that, even if it were, the […] plans were not “narrowly tailored” to meet this interest’. The ruling of this case has brought forward questions regarding the future of school integration in the United States. Frey and Wilson have written that ‘whether children will receive an education that includes those of different races, and whether or not that is even a worthy goal, are questions that deeply divide the Supreme Court’ (Frey and Wilson, 2009, p.85). In 2011, approximately 54 per cent of the public school population was white, 23 per cent was Hispanic, 15 per cent was black, 4.1 per cent was Asian and the remaining identified as other, or of two or more races (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). English Language Learners are the fastest growing sub-group of the student population in the United States, typically comprising 14 per cent of urban public school populations (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). Legal considerations shape the experiences of these children.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 146

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

147

How do socio-economic factors connect to these encounters? Although it is not a deterministic relationship, socio-economic status is considered one of the strongest predictors of academic achievement. This factor is thus carefully contemplated in connection with the schooling experiences of children. A portion of school-age children in the United States comes from situations of relative wealth, whereas other children, in contrast, struggle with circumstances connected to poverty. In 2011, 21.9 per cent of children under the age of 18 were identified as living in poverty (US Census, 2013). Child poverty rates vary significantly between the states, with some states having child poverty rates at 10 per cent and others climbing to 32 per cent. In 2010, Mississippi had the highest poverty rate followed by the District of Columbia (Ujifusa, 2012). Poverty is associated with a range of challenging outcomes for children with regard to cognitive development, physical health and educational attainment (Yoshikawa et al., 2012). Cybele has argued that ‘arguably one of the greatest social problems we now face in the United States is that of the widening income gap and educational inequality between affluent and poor children’ (Cybele, 2012, p. 681). He further suggests that the income gap has increased likelihood for poor children’s exposure to worsened school conditions, lower neighbourhood safety and lower family resources. The financing of the public school landscape, in turn, has reflected the disparities in the socio-economic circumstances of children. Although states are responsible for education with their borders, much of the responsibility of public education falls to local districts. Public school funding relies on revenues generated from taxes, such as state sales and income taxes and local property taxes. Since the economic circumstances of cities and towns vary, property tax is not an equitable tax and shapes the schooling experiences of children accordingly. Some school districts face great difficulty in supporting the educational experiences of children. Children who are able to live in wealthier school districts, in contrast, often attend schools with greater resources. Some children have access to resources to attend expensive private schools. On 6 June 2004, the New York Times published an article titled ‘Robin Hood, Santa Claus, and Financing for Schools’. The author of the article, Michael Cooper, suggested that in New York ‘officials argue endlessly over a school funding formula that is more complex than anything found on the new, tougher math Regents exam’ (Cooper, 2004). On 24 August 2013, another New York Times article written by Ross Ramsey suggested that in Texas, ‘the state and its independent school districts are going to court […] again – to debate the financing of the state’s schools’

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 147

17/12/2013 09:38

148

Education in North America

(Ramsey, 2012). One potential solution was a statewide property tax to solve the school finance problem. However, it also suggested that such a tax was full of holes. Deborah Meier has suggested that ‘as for social class, the big difference is that far more low-income children now attend school for longer periods of time – but rarely together with rich kids. And if they do attend the same schools, they rarely study in the same classes or belong to the same subgroups’ (Meier, 2003, p. 19). In response to poverty and related circumstances, schools have strived to combat some of the correlated factors. Public schools, for example, provide students with access to nutritional programmes. In 1968, a group of physicians issued a report titled ‘Hunger in America’. It documented appalling levels of malnutrition among poor children in the United States. Poor nutrition is linked to poor school performance. In response, school nutrition programmes were developed to combat the problem of nutritional deficiencies. The National School Lunch Program served children in 98 per cent of the nation’s public schools in 2002–2003. During this same year, the School Breakfast Program was offered in 78.3 per cent of those schools. The School Breakfast Program had doubled in size since 1990 (Bhattacharya et al., 2006).

How should we prepare teachers for their critical undertaking? The enrolment of school age children has increased significantly, if not consistently, since the mid–1980s. Consistent annual increases in enrolment in the public schools occurred between 1985 and 2006, with enrolment stabilized between 2006 and the present time. Enrolment for private and religious schools fluctuated only to a small degree during that timeframe (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2012). Although there are many nuances and areas of competing opinion connected to schooling, it offers possibilities never before envisioned. Marian Wright Edelman and Governor John Engler have written that: […] advances in neuroscience have yielded fresh insight into how the brain develops and the physiological processes that drive learning. New classroom technologies help teachers engage students, personalize instruction, and capture information to better meet individual needs. (Edelman and Engler, 2012, pp. 16)

Yet, Edelman and Engler also have suggested that of the children who started kindergarten in 2012, 30 per cent of those children would not graduate with their classes in 2025 for a variety of reasons, including poverty. Schooling

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 148

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

149

remains a tender, multifaceted endeavour. It requires not only stewardship and collaboration, but also ongoing analysis and careful scrutiny. Aspiring teachers must be prepared diligently for its promise and responsibilities. Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, who was on board the Space Shuttle Challenger to be the first teacher in space, once said: ‘I touch the future. I teach.’ Teachers shape children and potentialities on a daily basis. It is a particularly important time to consider how to prepare teachers for this work. Formal state-sponsored teacher training is approaching its 175th anniversary in 2014. When state-supported teacher preparation commenced, in the form of normal schools, the goal was to effect two objectives for aspiring teachers: First, the attainment of a more thorough and systematic acquaintance with the branches usually taught in the common schools, and an adequate foundation in other parts of knowledge highly useful to the skillful teacher; and secondly the art of imparting instruction to the youthful mind, which will be taught in its principles, and illustrated by opportunity for practice, by means of a model school. (Massachusetts Board of Education, 1838, p. 16)

Some of these goals continue to guide teacher preparation, while other new ones have emerged. Research suggests that twenty-first century teachers require both content and pedagogical knowledge. They need to understand subject matter, as well as how to teach. They must be experts in assessment and in how to measure the learning of their own students. Professional dispositions of teachers are critical considerations, as well as experience working with diverse students in K–12 schools (Ingersoll, Merrill and May, 2012). The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council have provided national policies and standards which have guided the preparation of teachers in the United States. In 2013, when these national organizations merged to form the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), draft standards for the new organization, overseen by a commission, were released and suggested that: The Commission has taken its responsibility seriously and interpreted its mandate to encompass the full scope of the educational challenge facing our nation’s teachers. America’s teachers must not only raise student achievement for some learners, but they are challenged to do so for all learners in a nation with an increasingly diverse P–12 student population. Creating effective

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 149

17/12/2013 09:38

150

Education in North America

learning environments that challenge and engage all learners has been the frame of reference that guided the Commission’s work. (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, 2013)

Underlying historical and contemporary teacher education standards, however, also are clues that there is more to the preparation of teachers than can be easily documented and measured. This is not to suggest that content and pedagogical knowledge are not important, but rather that larger, holistic visions need to be considered and enveloped. Jane Roland Martin has written that dualisms need to be avoided in teacher education, in turn for places where we also can incorporate visions about society and what kind of world we want in the future. She has written that ‘the structure and nature of knowledge does not have a privileged position. It can no more tell us what to teach teachers or how to order their curriculum’ (Martin, 1987). There is an essence of mutuality that is implicit to teaching. Deborah Meier has written about the need to have schools and teachers who are trustworthy. In reflecting on the term trustworthy, we consider individuals with whom we are able to place confidence. In 1839, when formal state teacher preparation initially commenced through the work of normal schools, the first principal of the first state normal school located in Lexington, Massachusetts, Cyrus Peirce, encouraged the students to ‘live to the truth’. This suggests that his students, aspiring teachers, were to hold ideals and standards in their work and lives. In these ideas of mutuality, trustworthiness and living to the truth is the notion that a humane essence is connected to schooling. Teacher education is about preparing aspiring educators to successfully teach, yet it is also about processes of transformation. Teachers, along with their students, have agency and meaning which are made interactively. It is, as the South African philosophy of Ubuntu suggests, that ‘a human being is a human being because of other human beings’ (Letseka, 2012). Sonia Nieto has reflected on what keeps teachers going and concluded that it relates to an awareness of social justice, love, hope, a desire to participate in intellectual work and the ability to shape the future (Nieto, 2003). Schooling in the United States is at times a contentious issue, as is the preparation of prospective teachers. Yet the promise is perhaps found in this unsettledness. Growth often develops as a result of different, but hopefully pooled, opinions. In the United States, schooling is at once an act of splendid coordination, and also a cacophony of elaborate jigsaw pieces. This is what makes the profession of teaching, in turn, such an intricate and stunning one. Deborah Meier has posed the question regarding the orchestration of teaching: ‘Will it be neat and orderly? Probably not. But democracy is

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 150

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

151

and ever was messy, problematic, and always a work in progress’ (Meier, 2003). A well-travelled path has evolved for schooling in the United States, yet we know that changes are ahead. The journey will continue to require reflection, collaboration, high standards, a commitment to equity, and the willingness to make adjustments and engage in change.

References Au, W. (2011). Teaching under the new Taylorism: High stakes testing and the standardization of the 21st century curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 43 (1), pp. 25–45. Barnes, H. (1991). Learning that grows with the learner: An introduction to Waldorf education. Educational Leadership, 49 (2), pp. 52–4. Bhattacharya, J., Currie, J. and Haider, S. J. (2006). Breakfast of champions? The school breakfast program and the nutrition of children and families. The Journal of Human Resources, 41 (3), pp. 445–66. Cooper, M. (2004). Robin Hood, Santa Claus, and financing for schools. New York Times, 5 June, p. 37. http://infotrac.com [accessed 9 March 2013]. Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. (2013). Draft of Next Generation Educator Preparation Accreditation Standards Released for Public Review. http://caepnet.org/ [accessed 9 March 2013]. Cybele, R. C. (2012). Low-income children’s self-regulation in the classroom: Scientific inquiry for social change. American Psychologist, 67 (8), pp. 681–9. Duffy, T. M. and Cunningham, D. J. (1996). Constructivism: Implications for the design and delivery of instruction. In D. H. Jonassen (ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology (pp. 170–98). New York: MacMillan Library Reference. Easton, F. (1997). Educating the whole child, ‘head, heart and hands’: Learning from the Waldorf experience. Theory into Practice, 36 (2), pp. 87–94. Edelman, M. W. and Engler, J. (2012). Meet the class of 2025. Education Week, 32 (3), pp. 16–17. Eisner, E. (2001). The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs (3rd edn). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Frey, A. and Wilson, M. (2009). The resegregation of public schools. Children & Schools, 10 (2), pp. 79–86. Giroux, H. A. and Penna, A. N. (1979). Social education in the classroom: The dynamics of the hidden curriculum. Theory and Research in Social Education, 7 (1), pp. 21–42. Gutek, G. L. (1997). Philosophical and Ideological Perspectives on Education (2nd edn). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 151

17/12/2013 09:38

152

Education in North America

Haney, R. M. (2010). Design for success: New configurations and governance models for Catholic schools. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 14 (2), pp. 195–211. Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L. and May, H. (2012). Retaining teachers: How preparation matters. Educational Leadership, 69 (8), pp. 30–4. Katz, M. (1976). A History of Compulsory Education Laws: Fastback series, no. 75, bicentennial series. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa. Kohn, A. (2004). Rebuilding school culture to make schools safer. The Education Digest, 70 (3), pp. 23–30. Kozol, J. (2005). Confections of apartheid continue in our schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 87, pp. 364–75. Kozol, J., Tatum, B., Eaton, S. and Gadara, P. (2010). Resegregation: What’s the answer? Educational Leadership, 68 (3), pp. 28–31. Letseka, M. (2012). In defence of Ubuntu. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 31, pp. 47–60. Marshall, J. (2003). Religion and education: Walking the line in public schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 85 (3), pp. 239–42. Martin, J. R. (1981). The ideal of the educated person. Educational Theory, 31 (2), pp. 97–109. —(1987). Reforming teacher education, rethinking liberal education. Teachers College Record, 88 (3), pp. 406–10. Massachusetts Board of Education (1838). First Annual Report of the Board of Education Together with the Third Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board. Boston, MA: Dutton and Wentworth. Meier, D. (2003). The road to trust. American School Board Journal, 190 (9), pp. 18–21. Meyer, D. L. (2009). The poverty of constructivism. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41 (3), pp. 332–41. Moore, J. (2011). Behaviorism. The Psychological Record, 61, pp. 449–64. National Catholic Educational Association (2013). http://ncea.org/about/index.asp [accessed 9 March 2013]. National Center for Educational Statistics (2009). Fast Facts. http://nces.ed.gov/ fastfacts/display.asp?id=91 [accessed 9 March 2013]. —(2012). The Condition of Education. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012045.pdf [accessed 9 March 2013]. Nieto, S. M. (2003). What keeps teachers going? Educational Leadership, 60 (8), pp. 14–18. No Child Left Behind Act (2013). http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index. htm [accessed 9 March 2013]. Race to the Top (2013). US Department of Education. Retrieved from http://www2. ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/legislation.html [accessed 9 March 2013]. Radoff, S. (2011). Crossing the borders of Plyler v. Doe: Students without documents and their right to rights. Educational Studies, 47, pp. 436–50.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 152

17/12/2013 09:38



Contemporary Schooling in the United States: An Overview

153

Ramsey, R. (2012). Messing with taxes carries risks. New York Times, 24 August. Retrieved from http://infotrac.com [accessed 9 March 2013]. Ravitch, D. (2009). Beyond testing. New York Times Magazine, 27 September. Retrieved from http://infotrac.com [accessed 9 March 2013]. Resmovits, J. (2013). Obama on pre-school education: Let’s give our kids that chance. Huffington Post, 14 February. Rix, K. (2012). Lessons from charter schools. Instructor, 121 (4), pp. 32–7. Samuels, C. (2011). Survey detects shifting priorities of school boards. Education Week, 30 (20), 1, 22. Sudbury Valley School (2013). http://sudval.org/ [accessed 9 March 2013]. The Montessori Foundation (2013). http://www.montessori.org/ [accessed 9 March 2013]. Torres, M. S., Brady, K. P. and Stefkovich, J. A. (2011). Student strip searches: The legal and ethical implications of Safford Unified School District v. Redding for school leaders. Journal of School Leaders, 21 (1), pp. 42–63. Ujifusa, A. (2012). More children in South said living in poverty. Education Week, 31 (31), 4. US Census (2013). Poverty Highlights. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/ about/overview/index.html [accessed 9 March 2013]. Waite, D. and Crockett, D. (1997). Whose education? Reform, culture, and an Amish Mennonite community. Theory into Practice, 36 (2), pp. 117–22. Walnut Hill School (2013). http://walnuthillarts.org/ [accessed 9 March 2013]. Wiggins, L. (2011). NAACP looks at resegregation of American schools. Crisis, 118 (1), pp. 40–1. Wren. D. J. (1999). School culture: Exploring the hidden curriculum. Adolescence, 34 (135), pp. 593–6. Yell, M. I., Ryan, J. B., Rozalski, M. E. and Katsiyannis, A. (2009). The US supreme court and special education: 2005 to 2007. Teaching Exceptional Children, 41 (3), pp. 69–75. Yoshikawa, H., Aber, J. L. and Beardslee, W. R. (2012). The effects of poverty on the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children and youth: Implications for prevention. American Psychologist, 67 (4), pp. 272–84. Zhao, Y. (2008). What knowledge has the most worth? Reconsidering how to cultivate skills in US students to meet the demands of global citizenry. The School Administrator, 74 (4), pp. 48–52.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 153

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 154

17/12/2013 09:38

7

Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States John L. Rury

Historians assign great value to sweeping, comprehensive narratives about the past, identifying pertinent details and providing fulsome descriptions of relevant context. Sometimes, however, it is useful to offer an overview or outline of historical change in a particular domain or field of endeavour. This chapter considers the history of US education in this light, examining five critical periods in its growth and development between the Revolutionary War and 1980. While hardly comprehensive, it can be an instructive exercise in interpreting the past and linking it to the present, an explicit or implicit object of all historical writing. Each section in the account to follow deals with a different interval in US educational development, one that featured changes in the way that education was conceived and its role in the life of the nation. This is not to say, of course, that important events did not occur at other times, but these appear to have been especially fertile moments of change. As such, they helped to set the stage for subsequent developments in ways that other occasions may not have. It is in this respect that each can be thought of as ‘critical’, as their influence can still be felt today, to one extent or another. Naturally, an account such as this must deal with a great length of time. In this case we start with the birth of the Republic, immediately following the Revolution. From there the narrative proceeds to the early nineteenth century, dealing with educational change in both the cities and the countryside, before moving on to progressive reform in the early twentieth century. It closes with discussion of the period following World War II up to about 1980, which embraced a host of remarkable developments, many of which still resonate today. Before getting to that point, however, it is necessary to look back to the close of the eighteenth century, when the founding generation of US leaders contemplated the role of education and schooling in forging a national identity.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 155

17/12/2013 09:38

156

Education in North America

Education for a new nation Among the most important issues facing the newly formed United States was the idea of citizenship for a new social order. The ideals of the Revolution suggested a political system of popular rule through periodic elections. Could the common man, poorly informed and subject to manipulation by elites, be relied on to uphold principles of fairness and integrity that were vital to the country’s future? The very idea of a popularly elected government was dismissed by many contemporaries as potentially disastrous (Brown, 1996; Tyack, 1967). Some revolutionary leaders felt that if the new nation was to succeed, education was essential. Voters, after all, had to be well informed. If democracy was to take root, popular education had to become an institution (Cremin, 1970). A modest number of proposals for establishing an educational system followed the Revolution. Seven of the new state constitutions made reference to schooling, and this prompted controversy. Jefferson proposed a famous plan for establishing publicly supported schools throughout Virginia, in a ‘Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge’ in 1779. His plan was never adopted, even after he reintroduced it later, but it reflected the significance attached to education by major figures of the age (Brown, 1989, 1996). One such leader was Benjamin Rush, who called for establishing schools across Pennsylvania, citing ‘fewer pillories and whipping posts and smaller jails’ among the chief benefits. Noah Webster, author of the first American dictionary and speller, also advocated universal free education to foster national unity. Webster called for schools to establish ‘an inviolable attachment to their country’ in the minds of children. (Rudolph, 1965; Welter, 1962). He also was an outspoken advocate for the education of women, highlighting their critical role in rearing leaders. Others shared these views, opening new opportunities for female schooling. These ideas represented a radical break with prevailing educational views and practices, which focused largely on religion and literacy, and helped to make education a widespread concern. Schools suddenly assumed new importance as agencies of political socialization (Lipset, 1979). On the other hand, these were proposals offered by political and cultural elites and the question of whether schools would actually perform such functions was a different matter. In fact, these calls for state-wide systems of education failed to be adopted. Schooling remained largely a local matter, as most people had far more pressing concerns to occupy their attention. But a new way of thinking about schooling

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 156

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

157

had been broached by the Revolution, and other changes were set in motion that had a more immediate impact on educational practices. In 1797 the federal government passed the famous Northwest Ordinance, which provided for the sale of public (federal) lands to support education as a condition for admitting new states to the union. Consequently, education was widely recognized as a legitimate and important function of governmental authority. The republican ideology of the new nation, holding that citizenship entailed responsibility and knowledge, dictated that schooling be made universally available, at least for those deemed eligible to be citizens (Meyer et al., 1979). These sentiments helped advance the cause of education and tied it directly to the fate of the nation.

Education in nineteenth-century cities The earliest publicly supported, non-church schools in US cities were called ‘charity schools’, designated for the children of the poor. These schools were intended to impart acceptable norms of behaviour along with basic lessons in literacy, mathematics, geography and other subjects. Started by civic-minded citizens, many quite wealthy, these schools began as smallscale institutions. Eventually they were managed by boards or similar governing bodies entrusted to govern the public schools. In this manner, by the mid–1800s most large cities possessed the rudiments of a public school system. With its New England roots, Boston boasted the most venerable public schools, but New York and Philadelphia also developed largescale systems in the opening decades of the century (Boyer, 1978; Kaestle, 1973a). Other cities followed suit. It was the problems faced by the larger cities that became sources of educational change. They fostered one of the first comprehensive systems for school organization and daily operation: Lancastrian education. English schoolmaster Joseph Lancaster posited that a single teacher could manage the education of hundreds of children by using older students as ‘monitors’ or teaching assistants. Most of the ‘instruction’ consisted of ‘dictation’, wherein the monitors pronounced words, phrases, or numerical problems that were written down en masse by the students and then inspected for accuracy. Monitors also listened while children recited reading selections or presented answers to exercises (Kaestle, 1973b). In employing these methods, the Lancastrian system of school organization demanded strict discipline and order. Students were given medals or prizes for achievement, and competition provided motivation. With students divided into ‘classes’ supervised by monitors, a single adult teacher could

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 157

17/12/2013 09:38

158

Education in North America

conduct a school with hundreds of children. It was well suited to the rapidly growing cities and the low budgets of the charity-school sponsors. This method appealed to reformers who believed it taught poor children good habits and respect for order. These schools also imparted punctuality and respect for authority, appropriate for work in factories (Hogan, 1989, 1992; Mohl, 1971). Lancaster’s system was adopted in many urban schools, in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other large cities. Following his death in 1838 it came under criticism for fostering competition and exploiting young assistants; by the middle of the century it had fallen out of favour. Even so, the preoccupation with order and routine remained predominant in city school systems. As new generations of poor and unruly children poured into city schoolhouses, the basic purposes of urban education changed little (Boyer, 1978; Kaestle, 1983). Charity schools were primary (or elementary) institutions, but secondary or high schools also became popular in cities during the nineteenth century. Private tutoring and academies prepared young men for college, so there was relatively little demand for high schools until well after the Revolution. When these schools finally appeared, however, they quickly became the dominant form of secondary education. Beginning in 1821 with the first Boston high school, these schools prepared students for many practical and academic purposes. Although attendance grew slowly, high schools eventually became one of the most important institutions of the nineteenth century (Reese, 1995). Most early urban public high schools admitted students by examination. This form of assessment was extended to children in elementary schools, often spanning an entire city. As such, high school exams offered a common standard of comparison for schools. Thus, high schools helped to establish and enforce academic standards for many large urban school systems (Beadie, 1999; Labaree, 1988). The high school, however, also was a controversial institution. They were quite costly, often occupying expensive buildings and paying higher salaries to teachers. Critics decried this, noting that relatively few students attended and that private academies provided similar services. High schools were attacked as little more than finishing schools supported with public monies. The fact that they offered a means of affirming social status for middle-class youth, however, contributed significantly to their popularity (Beadie and Tolley, 2002; Herbst, 1996). With the growth of public elementary and grammar schools taking over from the old charity institutions in the larger cities and the early development of public high schools, the principal elements of a modern education system

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 158

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

159

came into view. These developments were generally in place by the middle of the nineteenth century. In this respect, the nation’s urban centres were indeed incubators of educational change at a key point in history.

Transforming country schools Most Americans did not live in cities during the nineteenth century, however, and their schools also were seen as needing reform. The middle decades of the century were also a time of important changes in the rural common schools, led by an influential cadre of reformers. Their ideas affected city schools as well, but the impact was even greater in the countryside, where institutions often were more resistant to change. There certainly appeared to be room for improvement. Schools throughout the rural United States were isolated, open only a few months and taught by itinerant masters. They also had become quite numerous. A typical rural district school served an area of two to four square miles, populated by some 20 to 50 families. By the 1830s they dotted the countryside, especially in the north-east, serving millions of children (Fishlow, 1966; Larkin, 1988; Vinovskis, 1972). The process of change in most rural schools followed a generally similar pattern, particularly in the north. Reform advocates were intent on building institutions that could certify reliable criteria for achievement. Commercial farmers and local merchants, those connected to the market economy, often led the process of change. This appealed to parents who realized that their children had to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Some even suggested that investment in schools could make communities more attractive and possibly raise property values. With these ideas, school leaders worked to build a system of educational institutions that functioned efficiently and effectively (Kaestle, 1983; Parkerson and Parkerson, 1998). This did not mean, however, that controversy did not occur. Perhaps the most contentious issue was taxation of local property to support the schools. In many districts, long-standing custom dictated that parents voluntarily contribute to the schools. Reformers argued that taxes would provide stable financial support, but this idea met resistance. Educational reformers decried the poor condition in many rural districts, and inequity in schooling, but it took considerable effort to persuade everyone that improving local institutions was important (Binder, 1974; Kaestle, 1983). The idea of a coherent system of education was a key theme among reformers, to counter the problem of disparities from one locality to another.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 159

17/12/2013 09:38

160

Education in North America

Many offered a vision similar to ideas of charity-school founders; they sought greater efficiency and productivity in local schools. They also shared a concern with improving the quality of instruction. These ideas were influenced by the example of industry. Reformers saw the virtue of standardization in production and the superior technology of factories. It was a logic that reform-minded educators came to apply to systems of education (Hogan, 1990). The most famous proponent of commonschool reform was Horace Mann, a lawyer and state legislator who became Massachusetts’s Secretary of the State Board of Education in 1837. Mann tackled a range of issues and lobbied for new laws establishing the elements of a modern educational system (Curti, 1959; Messerli, 1972). Mann and other reformers focused on longer school terms, systematic examinations and minimum training requirements for teachers. In particular, Mann persuaded the Massachusetts legislature to establish the nation’s first publicly supported teacher training institution in 1838. Other such schools appeared in years to follow, providing professionally trained teachers to staff the common schools (Curti, 1959; Herbst, 1989; Kaestle, 1983). With changes such as these, by mid-century the nation’s rural schools were beginning to look similar to the urban institutions described earlier. Change was gradual, and reform took a while to reach remote parts of the country, particularly in the South. But the direction of change was clear. A new standard for public education had been established and it was a matter of time and continued agitation by reformers until institutions everywhere were affected.

The early twentieth century and progressive reform The years between 1890 and 1920 are often referred to as the Progressive Era, representing a sense of improvement in public life that many felt at the time. Among the more important issues was schooling, marked by new ideas and practices. In fact, a major current of reform propositions and innovations has been labelled ‘progressive education’ since then. This has been a recurring source of controversy and debate, and continues to inspire considerable disagreement today. It thus represents yet another critical point in the history of US education (Goldman, 1952; Hofstadter, 1955; May, 1964). By the twentieth century, the degree of industrial development and urban growth was unprecedented. Millions came to the United States to seek jobs; it was a time of increased international trade and population movement. Cultural diversity became characteristic of the largest cities, where dozens of languages could be heard on the streets. The social structure was becoming more complex,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 160

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

161

seemingly a sharp break with the past (Hays, 1995; Rodgers, 1998). These changes proved distressing to many citizens, a source of new anxieties and eventually a focal point for social reform (Wiebe, 1967). This was known as Progressivism, an effort to respond systematically to a new era of industrial development and urban growth. Reform touched on many aspects of life, but few issues were affected as much as education. It was a characteristically American response to new challenges: inventing new institutional mechanisms to mediate the impact of social change. Of course, there were many ways of addressing problems and progressive school reform included different types of change, some quite contradictory in spirit. Consequently, there was disagreement about school reform. Like progressivism writ large, it was a broad and diverse movement, embracing many disparate viewpoints (Cremin, 1961). Historians have identified two broad impulses in educational reform at the time. The first was a humanitarian disposition to make schools more responsive to children, and connected with their immediate communities. Identified with such figures as John Dewey, Francis Parker and William Heard Kilpatrick, this movement was a prominent strand of reform. This group has been described as ‘pedagogical progressives’, those interested in changing instructional practice. A second group was less idealistic by temperament and more concerned with issues of efficiency, carefully aligning the purposes of schooling with the needs of the economy. These have been labelled ‘administrative progressives’, because they were concerned with improving the organizational structure and functions of institutions. Historically, administrative progressives exerted enormous influence on the development of schooling. Accordingly, terms such as efficiency, management and vocationalism became important educational watchwords. These too were a legacy of progressivism (Tyack, 1974). In many respects, the differences represented by these groups of reformers were vast, and their leaders sometimes engaged in sharp debates. For the most part, however, they managed to coexist, largely because their interests were quite different. As suggested earlier, pedagogical progressives were especially interested in issues of teaching and how children learn, along with links between schools and communities. Their primary focus was inside the classroom, and on issues of personal growth and understanding. It also is probably accurate to say that their greatest influence was felt in primary education, especially for younger children. Administrative progressives, on the other hand, devoted greater attention to matters outside the classroom, especially the organization of schools, the purposes of various curricula and measuring ability. They aimed

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 161

17/12/2013 09:38

162

Education in North America

to set broad parameters for instructional tasks, leaving performance to the teachers, whereas pedagogical progressives tried to guide and inspire teachers to improve their methods and outcomes (Kliebard, 1986; Labaree, 2010). Of course, the reality is that most educators took inspiration from both camps, without seeing them as necessarily at odds. Consequently, elements from either side often were adopted pragmatically to move schools forward (Graham, 1974; Zilversmit, 1993). A related reform that inspired considerable conflict was rural school consolidation, combining small districts to form larger units. Despite rapid urbanization, millions of children still attended one-room schools. Administrative reformers decried these institutions as lacking the benefits of modern facilities. Even when well maintained, they were criticized for not providing a comprehensive curriculum and activities for children of different ages. Bigger schools were deemed more efficient and inclusive. These points were difficult to refute, but many rural communities fought to defend their schools regardless. Thousands of these institutions were consolidated, yet many saw the tiny schools as a link to the past. In these cases, efficiency was considered a poor substitute for shared traditions. Eventually, the advent of gasoline-powered school buses, allowing children from widely dispersed areas to be brought together, speeded up the process of consolidation considerably (Zimmerman, 2008). Administrative changes gave rise to new forms of school management and control: Bureaucracy. This allocated power and assets in ways that appeared rational and objective, representing values of impartiality and competence. In the late nineteenth century it was a means to forestall corruption and political interference in the schools. As urban education systems grew larger and more centralized, bureaucratic forms of administration proliferated. Complex regulations dictated purchasing and distribution practices, implementing economies of scale and cost-saving practices. The administrative progressives who designed these systems of control believed they were realizing the greatest good from limited assets. In the words of David Tyack, they attempted to build the ‘one best system’ of school administration, a superior approach to management (Katz, 1971; Tyack, 1974). A corollary to this was the development of standardized psychological testing. It was well suited to a bureaucratic preference for clear, seemingly unbiased rules about utilizing resources (Joncich, 1968; Lagemann, 2000; Minton, 1988). During World War I the seemingly practical use of such measures was demonstrated when the US Army administered IQ tests to draftees to help determine eligibility for various types of training. By the later 1920s thousands of school

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 162

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

163

districts employed standardized tests to judge students’ suitability for particular programmes, to justify curricular decisions, or simply as information for teachers and parents. Perhaps most importantly, the use of these testing instruments lent legitimacy to the idea that student abilities differed widely, and that prized social and economic opportunities simply were not appropriate for everyone (Brown, 1992; Cravens, 1993). The early twentieth century also witnessed rapid growth for the high school. Enrolments stood at about 300,000 in 1890 and by 1930 the number had increased to nearly 5 million, almost half the teenage population. Much of this reflected a remarkable increase in institutions: on average, a new secondary school was established nearly every day between 1890 and 1930. By the 1920s, most communities outside the South had access to some form of secondary education, typically through a nearby public high school (Goldin and Katz, 1999; Herbst, 1996). There also was debate about secondary schooling. This culminated in a famous report, The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education, by the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education. Issued in 1918, it offered a new vision for secondary education: the comprehensive high school. Unlike earlier reports that emphasized academic goals, the Cardinal Principles advocated a curriculum focused on socialization and community spirit. It called for educating students within a single institution, in vocational programmes and pre-collegiate courses, as well as general or commercial classes. Students could intermingle, however, in such courses as citizenship, physical education, and health and hygiene (Angus and Mirel, 1999). In advocating this, the commission hoped to help secondary schools preserve the democratic ideals of public education, while addressing the importance of efficiency and the diversity of student interests (Cremin, 1961; Herbst, 1996). During the early twentieth century, the economic impact of the high school was significant. There is considerable evidence that secondary education contributed to change in the economy, a shift from industrial employment to whitecollar jobs. This was the early glimmering of a post-industrial society, and at its centre was the development of the educational system (Goldin and Katz, 2008). At the same time, a major transformation occurred in higher education. The old-time college, which had proliferated during the nineteenth century and emphasized a classical curriculum, gave way to modern research universities. These new institutions were governed by an ethic of investigation and discovery, along with engagement with the larger society. The leaders of this movement were elite Eastern private institutions and the flagship state universities of the Midwest and Pacific Coast.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 163

17/12/2013 09:38

164

Education in North America

By the 1920s it became fashionable for middleclass youth, women and men alike, to attend these schools, both for a lively social scene and to gain useful credentials. Enrolments mounted quickly as students found that higher education opened pathways to jobs in business, government and the professions. Even though attendance remained a small fraction of high school students, it was a harbinger of the future (Fass, 1977; Veysey, 1965). This was a direct reflection of expansion in secondary education, and better linkages between high schools and colleges. For better or worse, public education was drawn ever closer to the practical world of commerce and professional life. In this way it was providing training, critical knowledge and advanced skills for the nation’s future leaders (Geiger, 1986; Levine, 1986). The progressive era, in that case, witnessed important changes at all levels of the education system. Indeed, by the end of this period the nation finally had a well-integrated system of educational institutions extending from the primary grades through the university. The system may not have been fully developed in all parts of the country, particularly in the South, but the basic structure of the contemporary school system, complete with bureaucratic management, had finally come into existence. Subsequent developments in the history of US schooling would build upon these accomplishments.

The post-war era through the 1970s The decades following World War II marked an extensive transformation in popular life, and in the nation’s schools. It was a period of astounding technological advances and equally dramatic shifts in social policy. Among the most striking features of the period was a growing importance attached to formal education, both as a matter of public policy and as a private concern. The federal government became a major source of funding and policy initiatives, and schooling developed into an important issue in national politics. At the same time, more Americans attended schools than ever. This helped set the stage for a growing concern over equity in education, and making the school system open to all citizens. Progressive education fell out of favour during the 1950s, partly due to public concerns about academic discipline and standards of achievement. More importantly, there also was a gradual liberalization of racial ideas, partly due to wartime opposition to Nazi theories of racial supremacy and post-war concerns about the US image abroad. The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring segregated schools to be inherently unequal, was

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 164

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

165

a milestone of national educational policy and popular conceptions of social justice. It also was a defining moment for the modern Civil Rights movement, altering the ideological tenor of public life (Ravitch, 1983). The Brown decision was widely hailed as a turning point in race relations, but its immediate impact was more symbolic than substantive. African Americans had suffered cruel and relentless discrimination in education since the Civil War. Conditions improved somewhat in the early twentieth century, largely due to philanthropic support of black schooling, but most whites gave little thought to the problems of African Americans. It was not until the post-war era and the threat of litigation to end segregation that Southern states began to re-examine policies that provided meagre resources to black schools (Rury and Hill, 2012). Resistance to Brown was immediate across much of the South and change was incremental elsewhere. Instead of ushering in a new era of school integration, the decision proved more important as a foundation for subsequent cases challenging segregation and inequity. This was especially true during the 1960s and 1970s, as the NAACP and other civil rights groups confronted school policies in a wide variety of settings. These cases dramatically changed US education, especially in major cities where residential segregation had long dictated educational inequities. Legal challenges eventually brought a dramatic end to racial segregation in Southern public schools, making them the most integrated institutions in the country by the early 1970s. Even if it took nearly two decades following Brown for this to finally occur, there can be little doubt that it represented a critical turning point in the history of US education (Patterson, 2003). Race figured in social and educational policy discussions in yet other ways. The first was the changing racial and ethnic composition of the nation’s larger metropolitan areas. Most African Americans lived in the rural South prior to World War II, but demand for labour combined with the mechanization of farming led to massive migration to urban areas. With the movement of millions in the post-war era, big city public schools systems soon became divided along racial lines. A broad movement against segregated schooling, based on principles expressed in Brown, prompted controversy and change in the cities. Despite the work of idealistic educators, growing inequalities in the type and quality of education eventually came to characterize metropolitan life across the country (Kantor and Brenzel, 1993). If the public believed that one purpose of the public school was to bring students from different backgrounds together, it was an ideal that received a stern test during this era (Conant, 1961). Given these dynamics, race came to affect the organization of metropolitan life in ways that other facets of social inequality, such as ethnicity or social class,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 165

17/12/2013 09:38

166

Education in North America

did not. Blacks often were forcefully kept separate from whites (Massey and Denton, 1993). African Americans who attempted to leave segregated ghettos were met with hostility, while ‘redlining’ mortgage policies and restrictive covenants barred many from settling in better neighbourhoods. Educational resources, of course, were also unequally distributed. Schools in black neighbourhoods tended to be overcrowded, with larger classes and fewer experienced teachers than elsewhere. Graduation rates were lower and fewer students went on to college. These inequities led to extensive conflict during the 1960s and 1970s and beyond. There were other facets of city life that exacerbated these issues. At the same time that African Americans arrived in central cities, other residents had just started to leave. World War II had barely ended when a grand migration to suburbia began. Pressured by housing shortages and encouraged by public policies that stimulated building freeways and maintaining cheap gas, whites began flocking to newly opened developments on the fringes of urban areas. The movement continued thereafter, and by 1980 only 40 per cent of metro residents lived in core cities, with the rest in surrounding suburbs (Jackson, 1985; Teaford, 1990). It was a dramatic change in the spatial organization of the nation’s principal urbanized areas. The proportion of central city residents who were white diminished each decade after 1950, falling from more than 80 per cent to about a third in the 1980s. The black population increased rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, levelling off at about a third of central city residents, and the number of Hispanics increased significantly after 1970. Poverty levels increased sharply among all groups of city residents, but particularly among African Americans. This was a consequence of discrimination, poor education and declining economic opportunities, but it also reflected the fact that so many blacks were crowded into poor ghettos. This was part of what had become known as the ‘urban crisis’ during the 1960s, and it has continued to the present (Rury and Hill, 2012). The growth of metropolitan areas also meant that many formerly rural districts were incorporated into the suburbs. This made suburban districts larger and financially stronger. With growing wealth in these settings, the schools improved, eventually gaining significant advantages over urban institutions (Rury and Saatcioglu, 2011). Metropolitan inequality became increasingly evident in the 1960s and 1970s, spurred by suburbanization and residential segregation. The fiscal condition of large urban districts declined as the middleclass tax base eroded, and the academic reputation of schools in many cities suffered as a consequence (Dougherty, 2008; Katzman, 1971).

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 166

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

167

It did not take long for federal authorities to recognize this. In 1965, following enactment of sweeping civil rights and anti-poverty legislation, President Lyndon Johnson oversaw passage of the nation’s most comprehensive federal education bill: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This was an integral part of Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty’, a defining policy initiative of his presidency. The ESEA went far beyond other measures defining federal involvement in the schools, such as the 1958 National Defense Education Act (Kaestle, 2001). A critical element of ESEA spoke directly to the problem of financial inequity, as Title 1 of the act provided federal dollars to schools serving students from poverty backgrounds. This proved a benefit to central city school districts, as well as other poor areas, providing a critical supplement to property tax revenues (Nelson, 2005; Ravitch, 1983). In the later 1960s and 1970s, many state legislatures adopted similar financial formulas for providing state aid to schools. Although these new elements of funding did not completely erase differences between city and suburban schools, they eventually narrowed the spending gap by as much as half. Even if there still were significant disparities, federal and state laws made them considerably less severe. This was a major step in the development of liberal social policy. It helped to restore the principle that public education ought to be equal everywhere (Nelson, 2005; Hummel and Nagle, 1973). Title 1, however, was just the beginning; there were additional initiatives by the Johnson administration. Perhaps the best known was Head Start, a preschool programme aimed at boosting the achievement of children from poor families. Head Start proved popular from the very beginning and by the 1970s more than a million children were enrolled each year. Like Title 1, Head Start represented a historically new approach to addressing inequality in education: providing compensatory programmes and funding to make schooling more equitable (Davies, 2007; Vinovskis, 2005). The post-war era also witnessed the appearance of a vibrant, pervasive and commercially expansive youth culture. Following the war, birth rates soared, as men (and women) returning from the military began to settle into family life. This was the historically large ‘baby boom’ generation, which created a large cohort of teenagers by the 1960s (Macunovich, 2002). It was the leading edge of the new youth culture. Teens also shaped the evolution of courtship practices, especially as they became interested in sexuality and relationships. With growing high school attendance in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by rising college enrolments, educational institutions became the site where these emerging forms of adolescent culture would appear most rapidly. Youth also

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 167

17/12/2013 09:38

168

Education in North America

became politically active in support of the Civil Rights movement and a popular protest movement against the Vietnam War. This gave rise to what was widely described at the time as ‘the generation gap’, a widespread challenge to adult authority (Modell, 1989). The baby boomers went to college in record numbers, leading to a massive expansion of campuses across the country. Enrolments grew from less than 1.5 million in 1940 to more than 11 million in 1980, a rate of increase that approached 800 per cent. While fewer than one in 12 US youth attended college in 1940, four decades later the number was more than a third. At the same time, the characteristics of the student body changed. The number of women students increased from a low of 30 per cent to a slight majority, and minority students (including African Americans, Hispanics and Asians) went from fewer than 5 per cent to more than 15 per cent. As a consequence, the college campus changed from a site reserved for a relatively elite portion of society to one frequented by a broad cross-section of youth (Kim and Rury, 2007). Partly as a result of these changes, college campuses became sites of political controversy and social unrest. Students demanded greater access for minority groups and new curricular offerings, eventually leading to the creation of programmes in Black Studies and other fields. University policies of Affirmative Action, emanating from the Higher Education Act of 1965, were intended to boost minority student enrolment, but also became points of controversy. Special programmes were established for women, particularly in collegiate athletics, but in other areas too. Controversy regarding Affirmative Action was addressed to some extent in the University of California v. Bakke decision by the US Supreme Court, which held that such policies were permissible but not strict quotas for minority students. While this provided judicial support for Affirmative Action policies, the issue remained a point of controversy, leading to further court cases in decades to follow (Ravitch, 1983). The post-war years marked a time when the relationship between education and social change became quite complex. As a matter of social policy, schools increasingly were called on to address questions of economic and social inequality. At the same time, the nation’s educational system was itself profoundly affected by ideological shifts, and by underlying patterns of economic and demographic change. Even as schooling assumed greater importance, the questions of its availability and quality became vital concerns. Given these dynamics, there can be little doubt that the relationship between education and social change in this period was complex and eventful.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 168

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

169

Education and the uses of history It is always natural to wonder about the relevance of the history, but examining the tumultuous years of the post-war period sheds light on many questions that still face schools and educators today. Race and inequality, for instance, continue to be critical issues, along with the rights of women and ethnic minority groups, especially Hispanics. Questions of high school graduation rates and access to college still generate headlines, and political debates rage about levels of federal involvement in public schooling, long seen as a prerogative of local communities. These issues are unlikely to disappear anytime soon. While it may be easy to see the evidence of historical change in questions such as these, it is possible to see the imprint of earlier times as well. The basic purposes of schools hearken back to the founding fathers and debates about the role of education in the new republic. A fundamental purpose of public schooling today is the preparation of citizens for a democratic society, a role that has grown considerably more complex and challenging. Just as urban schools were incubators of change in the early nineteenth century, educational reform is still focused to a large extent on intuitions in the nation’s largest cities. It is these sites where the problems of socio-economic inequity and cultural diversity are greatest, as in the past. Common school reform swept the nation in the nineteenth century, and in the twenty-first century it was ‘No Child Left Behind’. There are many points that distinguish these reform impulses, but both shared an abiding concern with the needs of all children, together within the public schools. Progressive education also brought many reforms that continue to resonate today, especially the bureaucratic systems of management that continue to operate in school systems. The ideals of John Dewey and other progressive reformers continue to animate educators around the globe, stimulating new experiments in teaching and learning. In these ways and many more, the turning points discussed above have left indelible marks on today’s schools. History continues to live in the present, which cannot be fully comprehended without a historical perspective. History’s influence did not end, of course, with the issues addressed here. There have been additional turning points in US education, and others doubtless will appear in the future. There is little question that a report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, commissioned by Secretary of Education Terrence Bell in 1983, ‘A Nation at Risk’, marked such a moment. This document helped to stimulate a national campaign to improve the quality of schooling, especially by raising standards of performance in public schools. Today historians mark the beginning of the contemporary standards movement

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 169

17/12/2013 09:38

170

Education in North America

at the point when this report was released. It appears that its influence will be evident for years to come. Like this, each of the turning points discussed herein is worthy of additional investigation. All show the inherent complexity, manifold interests and variety of perspectives evident in education today, and exploring them further can only enhance our understanding of the present.

References Angus, D. and Mirel, J. (1999). The Failed Promise of American High School, 1890–1995. New York: Teachers College Press. Beadie, N. (1999). From student markets to credential markets: The creation of the regents examination system in New York state, 1864–1890. History of Education Quarterly, 39 (1), pp. 1–30. Beadie, N. and Tolley, K. (eds) (2002) Chartered Schools: Two Hundred Years of Independent Academies in the United States, 1727–1925. New York: Routledge/Falmer. Binder, F. M. (1974). The Age of the Common School: 1830–1865. New York: Wiley –Blackwell. Boyer, P. S. (1978). Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820–1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Brown, J. A. (1992). The Definition of a Profession: The Authority of Metaphor in the History of Intelligence Testing, 1890–1930. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Brown, R. D. (1989). Knowledge is Power: The Diffusion of Information in Early America, 1700–1865. New York: Oxford University Press. —(1996). The Strength of a People: The Idea of an Informed Citizenry in America, 1650–1870. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Conant, J. B. (1961). Slums and suburbs: A commentary on schools in metropolitan areas. New York: McGraw Hill. Cravens, H. (1993). Before Head Start: The Iowa Station and America’s Children. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Cremin, L. A. (1961). The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876–1957. New York: Knopf. —(1970). American Education; The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783. New York: Harper & Row. Curti, M. E. (1959). The social ideas of American educators, with new chapter on the last twenty five years. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams. Davies, G. (2007). See Government Grow: Education Politics From Johnson to Reagan. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Dougherty, J. (2008). Bridging the gap between urban, suburban, and educational history. In W. J. Reese and J. L. Rury (eds), Rethinking the History of American Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 248–60.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 170

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

171

Fass, P. S. (1977). The damned and the beautiful: American youth in the 1920’s. New York: Oxford University Press. Fishlow, A. (1966). Level of nineteenth century investment in education. Journal of Economic History, 26, pp. 418–36. Geiger, R. L. (1986). To advance knowledge: The growth of American research universities, 1900–1940. New York: Oxford University Press. Geiger, R. L. (1993). Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II. New York: Oxford University Press. Goldin, C. and Katz, L. F. (1999). Human capital and social capital: The rise of secondary schooling in America, 1910–1940. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 29 (4), pp. 683–723. Goldin, C. and Katz, L. F. (2008). The Race Between Education and Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008. Goldman, E. E. (1952). Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform. New York, Knopf. Graham, P. A. (1974). Community and Class in American Education, 1865–1918. New York: Wiley. Hays, S. P. (1995). The Response to Industrialism, 1885–1914. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Herbst, J. (1989). And Sadly Teach: Teacher Education and Professionalization in American Culture. Madison, WS: University of Wisconsin Press. —(1996). The Once and Future School: Three Hundred and Fifty Years of American Secondary Education. New York: Routledge. Hofstadter, R. (1955). The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F. D. R. New York: Knopf. Hogan, D. (1989). The market revolution and disciplinary power: Joseph Lancaster and the psychology of the early classroom system. History of Education Quarterly, 29 (3), pp. 381–417. —(1990). Modes of discipline: Affective individualism and pedagogical reform in New England, 1820–1850. American Journal of Education, 99 (1), pp. 1–56. —(1992). Examinations, merit, and morals: the market revolution and disciplinary power in Philadelphia’s public schools, 1838–1868. Historical Studies in Education, 4, pp. 31–78. Hummel, R. C. and Nagle, J. M. (1973). Urban Education: Problems and Prospects. New York: Oxford University Press. Jackson, K. (1985). The Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. Joncich, G. M. (1968). The sane positivist: A biography of Edward L. Thorndike. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Kaestle, C. F. (1973a). The Evolution of an Urban School System: New York City, 1750–1850. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. —(1973b). Joseph Lancaster and the Monitorial School Movement: A Documentary History. New York: Teachers College Press.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 171

17/12/2013 09:38

172

Education in North America

—(1983). Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780–1860. New York: Hill and Wang. —(2001). Federal aid to education since World War II: Purposes and politics. In J. Jennings (ed.), The future of the federal role in elementary and secondary education, Washington, DC: Center on Education Policy, pp. 13–35. Kantor, H. and Brenzel, B. (1993). Urban education and the ‘Truly Disadvantaged’: The historical roots of the contemporary crisis, 1945–1990. In M. B. Katz (ed.), The Underclass Debate: Views from History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 366–401. Katz, M. B. (1971). Class, Bureaucracy, and Schools: The Illusion of Educational Change in America. New York: Praeger. Katzman, M. T. (1971). The Political Economy of Urban Schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kim, D. and Rury, J. L. (2007). The changing profile of college access: The Truman Commission and enrollment patterns in the postwar era. History of Education Quarterly, 48 (2), pp. 302–27. Kliebard, H. M. (1986). The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893–1958. Boston, MA: Routledge & Keegan Paul. Labaree, D. F. (1988). The Making of an American High School: The Credentials Market and the Central High School of Philadelphia, 1838–1939. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. —(2010). Someone Has to Fail: The Zero Sum Game of Public Schooling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Larkin, J. (1988). The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790–1840. New York: Harper & Row. Levine, D. O. (1986). The American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 1915–1940. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Lipset, S. M. (1979). The First New Nation: The United States in Historical and Comparative Perspective. New York: Norton. Macunovich, D. L. (2002) Birth Quake: The Baby Boom and its Aftershocks. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Massey, D. and Denton, N. (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. May, E. R. (1964). The Progressive Era: 1901–1917. New York: Time, Inc. Messerli, J. (1972). Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Meyer, J. W., Tyack, D., Nagel, J. and Gordon, A. (1979). Public education as nationbuilding in America: Enrollments and bureaucratization in the American states, 1870–1930. American Journal of Sociology, 85 (3), pp. 591–613. Minton, H. L. (1988). Lewis M. Terman: Pioneer in psychological testing. New York: New York University Press. Modell, J. (1989). Into One’s Own: From Youth to Adulthood in the United States, 1920–1975. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Mohl, R. A. (1971). Poverty in New York, 1783–1825. New York: Oxford University Press.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 172

17/12/2013 09:38



Turning Points: Critical Periods in Educating the United States

173

Nelson, A. (2005). The Elusive Ideal: Equal Educational Opportunity and the Federal Role in Boston’s Public Schools, 1950–1985. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Parkerson, D. and Parkerson, J. A. (1998). The Emergence of the Common School in the US Countryside. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen. Patterson, J. T. (2003). Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press. Ravitch, D. (1983). The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980. New York: Basic Books. Reese, W. J. (1995). The Origins of the American High School. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Rodgers, D. T. (1998). Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Rudolph, F. (1965). Essays on Education in the Early Republic; Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram, Simeon Doggett, Samuel Harrison Smith, AmableLouisRose de Lafitte du Courteil, Samuel Knox. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Rury, J. L. and Hill, S. A. (2012). The African American Struggle for Secondary Schooling, 1940–1980: Closing the Graduation Gap. New York: Teachers College Press. Rury, J. L. and Saatcioglu, A. (2011). ‘Suburban Advantage: Opportunity Hoarding and Secondary Attainment in the Postwar Metropolitan North,’ American Journal of Education, 117, pp. 307–42. Teaford, J. C. (1990). Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940–1985. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Tyack, D. B. (1967). George Ticknor and the Boston Brahmins. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. —(1974). The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Veysey, L. R. (1965). The emergence of the American university. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Vinovskis, M. A. (1972). Trends in Massachusetts education, 1826–1860. History of Education Quarterly, 12 (4), pp. 501–29. —(2005) The Birth of Head Start: Preschool Education Policies in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Welter, R. (1962). Popular Education and Democratic Thought in America. New York: Columbia University Press. Wiebe, R. H. (1967). The Search for Order, 1877–1920. New York: Hill and Wang. Zilversmit, A. (1993). Changing Schools: Progressive Education Theory and Practice, 1930–1960. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Zimmerman, J. (2008). Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 173

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 174

17/12/2013 09:38

8

Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges Ronnie Casella

Since the 1960s, education reform has focused primarily on urban areas. This was especially true if the concerns were underachievement among students of colour, lack of school resources and funding inequities, the effects of poverty on schools, and the challenges of educating students who speak languages other than English. The focus exclusively on urban schools was justified, because, throughout the late nineteenth to the mid–late twentieth centuries, suburbs were relatively prosperous and well supported by federal initiatives, and therefore their schools were often of high quality. Jackson (1985) noted that, even in the late nineteenth century, outer boroughs of urban centres were reaping benefits associated with utilities, trams and trollies, sewers, and housing, often paid for by public expenditures, benefiting a new class of outskirt city dwellers. Later in the twentieth century, various incentives promoted suburbanization, including subsidized road and highway expansion, federally guaranteed home mortgages with low interest rates, inexpensive cars and gasoline, and relocation of businesses to suburban areas. This left cities facing great challenges, which included severe concentrations of poverty, plummeting housing prices, tax base problems, gang-related violence, and underachievement among poor and minority students. By the end of the twentieth century, Kozol (1991), Anyon (1997), and other writers were examining in sometimes lurid and startling detail the problems that urban school administrators and teachers confronted. However, if we were to continue this focus on urban schools, we would lose sight of one significant detail: those problems associated with urban schools are no longer specifically urban school problems. Suburbs, especially inner-ring suburbs – those towns that directly border urban centres – are experiencing the greatest increases in diversity and poverty levels (Hanlon, 2009; Reardon and Yun, 2001). In recent years, the exodus of mostly white and middle-class people

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 175

17/12/2013 09:38

176

Education in North America

from the cities has waned, and there is some evidence that urban centres and their schools are becoming more attractive to the prosperous, the young and the professional (Leichenko, 2001; Ryan 2010). Meanwhile, many suburbs have experienced an influx of Hispanics, eastern Europeans, African Americans and others who are sometimes turning once-white suburbs into more racially and socio-economically diverse extensions of the cities they border. This has been occurring for about 30 years with hardly any reference to it in education policy discourse. In 1990, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians comprised about 19 per cent of the population of suburbs in the United States. In only one decade, the numbers of these groups in suburbs increased 8 per cent to over a quarter of the population (Berube and Kneebone, 2006). The increase in diversity has also been accompanied by increases in poverty levels. Between 1980 and 1990, median family income declined faster in one-third of suburbs than in the cities they border (Lucy and Phillips, 2000). The belief that the poor are concentrated in cities is no longer true, or, at the very least, is more complex than it was in the past. By 2005, 53 per cent of poor residents in metropolitan areas lived in the suburbs, not in the cities (Berube and Kneebone, 2006). A metropolitan area consists of a city and its immediate surroundings, which includes bordering towns distinct from the city. In the late twentieth century, the United States had many prosperous suburbs bordering poor cities. While this remains true in many cases, this chapter will explore a newer phenomenon. Increasingly the divide between cities and suburbs is blurring, and suburbs, especially those closest to cities, are experiencing many of the problems that cities have experienced, including poverty, segregation and deterioration of public services, including schools. This increase in suburban poverty levels, and other associated problems, creates a snowball effect. As more stable families feel threatened by falling housing prices and what they perceive as a deterioration of their neighbourhoods, they search for housing in the outer suburbs, or what are called exurbs. Exurbs are those areas just beyond or at the very edge of a metropolitan area. Without state and national policies to counteract the movement of people to the exurbs, the exodus continues and the problems in the inner-ring suburbs grow. Greater numbers of residents leave to the exurbs and take with them their tax revenue, professional expertise, sometimes their businesses, their buying power that supports local businesses, the stability of their families, and other entities that keep a community strong and vibrant. In essence, inner-ring suburbs face the same kinds of problem that cities faced a half-century ago during the era of ‘white flight’. Feelings of prejudice and lack of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 176

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

177

understanding motivate the flight from the suburbs. But also, flight is reflective of a reality that is relatively new to the US: that our suburbs are in fact becoming more diverse and rates of poverty are increasing, straining neighbourhoods and public services, including schools. This chapter will provide statistics to demonstrate how suburbs are changing; explain the changes and how individual choice, court decisions and policy contribute to the changes; and finally, discuss the challenges to suburban schools and the kinds of policy that may help to counteract the struggles that many suburban schools confront.

Increasing diversity in suburbs Naturally, a major reason for the increased diversity in suburbs is that diversity itself is growing in the United States. The Hispanic population grew by 43 per cent between 2000 and 2010; this accounted for over half of the increase in population in the United States during this time (Humes et al., 2011). The Asian population experienced the greatest rate of growth, increasing from about 10 million individuals to over 14 million between 2000 and 2010, an increase of about 43.3 per cent. Meanwhile, the white population has had the slowest rate of growth, at about 1.2 per cent (Humes et al., 2011). Increased diversity occurred in all areas of the United States, but was especially strong in the South and West. By 2010, minorities were 47 per cent of the population in the West and 40 per cent in the South (Humes et al., 2011). There are a number of reasons why certain areas are experiencing greater Hispanic growth. To some extent, proximity to Mexico and Central and South America contributes to the increase in the South and West. But equally important is the fact that networks of Hispanics and other groups have found a stronghold in places that would not have seemed possible decades ago. Various racial and ethnic groups have created strong networks in suburban and even rural areas. Once groups create a network in a particular area, more individuals, primarily other family members, can also settle in that area (Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, 2008). In the early twentieth century, immigrants created communities in cities that gave rise in New York City, for example, to Spanish Harlem, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Jewish Lower East Side, but, more recently, racial and ethnic networks have developed outside of cities, and these networks act as a kind of anchor for other family members to join. Diversity has also increased in suburbs because more people are living in metropolitan areas than in the past, clustering themselves around cities, where

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 177

17/12/2013 09:38

178

Education in North America

there is employment not only in the cities themselves, but also in the suburbs where office parks and businesses have become more common. By 2010, over four-fifths of the US population lived in the nation’s 366 metropolitan areas (Mackun and Wilson, 2011). Counties that contained a city of 50,000 people or more grew twice as fast as counties with cities or towns with between 10,000 and 50,000 people. All ten of the most populous metropolitan areas in 2010 grew over the decade, with Houston, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, DC and Miami the fastest growing. By 2010, nearly one in ten people in the United States lived in the two most populous metropolitan areas – New York and Los Angeles (Ryan, 2010). The greatest growth in metropolitan areas occurred in the suburbs. This is mostly because suburban employment has been strong in recent years. Starting in the 1980s, the United States experienced the emergence of the office park accompanied by the decline of the city office and factory. For example, suburbs around Atlanta, Phoenix and Dallas blossomed with service sector and technology jobs. Meanwhile, with better technology, more people were able to work from home, minimizing the need to live near one’s workplace. The dwindling city population and lack of employment opportunities propelled suburban growth, as well, drawing people from the cities to the suburbs, but also from other parts of the country to particular growing suburbs (Leichenko, 2001). In addition, employment and population stagnation in the Northeast fuelled a kind of white-collar migration to suburbs in the South, mid-Atlantic region, and Southwest, where the cost of living was less expensive and jobs more plentiful. Ultimately, a number of factors have contributed to a very different social landscape in the United States, one that has changed communities and their schools. First, diversity has increased substantially, especially the Hispanic population. Our term ‘minority’ is already nonsensical in some states, such as New Mexico, where the Hispanic population exceeds the white population. Meanwhile, metropolitan areas have grown in population. Since the 1990s, the general trend has been this: rural areas were more likely to lose population, cities were more likely to remain stagnant or to grow nominally, and suburbs grew substantially. Suburban growth was fuelled by personal preferences for homes, more space, quiet, as well as greater employment opportunities, which itself was impelled by a narrow range of job opportunities and decreasing or stagnant population growth in cities. When we put these factors together, we get a new kind of suburb. In many cases, they are no longer the lily-white, middleclass enclaves of Levittown; rather, they are bustling, more diverse, mini-urban

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 178

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

179

areas now experiencing the kind of vibrancy that cities once had, along with a host of problems that test the resourcefulness and adaptability of towns and their schools. Among the problems is the increase in poverty levels that accompanies the spike in diversity. Also, growing diversity does not necessarily mean greater racial integration. In many cases, suburbs are becoming increasingly segregated (Frankenberg and Orfield, 2012). This is occurring within towns (with racial groups coalescing in particular parts of town) and between towns with the formation of mostly white and mostly non-white suburbs that often border each other (Frankenberg, 2012). Also, poverty and diversity is growing fastest among the young, meaning that schools are often more diverse than the towns themselves, and therefore what towns must contend with is magnified at the school level (Hochschild and Scovronick, 2005). Suburbs that were once the hallmark of the American dream are now likely to experience unstable housing prices, drug-related criminality, gangs, traffic and strains on public services (Monti, 1994). All of these changes are compounded because they seem rather new to suburban administrations, and therefore there are few policies in place to deal with the demographic shifts. Additionally, suburban populations sometimes ignore the changes, or flee from them, and sometimes resist the needed changes and policies, due in part to prejudice and fear. But to ignore the changes, and to resist the needed reforms, hurts the young and old alike, for in the coming years the young will carry the weight of an increasingly older population expecting the social entitlements that the young workforce will have to support. Without a strong educational system, all will suffer.

Schools and suburbs According to Census Bureau projections, the population younger than 18 will continue to grow through 2030, though it will account for a smaller per centage of the total population because life expectancy will continue to increase; so, for at least the next decade or two, the United States can expect to experience an aging white population and a growing and more diverse younger population (Crouch, 2012). Naturally, this impacts schools. Between 1950 and 1960, non-white enrolment in suburban schools was slightly more than 10 per cent; by the mid–1990s, students of colour represented about 35 per cent of suburban schools (Orfield, 2002). By 2007, the percentage of Latinos in suburban schools was about the same as the number of white students in suburban schools in 25 of the largest metropolitan areas, and according to census projections, students

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 179

17/12/2013 09:38

180

Education in North America

of colour will be a clear majority in suburban schools by 2050, accounting for about 60 per cent of all students (Tefera et al., 2011). While the increased diversity brings with it many items to celebrate – languages, new ways of thinking, uniqueness of characters, food, vibrancy, entertainment – it also brings with it challenges. While many suburban schools outperform urban schools, inner-ring suburban schools fare worse than other suburban and rural schools. Using Baltimore as an example, Hanlon (2010) demonstrated that about 35 per cent of students in exurban schools passed advanced tests in fifth-grade reading, compared to 26 per cent in the suburbs right outside Baltimore; tenth-grade results were much the same, with 27 per cent of inner-ring suburban students passing the advanced reading test and 38 per cent passing the same test in the exurban schools. Hanlon (2010) also noted these inner-ring suburban schools had the greatest racial and socio-economic changes and challenges. This is a contrast with Conant’s (1961) analysis many years earlier, where he identified the suburbs closest to city centres as not only bucolic landscapes, but also as places where the public high school first earned its reputation as a gateway to elite post-secondary education for white middleclass families. Now, the suburban high school still has to provide entryway to elite colleges or careers, for most people’s expectations have not changed, but they must do it for a more diverse student body while experiencing greater challenges and pressures on resources and school staff. An additional problem is that diversity is not occurring evenly in the suburbs. Rather, the suburbs themselves are becoming segregated because there tends to be pockets where particular racial and ethnic groups live, and since housing prices are affected by the racial composition of neighbourhoods, the segregation of racial groups is often accompanied by socio-economic segregation (Clapp et al., 2008). In Connecticut, Dougherty et al. (2009) found that the average house price increased about $7,500 in less diverse, mostly white suburbs, which can often price out less affluent individuals. Most white students still attend suburban schools that are mostly white, and most African American and Latino students attend suburban schools that are comprised of their own racial group. In 2006, 75 per cent of Latinos attended suburban schools that were mostly Latino (Tefera et al., 2011). The per cent of African Americans attending suburban schools that were mostly African American was slightly less (67 per cent). But nearly a third of African American students attended suburban schools that were ‘hyper-segregated’, with less than 10 per cent white students (Tefera et al., 2011). So even in the suburbs, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, with its growing diversity that provides the opportunity to actually create more integrated, diverse schools, segregation is still occurring.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 180

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

181

With its increased and sometimes concentrated poverty and its segregation, the result has been a general trend of declining suburban schools. What also contributed to this problem were Supreme Court rulings that enabled segregation to persist in metropolitan areas. In the 1970s, unequal education in cities and suburbs was codified in law. In 1972, President Nixon proposed what Ryan (2010) called a ‘save the city, but spare the suburbs’ solution to urban school problems. This was reflected in the Supreme Court ruling of 1973, San Antonio Independent Schools v. Rodriguez, which struck down earlier rulings that found school finance in Texas a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court, overturning the decisions of lower courts, ruled against a law that would have attempted to equalize funding between suburban and urban schools by minimizing local control and giving the state more power to direct monies to schools with the greatest needs. Also in 1973, the Supreme Court case Milliken v. Bradley relieved suburban districts of any obligation to desegregate through cross-district bussing of students. This case in many ways overturned obligations set out in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1970) that ruled that bussing was a legitimate, constitutional means to attempt to integrate schools. In Milliken II (1977) the court ruled that states had to provide aid to help relieve schools of the damages caused by segregation, but that schools did not necessarily have to desegregate. In other words, states no longer had to integrate schools but had to provide aid to the segregated, mostly African American, Latino and impoverished schools. At about this time, suburban legislators were also becoming more abundant in state legislatures since suburbs were becoming bigger, therefore political representation increased, and naturally suburban legislators did what was deemed best for their suburban constituents, which often meant preserving neighbourhood schools and the district lines that enabled towns to admit only inhabitants of the town. Two more recent Supreme Court cases – Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, both in 2007 – focused on two cities, but their rulings have implications for suburbs. The two cases, which were heard at the same time, tested the constitutionality of race-based student assignment plans in districts with choice policies, whereby students could apply to a school of their choice within a district. In both instances, the placement of students was made with criteria that involved race in cases when schools were segregated and the assignment of a particular student would increase the racial composition of the dominant group in the school. The Supreme Court ruled that the student assignment plans

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 181

17/12/2013 09:38

182

Education in North America

were unconstitutional. The Court’s ruling referred to the ‘compelling interest’ and ‘narrowly tailored’ requirements that were established in previous cases, whereby a school district must show a compelling state interest to institute a particular desegregation plan and the plan must be narrowly tailored to meet the stated goals. In the Seattle and Louisville cases, the Court ruled that the plans were not narrowly tailored, in that race was used in a binary way to simply refer to ‘white/nonwhite’ in Seattle and ‘African American/other’ in Louisville. Since the ruling, it has become clear that a town’s desegregation plan must use race in a nuanced and targeted way by not singling out any particular races. Also, in order to show a compelling state interest, towns and cities must first explore race-neutral ways of integrating schools, and any plan must be closely linked to stated goals (Tefera et al., 2011). Along with Supreme Court cases that have put limits on how forcefully a town can attempt desegregation and created more equitable funding policies, choices that people have made regarding housing and schools have also altered the composition of suburbs. Decades ago, ‘white flight’ was a term given to the exodus of Caucasians from cities to the suburbs. But the term is misleading to some extent. Most people who left the cities in the latter part of the twentieth century were white, but what enabled them to leave was the money to buy homes and to commute. Race played a role, and was an instigator for the exodus in some cases, but it was money that allowed the exodus to happen. In the case of African Americans, they too often left impoverished areas when they had the economic means to do so. While many African Americans felt racial solidarity with the growing African American populations in cities, many too felt economic solidarity with their better-off white co-workers, and also felt the same yearnings for better schools, larger homes, cleaner neighbourhoods, that drew whites to the suburbs. Often African Americans created their own mostly black suburbs, but as PattilloMcCoy (1999) noted, these black suburbs were not as stable as white suburbs. The African Americans leaving the city were often in a more tenuous position financially and lacked the generations of stability and accumulation of net worth that protected them from financial slumps or sudden hardships (Di and Liu, 2005; Oliver and Shapiro, 1995). The new suburban black middle class were often postal workers, nurses, security guards, construction workers and others whose hold on middle-class stability was not nearly as strong as the professionals – doctors, corporate managers, lawyers, professors – who populated the mostly white suburbs. Therefore, right from the start, the new black suburbs and their schools were more fragile and had to deal with problems associated with homelessness, abandoned housing, shuttered businesses, poverty, job loss and the like.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 182

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

183

When not creating their own suburbs, African Americans moved into suburbs that were traditionally white and, in this case, another phenomenon occurred. African Americans did not just move to suburbs, they often congregated in particular neighbourhoods. When suburbs assigned students to schools based on their proximity to the school, as is often the case, within-district segregation occurred. In their study of multiracial segregation in schools, Reardon et al. (2000) found that on average nearly ¼ of total segregation in the US is due to segregation within school districts. Not only is this because African Americans and Latinos tend to move to particular areas – often because of housing prices that make those areas affordable – but also, when they move into white areas, the residents suspect that the neighbourhood is in decline and begin to move to other parts of town, further exacerbating the segregation. Once a critical mass of African Americans and/or Latinos move to a suburb and expand out of the original neighbourhood where they developed their stronghold, whites move to the outer-suburbs, exurbs and rural areas. This can cause a glut of houses to become available in the inner-ring suburbs, which leads to a depreciation of housing prices. As housing prices fall, more whites feel economic instability and choose to cut their losses and move, which causes further decreases in housing prices, until prices fall to such an extent that poor people can afford the houses. Before long, the inner-ring suburb – Matteson, IL and Manchester, CT, for example – with its deteriorated neighbourhoods and homes, and social and economic stresses and challenges, starts to look like the city that the working and middle classes had hoped to leave behind (Orfield, 2002). Racial data in the 25 largest metropolitan areas show that once a suburb reaches a minority population of 10–20 per cent, the demographic shift to greater minority representation increases. By the time suburbs and their schools reach 50 per cent students of colour, it is inevitable that the school will become highly segregated. According to Orfield (2002), this process, which can turn a stable middle-class area into an unstable poor area, can occur in less than a decade. After a few short years, the middle-class population is not large enough and stable enough to support the poor, mostly African American and Latino population. Therefore, the instability of suburban schools and neighbourhoods is caused as much by the influx of the poor as by the exodus of the middle and upper classes. In essence, the demise of many suburbs reflects the demise of cities several decades earlier. The impact of increased poverty, diversity and segregation on suburban schools is immense. Even if we look at relatively stable suburban schools, when viewed closely, their stability can be called into question. In Prince George’s

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 183

17/12/2013 09:38

184

Education in North America

County, Maryland, for example, in 31 of its 47 high-minority schools (with a minority population of over 90 per cent), less than 50 per cent of the students qualified for free lunch. In some respects, then, these schools could be viewed as middle-class and relatively stable. However, none of these schools were stable. In fact, nearly every one of them was deteriorating. In 78 per cent of the schools, the number of students qualifying for free lunch increased by 10 per cent, and in over one-third of the schools the number qualifying for free lunch increased by 20 per cent. These increases took place within only a seven-year period between 1989 and 1996. In this same time period, minority populations of schools with over a 50 per cent minority population increased 15 per cent in over half the schools and only seven of the 57 schools with a minority population over 50 per cent had an increase of less than 10 per cent. Other metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Phoenix and Atlanta showed a similar change. As Orfield stated: ‘this process has torn apart untold numbers of urban neighborhoods over the past century and is now entrenched in US suburbs’ (2002, p. 13). In short then, our suburbs are becoming more diverse, sometimes more segregated, and poverty is increasing at a faster pace than in cities. As a result, suburban schools face strains on their facilities and resources that are new and to some extent unexpected. They now require more bilingual programmes, social workers, intervention services, and the funding to support all these. This phenomenon is not just the result of increased diversity, but also the fact that the Supreme Court has made inter-district, race-based and equitable funding reforms more difficult to implement. Also, suburbs are often not quick to change with the times. Policy is slow-moving and sometimes outright resisted by white residents. But as Siegel-Hawley (2013) stated in regard to school segregation and housing patterns, ‘policy matters’. To do nothing is in itself a policy that promotes inequality. When cities and towns lack policies, historical patterns of segregation, inequality and deterioration persist, which hurts all residents. More importantly, when good policies are implemented, metropolitan areas and suburbs such as Montclair, NJ, Rock Hill Public Schools, SC, and Jefferson County, KY, can demonstrate some level of success in alleviating problems of segregation and inequality. Their success is based on the fact that they are diverse, and so there are for students more opportunities for an enriching school experience that prepares them for a more diverse society. School reform that takes into consideration not only urban schools, but also suburban schools, is important. But most crucial is a regional focus on school reform that is applied to an entire metropolitan area. At the same time, all

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 184

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

185

constituents, including those who may feel threatened, need to understand how non-action will only exacerbate the problem – and also cause a lost opportunity to create high-quality schools that are reputable for the very fact that students are both integrated and high-achieving.

A metropolitan view of education reform The 1970s attempt to ‘save the cities, but spare the suburbs’ is no longer a viable option, if ever it was. Now, what is good for the city is good for the suburbs, and vice versa. When cities are vibrant and prosperous, this helps the suburbs. When suburbs are flourishing, cities benefit. Suburbs often face deteriorating services and environments when cities they border deteriorate: a lack of employment in cities can sometimes mean that desperate people flee to suburbs, adding strains to towns. In industry, there is often a symbiotic relationship between cities and suburbs: suburbanites often consume the goods made in cities, therefore cities rely on prosperous suburbs and suburbs rely on strong industry in cities (McDonald and McMillen, 2002). Also, when schools are strong in cities and suburbs, there is less fleeing to exurbs and rural areas. Many experts believe that the most effective education reforms will need to focus on an entire metropolitan area. School finance, for example, should have a metropolitan-wide impact. In countries such as Canada and much of those in western Europe, education is financed to a larger extent than in the US at the national level, and partly for this reason there is less fiscal disparity between school districts (Lucy and Phillips, 2000). Darling-Hammond (2010–11) noted that school systems in South Korea, Singapore and Finland, which are among the most successful in the world, equalize funding and give incentives to teachers to work in high-need areas. While the United States focuses on an ‘achievement gap’, these more successful countries aim to solve the ‘opportunity gap’, which puts a focus on ‘the accumulated differences in access to key educational resources that support learning at home and at school’ (p. 23). The United States’ system of local control, while it has its benefits, also contributes to a lack of equity and opportunity. The United States has one of the most fragmented political systems in the world, with about 90,000 divisions of government, with local governments comprising about 89,500 of those divisions (Siegel-Hawley, 2013). Suburbs have sometimes benefited from this kind of fragmented, local control, especially where wealth is concentrated and suburban political clout has increased in state houses and in the US Congress. However, many suburbs are now suffering from this system of local control. Towns find themselves in competition with each other, each trying not to become a ‘dying suburb’.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 185

17/12/2013 09:38

186

Education in North America

Dye and McGuire (2002) found that where state government provided more equitable funding between city and suburbs, population sprawl into the exurbs was less likely to happen, and with less sprawl came not only environmental advantages but also a more unified region that was more likely to work together to provide equity across cities and suburbs. They also found that higher taxes in cities and suburbs – often the reason attributed to sprawl – actually had a minimal impact on demographics. In other words, people did not leave cities and bordering suburbs because taxes were high. The researchers found that what contributed to sprawl – in essence a retreat from the inner-ring suburbs – was the availability of schools. In their study of more than a hundred of the largest metropolitan areas, they concluded that the more school districts in an area, the more sprawl occurred; when parents have more choices, they take advantage of those choices to find the best school districts. And when national and state policies exacerbate inequities among school districts, this adds to the search for better school districts in the exurbs, further stripping cities and inner-ring suburbs of tax money, stable families, professionals who live in the area, secure housing prices and virtually everything else that maintains a stable community. District policies that mandate the use of neighbourhood schools, whereby school assignments are restricted solely to those who live within the neighbourhood or district of the school, also contribute to growing inequality and deterioration in suburban schools, especially when neighbourhoods themselves are segregated and unequal (Clotfelter, 2004; Wells et al., 2009). For many, the common means of demarcating districts based on towns – even the fact that we have districts – is viewed as normal, commonsense and therefore intractable. But more non-contiguous ways of assigning students to schools can have an impact on alleviating segregation in schools and suburbs (Ryan, 2010). In some cases, we can draw students from different parts of the same district to particular schools by creating sub-districts or allowing for open enrolment. Districts can be divided into subsections, and students in particular subsections can have first choice of a school placement or can be assigned to a particular school based on where they live in a district (Siegel-Hawley, 2013). Some plans may create sub-districts as small as town blocks and make assignments based on the block, not the race or ethnicity of the students. This has the added benefit of avoiding the problems associated with Louisville and Seattle’s student assignment plans by, at least semantically, downplaying the relevance of race in the placement of students (Tefera, 2011). In other words, diversity can be achieved by assigning students to schools based on their locality, which often correlates with race and

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 186

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

187

socio-economic level, but since the policy does not mention race specifically, it can pass muster in light of court cases that have disproved of assignment plans based on race. Reform should also have a school-based focus. Today, city and suburban schools that are educating a more diverse population are sometimes straining teachers who are not used to the challenges that economic and social diversity can bring to a classroom. In some cases school personnel are working with more cultural tensions and incidents of racism; they are grappling with poverty and its associated problems; they are in need of translators; they are confronting an achievement and opportunity gap that was not expected 20 years ago; and inexperienced school personnel, even with the best of intentions, are finding themselves unable to connect with ethnically diverse communities. Teachers need to know how to educate cross-culturally, and this must become central to teacher preparation programmes and professional development (Sleeter, 2007; Villegas and Lucas, 2002). Just as teachers are expected to teach students of various abilities and disabilities, the same has to happen with students of different cultural backgrounds. These changes that are needed to educate a more diverse student population should also be implemented throughout a metropolitan area in order to avoid inequities between schools, so that all schools and all students reap the benefits. If they do not, the problems already discussed will continue. If some schools implement successful reforms and others do not, there may be flight to those schools that are improving, and ultimately continued inequality and segregation. We would need to focus on improving all schools within a metropolitan area to avoid the kinds of problems that flight often instigates. While enhancing the skills of teachers and teacher educators is important, the United States would miss opportunities for improvement if teachers alone are expected to meet challenges caused by changing demographics and persistent structural inequality. A town that experiences more poverty and greater numbers of students who speak languages other than English may experience decreasing test scores due to these demographic changes. Yet, often teachers are blamed for the subpar scores. More recently, their professional evaluations, which will likely impact their job security and salaries, can also be affected. Politicians and school reformers sometimes ignore the context that drives down test scores, and, as is often the case, place extra accountability and burdens on teachers and principals. For example, reformers will require teachers to meet more rigorous benchmarks based on the Common Core State Standards and institute new computerized assessments of students, but all this places the onus

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 187

17/12/2013 09:38

188

Education in North America

of the problem squarely at the doorstep of the already-struggling school and its teachers and principals. There is no recognition that the job of the teacher is becoming harder due to factors that they cannot control. Diversity provides opportunities for a more enriching education that can prepare young people for a culturally varied society and work world. But attending a more diverse school does not necessarily mean that young people will become wiser about cultures and more enlightened about the world. As Allport (1954) noted decades ago, institutions such as schools need to provide various contexts in order for prejudice to be alleviated. Allport found that individuals must be granted equal status; there must be common goals (high academic achievement for all, for example); there must be inter-group cooperation (that extracurricular activities can provide, for instance); and there must be support for all these initiatives in policies and throughout the administration of the school. The context and climate of the school is important. As Hawley stated: ‘school context or climate is not just the backdrop for student learning; it is both a source of, and a constraint on, learning itself and a major influence on what happens in classrooms’ (2007, p. 48). Educators can create a productive school climate and context, and better teach a more diverse student population, with culturally relevant pedagogies. Villegas and Lucas (2002, p. 198) summarized key components of a culturally relevant pedagogy, which would require teachers to: MM

MM

MM

MM

MM

MM

understand that students may see the world differently and accept world views that are shaped by students’ particular circumstances and backgrounds; show affirming attitudes to all students and recognize that each student brings unique skills and knowledge to the classroom; view teaching as a political activity and view oneself as an agent of change and challenger of inequitable circumstances and/or policies; understand and utilize constructivist pedagogy as a way of differentiating instruction; know and appreciate students and their life experiences; make the classroom environment inclusive for all and assessments varied so that all students may have an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.

Teachers should have the skills, knowledge and dispositions necessary to work with students of various backgrounds and abilities. In many cases, targeted and meaningful professional development is necessary; in other cases teacher preparation programmes have to improve. We cannot ignore racial diversity and

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 188

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

189

differences, thereby perpetuating the myth of a ‘colourblind society’, but rather we must speak openly about diversity and confirm its benefits while recognizing its challenges. We have to be careful not to focus on students’ learning styles, on social learning and self-esteem in a way that stereotypes or dumbs down the academic curriculum; we should have high academic standards for all students, not just the high-achieving. We will need to see more differentiation in teaching and perhaps smaller classes so that teachers can give more attention to students. Meanwhile, we should avoid a deadening curriculum; while some students need basic skills more than others, we do not want to succumb to the belief that individuals must master basic skills before they can have more engaging and complex learning experiences. Both can be done at the same time, thereby enriching the curriculum for all levels of students. Naturally, educators will need to know how to teach students who speak limited English and implement research-based programmes to help students learn content while learning English. Also, it may be beneficial to do away with or use very sparingly within-school policies that tend to segregate, such as tracking and ability grouping (Oaks and Wells, 1998). Schools may need to provide more services related to social work, psychologists, remedial experts and others who can provide one-on-one help to students who are struggling. In recent years, we have seen huge advancements in services and supports that students with disabilities receive. This is partly because disabled students have strong advocates among influential people. The inclusion movement, laws protecting disabled students, the paraprofessional support, should be a model for all students, including those who have needs due to their unique cultural backgrounds. There are other demographic trends that are likely to affect our nation and its schools. The United States is experiencing a burgeoning older white population who may be less likely to support public education, partly because their own children have already finished K–12 schooling (Crouch, 2012). The effort to achieve fiscal equity or even adequate support for schools may be staunched by this older population. As Poterba (1997) demonstrated in his research, the greater the percentage of elderly people in a jurisdiction, the less likely the population is to support public education through tax hikes. Doubly troubling for our more diverse student body, Poterba indicated that this phenomenon becomes more prominent when the aging population is of a different ethnic or racial group from the school-age children. Ironically, the aging white population will depend on an increasingly diverse workforce to fund the safety nets they expect (Crouch, 2012). Therefore, the success of the students of today is a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 189

17/12/2013 09:38

190

Education in North America

national concern, for these children will make up a larger part of the workforce (Hernandez et al., 2009). For this reason, the widening of the achievement gap is a problem for all Americans, because the nation itself may not have the solid workforce to fund Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlements that citizens expect. So, while we need to invest more resources into educating a more diverse society, we also need to invest more resources into healthcare for a growing population of elderly citizens. In many ways, the United States is being strained at both ends The challenges facing suburban schools are also a product of new expectations. We expect suburban schools to put every child on a track to college. This was not always the case. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, public high schools were designed to provide a basic education for mostly career-minded individuals. Those who sought college did so through private schooling and through family connections, for elitism and nepotism were still hallmarks of higher education. With the advent of quality suburban high schools in the 1960s, middle-class professionals expected that the public high school would naturally lead their sons and daughters to elite colleges (Conant, 1961). This belief has only grown in recent years, with nearly all suburbanites – poor and rich alike – expecting that their schools provide a clear entryway into colleges for their children. So, while the challenges have increased for suburban schools, so have the public’s expectations of them. The United States has yet to solve its ‘urban school problems’. And while much of the literature on school reform – and the reforms themselves – continues to focus on urban contexts, a quiet transformation is taking place in our suburbs. A variety of phenomena has coalesced involving demographic trends, housing prices, residential patterns, Supreme Court rulings, and so on, that has turned many US suburbs into mini-cities, with all the promise and problems that would entail. The optimist may see the chance to finally desegregate, to create a more multiracial, integrated society, for suburbs have long been a bastion of white privilege. But data reveal that suburbs are not easily absorbing more racially and ethnically diverse students and enfolding them in a high-quality education. Rather, many towns are following in the path of cities. To capitalize on the opportunities that diversity can bring, clear, goal-oriented policies and practices are needed. These policies should focus on student assignment plans, residential patterns, school district demarcations, funding equity, effective interventions and support for immigrant and poor children, culturally relevant teaching in K–12 schools, and improved teacher education programmes that imbue coursework and clinical experiences with topics related to equal educational opportunity for

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 190

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

191

all children. Just as importantly, leaders in the US have to acknowledge the new reality of schools, and stop blaming teachers. The students of today are growing up in a society with great disparities of wealth that affects their learning. They are the children of immigrants, many of whom are breaking out of their urban networks and finding roots in suburbs and rural areas. We expect more of schools than ever before. If policymakers are not considering these facts, and if their policies are not clearly geared to these realities with a kind of metropolitan or regional focus, then the US is bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

References Allport, G. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Anyon, J. (1997). Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform. New York: Teachers College Press. Berube, A. and Kneebone, E. (2006). Two Steps Back: City and Suburban Poverty Trends: 1999–2005. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. Bonastia, C. (2006). Knocking on the Door: The Federal Government’s Attempt to Desegregate the Suburbs. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clapp, J., Nanda, A. and Ross, S. (2008). Which school attributes matter? The influence of school district performance and demographic composition on property values. Journal of Urban Economics, 63 (2), pp. 451–66. Clotfelter, C. (2004). After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Conant, J. (1961). Slums and Suburbs: A Commentary on Schools in Metropolitan Areas. New York: McGraw Hill. Crouch, R. (2012). The United States of Education: The Changing Demographics of the United States and their Schools. The Center for Public Education. Alexandria, VA: National School Boards Association. http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org [accessed 3 February 2013]. Darling-Hammond, L. (2010–11). Soaring systems: High flyers all have equitable funding, shared curriculum and quality teaching. American Educator, Winter, pp. 20–53. Di, Z. and Liu, X. (2005). The Importance of Wealth and Income in the Transition to Homeownership. Cambridge, MA: Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University. Dougherty, J., Harrelson, J. Maloney, L., Murphy, D., Smith, R., Snow, M. and Zanoni, D. (2009). School choice in suburbia: Test scores, race, and housing markets. American Journal of Education, 115 (4), pp. 523–48. Dye, R. and McGuire, T. (2002). Property taxes, schools, and sprawl. In W. Wiewel and J. Persky (eds), Suburban Sprawl: Private Decisions and Public Policy. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 42–61.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 191

17/12/2013 09:38

192

Education in North America

Frankenberg, E. (2012). Understanding suburban school district transformation: A typology of suburban districts. In E. Frankenberg and G. Orfield (eds), The Resegregation of Suburban Schools: A Hidden Crisis in American Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, pp. 27–44. Frankenberg, E. and Orfield, G. (2012). The Resegregation of Suburban Schools: A Hidden Crisis in American Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Gutierrez, K. and Rossow, L. (2009). The US Supreme Court speaks on voluntary school integration plans. NASSP Bulletin, 93 (1), pp. 53–72. Hanlon, B. (2009). A typology of inner-ring suburbs: Class, race, and ethnicity in US suburbia. City and Community, 8 (2), pp. 221–46. —(2010). Once the American Dream: Inner-ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Hawley, W. (2007). Designing schools that use student diversity to enhance learning of all students. In E. Frankenberg and G. Orfield (eds), Lessons in Integration: Realizing the Promise of Racial Diversity in American Schools. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, pp. 31–56. Hernandez, D., Denton, N. and Macartney, S. (2009). School-age children in immigrant families: Challenges and opportunities for America’s schools. Teachers College Record, 111 (3), pp. 616–58. Hochschild, J. and Scovronick, N. (2005). Demographic change and demographic education. In S. Fuhrman and M. Lazerson (eds), The Public Schools. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 302–22. Humes, K., Jones, N. and Ramirez, R. (2011). Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/ briefs/c2010br–02.pdf [accessed 14 January 2013]. Jackson, K. (1985). Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kozol, J. (1991). Savage Inequalities. New York: HarperPerrenial. Leichenko, R. (2001). Growth and change in US cities & suburbs. Growth and Change, 32, pp. 326–54. Lucy, W. and Phillips, D. (2000). Confronting Suburban Decline: Strategic Planning for Metropolitan Renewal. Washington, DC: Island Press. Mackun, P. and Wilson, S. (2011). Population Distribution and Change: 2010. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau. McDonald, J. and McMillen, D. (2002). Employment subcenters and subsequent real estate development in suburban Chicago. In W. Wiewel and J. Persky (eds), Suburban Sprawl: Private Decisions and Public Policy. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 182–206. Monti, D. (1994). Wannabe: Gangs in Suburbs and Schools. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Oaks, J. and Wells, A. (1998). Detracking for high student achievement. Educational Leadership, 55 (6), pp. 38–41.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 192

17/12/2013 09:38



Demographic Change and Suburban School Policy Challenges

193

Oliver, M. and Shapiro, T. (1995). Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge. Orfield, M. (2002). American Metro Politics: The New Suburban Reality. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. Pattillo-McCoy, M. (1999). Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Poterba, J. (1997). Demographic structure and the political economy of public education. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 16 (1), pp. 48–66. Reardon, S. and Yun, J. (2001). Suburban racial change and suburban school segregation, 1987–95. Sociology of Education, 74 (2), pp. 79–101. Reardon, S., Yun, J. and Eitle, T. (2000). The changing structure of school segregation: Measurement and evidence of multiracial metropolitan-area school segregation, 1998–1995. Demography, 37 (3), pp. 351–64. Ryan, J. (2010). Five Miles Away, a World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America. New York: Oxford University Press. Siegel-Hawley, G. (2013). City lines, county lines, color lines: The relationship between school and housing segregation in four southern metro areas. Teachers College Record, 115, 6: http//www.tcrecord.org. Sleeter, C. (2007). Preparing teachers for multiracial and historically underserved schools. In E. Frankenberg and G. Orfield (eds), Lessons in Integration: Realizing the Promise of Racial Diversity in American Schools. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, pp. 171–89. Suárez-Orozco, C. and Suárez-Orozco, M. (2008). Learning a New Land: Immigrant Studies in American Society. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Tefera, A., Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G. and Chirichigno, G. (2011). Integrating Suburban Schools: How to Benefit From Growing Diversity and Avoid Segregation. University of California, LA: Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Villegas, A. M. and Lucas, T. (2002). Educating Culturally Responsive Teachers. New York: State University of New York Press. Wells, A., Baldridge, B., Duran, J., Lofton, R., Roda, A., Warner, M., White, T. and Grzesikowski, C. (2009). Why Boundaries Matter: A Study of Five Separate and Unequal Long Island School Districts. New York: Long Island Index.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 193

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 194

17/12/2013 09:38

9

Education for Social Justice in the United States: The Peculiar Case of Mathematics Education Kurt Stemhagen This chapter considers what social justice means in the context of mathematics education in the US. While some fail to see any connection between the two enterprises, there is much scholarship, research and practice that links the ideas. The current state of social justice-oriented mathematics education is presented and I make the case that fostering ties between empirical, practical and conceptual work could benefit the movement. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the future of social justice mathematics education in the US and I suggest that linking up with democratic and civic education might be a productive strategy. While the focus of this chapter is on the US context, I draw freely from international scholars, as national borders are not all that relevant in this research and scholarship. The conceptual or philosophical scholarship is particularly international and since many US-based empirical scholars draw on this work, including some of it in this chapter is justified. There is a small trend toward philosophical-empirical hybrid work and much of it comes from the US. This is not surprising, as intellectual work in the US has a long tradition of possessing practical aspects. For example, American pragmatism, the first fully American school of philosophy, focused on putting ideas to work and its most famous exponent, John Dewey, brought this spirit of theory–practice blurring to bear on education in the US. One can interpret the trend toward US social justiceoriented mathematics education to possess both philosophical and empirical dimensions as fitting into this tradition.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 195

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

196

The many faces and politics of social justice and social justice education The term social justice is invoked in halls of education schools often and can mean a number of different things. Social justice can simply mean oriented toward fairness to all. This version can, of course, manifest itself in progressive or regressive ways, as fairness can mean equity-oriented efforts to meet the needs of all given, history, context and power imbalances or it can mean a conservative colourblind approach. Bell’s description of the goals of social justice as ‘full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs’ (1997, p. 3) moves definitions of social justice beyond attempts at neutrality through inclusion of the needs of groups. Hackman summarizes Bell’s vision of social justice education as including ‘student empowerment, the equitable distribution of resources and social responsibility’, and she describes her social justice pedagogy as requiring ‘democracy, a student-centered focus, dialogue, and an analysis of power’ (2005, p. 104). Hackman concludes her description of social justice education as necessarily including ‘an examination of systems of power and oppression combined with a prolonged emphasis on social change and student agency in and outside of the classroom’ (2005, p. 104). Finally, Hytten’s version of social justice sums up the heart and soul of the varied descriptions above and provides a reasonable starting point for thinking about social justice in the context of this chapter: ‘[…] social justice education is about building a more equitable, interdependent, caring, compassionate, democratic, responsive, inclusive, and thriving world’ (2011, p. 71). She goes on to describe social justice educators as those who ‘[…] support students in developing their own sense of agency, as well as a commitment to social action that diminishes suffering, enhances the safety and security of all citizens, and helps individuals to develop to their full capacities’ (2011, p. 71). Next, let us consider how these ideas manifest themselves (or how they fail to manifest themselves) in the arena of mathematics education. As is the case with social justice work in education, social justice work in mathematics education is a varied, often confusing and, at times, contradictory set of ideas, research and practices. Often the variety of ways in which the term is employed suggests a shared set of values, but the main thrust of the work can be quite divergent. From Bishop’s (1990) focus on equity/access to Gutstein’s (2006) application of Freirean education principles to school mathematics, to my own philosophical approach to considering the links between social justice

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 196

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

197

and our understandings of the nature of mathematics (Stemhagen, 2007a, Stemhagen and Smith, 2008), there is a variety of work that is legitimately positioned as working under the banner of social justice. That said, it is also possible that categorizing such a wide scope of work as social justice-oriented could stretch the idea beyond recognition to the point that it becomes ripe for backlash. Indeed, there is evidence that this has already happened in some cases. Right-wing radio personality Glen Beck’s screed on the topic is emblematic of how a general aversion to the very idea of social justice has coalesced in response to the rise of use of the term. Beck equates social justice with the far right’s paranoid misunderstanding of socialism, calling it ‘forced redistribution of wealth with a hostility toward individual property rights, under the guise of charity and/or justice’ (Beck, 2010). In terms of social justice education, critics often characterize anyone advocating or implementing social justice approaches as indoctrinating students (e.g. Horowitz, 2009; Freedman, 2007). This reaction seems wrong and, while I am not overly optimistic that it will reach those most disenchanted with the idea of social justice, my hope is that this chapter on efforts towards teaching for social justice in mathematics education will help make the case that, when done thoughtfully, it is a worthwhile and even necessary endeavour for public schooling in a democratic society.

Social justice in mathematics education School mathematics and mathematics education, for a variety of reasons, have been slow to embrace social justice as an aim (Kilpatrick, 2012; Stemhagen and Smith, 2008). For example, Down and Smyth’s Critical Voices in Teacher Education: Teaching for Social Justice in Conservative Times (2012) does not address mathematics education in spite of a curriculum section with chapters on literacy, the arts, physical education and social studies. That said, there is reason to believe that changes are happening. Of particular note recently are two edited books and a conference that are evidence of the mounting momentum of social justice in the mathematics arena. Stinson and Wager’s Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice (2012) is a collection of conceptual, editorial, testimonial, empirical and pedagogical work that offers something for everyone from teachers and mathematics educators to social justice scholars. Gutstein and Peterson’s Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (2013) serves mostly as a how-to guide for getting teachers interested in teaching mathematics for social justice. The conference, Creating Balance in an Unjust World: Conference on Mathematics Education and Social Justice was

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 197

17/12/2013 09:38

198

Education in North America

first held in 2007. It has matured from a planned one-time get-together to an important annual meeting for social justice-oriented mathematics educators (Kwako, 2011). Within this growing area where mathematics and social justice intersect, it seems as if there are multiple layers and definitions that make it difficult to separate important aspects of this work in a comprehensive manner. What follows is an attempt to disentangle the various meanings of mathematics and social justice via identification and exploration of several ways of doing social justice in mathematics education. There are a number of reasonable ways to categorize social justice maths education work. Initially I considered dividing work along the lines of that which was conceptual versus that which was empirical. A second idea was a three-part taxonomic scheme: (1) equity-equal access/opportunity and quantitative literacy; (2) socio-culturally/culturally relevant; and (3) critical. One could see this tripartite system as hierarchical, with critical social justice maths education occupying the position of most desired form. In the following sections I will adopt this set of categories. I have included my initial and now discarded categories to show that the three-category system I have decided on is not the only suitable way to think about how to understand social justice in mathematics education work. In fact, at the end of the chapter I will briefly discuss a third way. What follows is not intended as a literature review so much as a description by way of some examples of the state of social justice mathematics in the US/Western world.

Three levels of socially just mathematics education: Lever of opportunity, tool of diversity or liberator? While there is any number of viable and possibly productive ways to categorize social justice work in mathematics education, I am starting with the following three categories: (1) equity-equal access and opportunity; (2) socio-cultural/ culturally relevant mathematics; and (3) critical mathematics. All can be viewed as providing important support for broader efforts for social justice through education. Interestingly, the three can be thought as relatively free-standing categories or arranged hierarchically with the first and second serving as a foundation upon which critical mathematics rests. Equity-equal access and opportunity refers to work that seeks to provide a level playing field for all students and also for some work that acknowledges that students from traditionally marginalized communities might need more support to achieve in equal measure. Moses and Cobb’s Algebra project (2001)

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 198

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

199

provides an excellent example of this category. Upon recognizing that high school’s Algebra I course functions as a gateway to college admission and that large numbers of poor, African American students in the rural South were not successfully completing the course, Moses implemented a programme designed to help this group succeed in Algebra and gain admission to college. In a very clear and direct way, school maths was used as a lever of opportunity. Gutierrez described this sort of work: It is undeniable that ‘talk’ of equity has become more mainstream in the mathematics education community. A look at the programs for the annual meetings of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and even the International Study Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education shows a surge in themes and number of sessions devoted to understanding and promoting increased participation and achievement in students who historically have been marginalized by the school system. (2010, p. 2)

She goes on to point out how the general public has, through mainstream media, become increasingly aware of the ‘achievement gap’. Gutierrez criticizes how this has played out in many mathematics classrooms but acknowledges that this ‘increased attention to equity-related issues is palpable’ (2010, p. 2). Her argument will be considered again later, but for now it should be noted that she also sees this work as necessary but not sufficient in efforts towards what she calls the ‘socio-political turn’ in mathematics education. Culturally relevant mathematics can take several forms, all of which can be categorized as having the potential to qualify as social justice-oriented mathematics education. Here I will briefly consider ethnomathematics and culturally relevant mathematics education. Ethnomathematics is a growing subfield of mathematics education. Its roots as a subfield of mathematics education go back at least to the mid–1980s. D’Ambrosio described ethnomathematics as existing ‘on the borderline between the history of mathematics and cultural anthropology’ and then goes on to explain that ethno-studies in other domains had become reasonably common but that mathematics was proving resistant to such forms of study (1985, p. 44). Anthropological work uncovering the existence of mathematics being thought of and practised differently in different cultural domains made ethnomathematics hard to ignore. Jean Lave’s brand of social anthropology helped develop situated theory and its concern with ‘everyday’ knowing (Rogoff and Lave, 1984). Her interest is study of learning, learners and educational institutions through focus on

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 199

17/12/2013 09:38

200

Education in North America

social practices. One direction that Lave’s emphasis on the social leads is to the use of apprenticeship models as examples of community-level knowing and other real-life situations where mathematics is employed. In Everyday Cognition, Rogoff and Lave explain how a theme of the book is to view thinking as practical activity that is adjusted according to particular situations: ‘As such, what is regarded as logical problem-solving in academic settings may not fit with problem-solving in everyday situations […]’ (1984, p. 7). They go on to state that: ‘In everyday actions, thought is in the service of actions. Everyday thinking, in other words, is not illogical and sloppy but instead is sensible and effective in handling the practical problem’ (1984, p. 7). Lave uses the tools of anthropology to study social practices within American culture, but the theory she has developed nourishes ethnomathematics in that it helps to legitimize a variety of ways of doing and knowing mathematics. How has this work played out in recent mathematics education research, scholarship and practice? There is a number of scholars carrying out research in the area of ethnomathematics (e.g. Barton, 1999; Wagner and Borden, 2012; François et al., 2013). There is also a number of mathematics educators and teachers working to articulate ethnomathematics curricula. One excellent and very recent example is Luis Ortiz-Franco’s chapter in the new edition of Rethinking Mathematics (2013). In ‘Chicanos have math in their blood’, OrtizFranco provides teachers with a quick history of pre-Columbian mathematics and then suggests ideas for teachers to employ some of this Chicano maths in class activities. For example, Ortiz-Franco explains how the Mesoamerican number system was base 20 and that it consisted of three symbols to name all numbers (see Ortiz-Franco’s chart on p. 98 of Rethinking Mathematics). Ortiz-Franco suggests using this system as a way to increase students’ understanding of the decimal system. The Mesoamerican system of symbolic representation is visual, intuitively linked to counting and thus it is easily paired with manipulatives. Ortiz-Franco explains: ‘[…] Dienes blocks can be adapted to the Mesoamerican base 20 system. Teachers can assign to the smallest blocks the value of 1, to the intermediate-sized blocks, the value 5, and to the larger blocks or to a group of four intermediate-sized blocks the value 20’ (2013, p. 99). Culturally relevant pedagogy can be thought of as coming out of the multicultural education movement which has its origins in the cultural conflicts of the 1960s, particularly the Civil Rights movement (Banks and Banks, 2007). The multicultural education of Banks and Banks (2007), Gay’s culturally responsive teaching (2000) and Ladson-Billings’s (1995) culturally relevant pedagogy are

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 200

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

201

a few of the most prominent versions of work in this vein. As such, multiculturalism has many definitions, but basically it involves an acknowledgement and legitimation of micro-cultures and identities. In terms of mathematics education, some of the culturally relevant work has blended with the explicitly social justice-oriented. Examples include Gutierrez’s ‘I thought this place was supposed to be about freedom: Young latinas engage in mathematics and social change to save their school’ (2013) and Peterson’s ‘Write the truth: Presidents and slaves’ (2013). Whereas ethnomathematics tends to highlight the history of a culture’s mathematical accomplishments and particular uses, culturally relevant mathematics focuses more on finding ways to engage students possessing various cultural identities. At the conclusion of her chapter in Rethinking Mathematics, Claudia Zaslavsky offers a word of caution to those wishing to teach mathematics multiculturally and it bears sharing here: ‘Teachers must be careful that they do not introduce cultural applications as examples of “quaint customs” or “primitive practices”’; she goes on to explain that for multicultural mathematics to work it ‘must be an inseparable and necessary part of the curriculum’ and it must ‘inspire students to think critically about the reasons for these practices and to dig deeply into the lives and environment of the people involved’ (2013, p. 207). The third type or level of social justice-oriented mathematics education, as categorized in this chapter, is critical mathematics education. Stinson and Wager, while acknowledging that culturally relevant mathematics education can certainly be thought of as social-justice oriented, chose only work that they consider explicitly critical in nature to include in their book, Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice. Stinson and Wager provide a brief and helpful description of what critical means to them in the context of mathematics education. They start more broadly and historically with the Frankfurt School and the Marxist theoretical approach of seeking to ‘critique and subvert domination in all its forms’ (2012, p. 6). They go on to claim that ‘in the most general sense, critical theory maintains sociopolitical critiques on social structures, practices, and ideology that systematically mask one-sided accounts of reality which aim to conceal and legitimate unequal power relations’ (2012, pp. 6–7). Stinson and Wager next turn to Paulo Freire and describe his critical pedagogy project. While arguing against a ‘one-size-fits-all pedagogy’ they do describe critical pedagogy as ‘a humanizing pedagogy that builds on and values students’ and teachers’ background knowledge, culture, and lived experiences […] while using social injustices as a point of departure not only for learning

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 201

17/12/2013 09:38

202

Education in North America

but also for action’ (2012, p. 8). They conclude their brief description of what is required for a pedagogy to be critical by explaining that such activities ‘must be developed in and through students’ and teachers’ local knowledges and sociopolitical experiences as both students and teachers advance more equitable and just social and political transformations’ (2012, p. 8). While there are probably forms of critical mathematics education that do not explicitly draw on Freire, the most widespread work does. Gutstein’s Freirean mathematics education project is the clearest and most influential work in this vein. His Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics: Toward a Pedagogy of Social Justice (2006) currently serves as the epicentre of the critical mathematics education movement. It is probably not a stretch to claim that it also serves as the core of the broader mathematics and social justice movement. His project, that of helping poor, urban youth of colour to simultaneously use school mathematics to better understand the sociocultural and political realities that explain their station in life and to employ mathematics to act on and improve this world (all while succeeding in the traditional game of school) cuts across all three categories at play in this chapter. It is obviously a critical project and it is also just as obviously a culturally relevant way to foster quantitative literacy. As I will address later, another reason Gutstein’s work strikes such a chord may be that it is a solid blend of theory and p–12 pedagogical practice, as his biggest ideas are brought to life in his accounts of his work as a teacher. Gutstein’s work abounds with examples of this critical theory-inspired practice. In Rethinking Mathematics he describes an activity for 7th–9th grade students called Driving While Black or Brown: A Mathematics Project about Racial Profiling. The project starts by raising the issue of racial profiling, it moves to discussion about student experiences with racial profiling and eventually to how mathematics can help us understand this social problem. The activity requires student proficiency with several mathematical concepts, including ‘randomness, experimentation, simulation, sample size, experimental and theoretical probability, and the law of large numbers’ (2013, p. 16). The students find demographic data about their city and design and perform experiments on the probability of individuals from various racial and ethnic groups being selected randomly. They compare their results to the actual data from police reports that detail the demographic breakdown of police traffic stops. The students learn to use mathematics to understand their social world. One last group of critical mathematics educators that needs to be mentioned here is those whose work focuses primarily on issues of power. Often drawing on Foucault, these researchers and scholars raise questions related to who

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 202

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

203

benefits from our current school mathematics arrangements and how could it be otherwise. Gutierrez (2010) serves as a recent example of this work, but it has a longer history going back at least to Frankenstein (1989, 1990) and Boaler (2000, 2002), to name just two trailblazers in this arena. More recently, using power as a lens has helped scholars and researchers to think about various marginalized groups and school mathematics (e.g. Berry, 2008; Rands, 2013).

The limits of how we think about mathematics: Reconceptualizing our way to social justice? There is also work in mathematics education that seeks to shine light on the problems with the ways in which we tend to think about the nature of the subject matter. While there is a variety of ideas about how we ought to think about mathematics, for the sake of this chapter the most important commonality is that changes in how we think about mathematics can aid in efforts to make mathematics classrooms sites for social justice education. Paul Ernest’s work serves as a foundation for much of this work, and as such it will be presented here not as the way to rethink mathematics for social justice but as one attempt to do so. Ernest describes three distinct but overlapping domains within which mathematics can be personally empowering for students: mathematical, social and epistemological. Mathematical empowerment means becoming fluent in the ways and language of school mathematics. Social empowerment involves using mathematics to ‘better one’s life chances’ (2002, p. 1). Ernest explains that the world in which we live is highly quantified and that knowledge of and the ability to use mathematics is critical to being able to negotiate it: Much of our experience of life is already mathematised. Unless schooling helps learners to develop the knowledge and understanding to identify these mathematisations of our world, and the confidence to question and critique them, they cannot be in full control of their own lives, nor can they become properly informed and participating citizens. (Ernest, 2002, p. 7)

The third type of mathematical empowerment is epistemological and it involves the ways in which individuals come to view their role in the creation and evaluation of knowledge, both mathematical and in general. Epistemological empowerment refers to the degree to which children recognize that they can construct new knowledge and that they have the power to determine the value of their constructions. I have used Ernest’s ideas as a point of departure to construct a philosophy of mathematics that will promote student agency in school mathematics

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 203

17/12/2013 09:38

204

Education in North America

(Stemhagen 2007a, 2007b; Stemhagen and Smith, 2008). I am certainly not alone in this project. The Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal had a two-part special issue on Social Justice in 2007. Further, Stinson and Wager’s (2012) Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice starts with a section on historical and theoretical perspectives. This section includes chapters by Frankenstein and Gutstein as well as one by Ole Skovsmose. While all excellent pieces and all possessing theoretical elements, only Skovsmose’s chapter reaches toward a novel understanding of the very nature of mathematics as a means toward social justice. He retraces his career as a critical mathematics educator and includes a brief description of his work as a doctoral student in Denmark when he was ‘missing a philosophy of mathematics that could serve as inspiration for a critical mathematics education’ (2012, p. 40). He drew on critical theory to formulate what he later refers to as an open and uncertain concept. Skovsmose (1994) gets to the heart of the connections I am seeking to make between Ernest’s empowerment and agency and democracy. It is in the Danish context and primarily at the theoretical level. It is interesting to note that most of the sort of philosophical work I am discussing in this chapter seems to come from outside the US.

The future of social justice mathematics education work: Accountability and/or democratic agency As currently conceptualized and structured, there is clearly tension between teaching for social justice and teaching for mathematics. This is a problem only given certain ways of thinking about school mathematics and its goals, and this dualism can be blurred or overcome if mathematics is re-thought in Skovsmose’s open, uncertain ways or, as I have argued, as intentional human activity. Even if this false dualism is overcome, there is another tension looming, one that might prove even trickier to contend with, namely the social justice mathematics vs. accountability through high stakes test tension (Bacon, 2012). In the US, there is possibly a small trend emerging where researchers focus on legitimizing social justice mathematics by seeking to articulate suitable metrics for it and then actually measuring it in classrooms. While an interesting and certainly well-intentioned strategy, I worry this will lead to an impoverished form of social justice mathematics education rather than an enlightened accountability system. Reagan et al. found that ‘teaching practices oriented toward social justice both relate to higher mathematics achievement’ and went so far as to suggest

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 204

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

205

that ‘teaching for social justice is compatible with enhancing pupil achievement’. The authors are explicitly thinking of their work as political and strategic: ‘Constructing and measuring teaching for social justice as an outcome of teacher education is one way in which teacher education programs can work pro-actively within the current accountability movement’ (2011, p. 33). Perhaps it is best for those interested in promoting social justice math education to approach the task from a variety of angles. Philosophers can work to articulate a broad conceptual base for this work. Empirical researchers can work within their frames to study the positive impact of this type of teaching. Mathematics education instructors can expose soon-to-be mathematics teachers to the purposes of this sort of teaching as well as how to do it. Of course, while the current standards and testing mania in the US has serious effects on schooling, it is still true that whether social justice mathematics education actually happens is in large measure up to those who teach children in US classrooms. What researchers and other scholars can do is work to make it easier for teachers to make social justice mathematics education happen. Another potential strategy for fostering social justice-oriented mathematics education is linking it to civic or democratic education. Focusing on empowerment and agency (Ernest, 2002; Stemhagen, 2007b, Stemhagen and Smith 2008) and being clear about specifically what kinds of empowerment and agency are in play could help this social justice to flourish in mathematics classes. Elsewhere, I have presented activities designed to teach mathematics, while at the same time helping to foster student voice as means toward empowerment. For example, in an article that draws on Dewey’s notions of democracy and his understandings of the nature of mathematics, I present an activity that engages students in learning how to use weighted formulae so that they can ultimately design and use quantification systems to evaluate that which they find interesting and important in their own lives. Students choose the topic, the criteria, and weigh each criterion by determining the size of the coefficients that precede each variable (criterion). They also devise a plan to test their creations: The point here is that students should have the opportunity to engage in complex mathematical thinking and, in the process, to use mathematics as a mode of self-expression and to adjust the mathematical tools they create in order to hone their modes of self-expression. (Stemhagen and Smith, 2008, p. 35)

Working on a philosophical level to articulate understandings of the nature of mathematics, of teaching and learning and the purposes of school maths

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 205

17/12/2013 09:38

206

Education in North America

that are broader and more flexible than traditional understanding will also go a long way toward improving mathematics education. The political context in the US makes it likely that the term social justice will continue to be a lightning rod. While most work carried out in the name of social justice in mathematics education seems in line with our broader educational goals, adopting the strategy of linking social justice work to civics or democratic education could well prove productive. Ultimately, perhaps a ‘both/and’, as opposed to an ‘either/or’, approach to the problem of promoting school mathematics as a place for development of civicdemocratic mindedness and concern for social justice is in order. Folks can work on social justice mathematics education from inside the accountability paradigm or from outside of it. Some of these folks might carry out empirical projects, others will develop potentially useful theory. Other researchers, scholars and teachers can continue to explore, describe successful instances of, and advocate for linking basic tenets of democratic education to school math in order to make empowerment and agency more likely outcomes of math class. Finally, some of the potentially most powerful work will incorporate multiple elements of and techniques related to socially just democratic mathematics education. Gutstein’s work is a testament to what can happen when multiple avenues are explored. If there is hope that socially just democratic mathematics education can overcome the effects of thousands of years of philosophical baggage, it will be because a sound philosophical base served as the foundation for a movement that welcomed and included teachers, students, parents, researchers, mathematicians and others. This movement starts with ideas but includes empirical research and narrative description of successes. In particular, the synergy between Gutstein’s work and the annual math and Social Justice conference seems promising. Perhaps more philosophers and practitioners will continue to get drawn into this movement as it continues to coalesce and develop some gravitational pull of its own. The political push against it could serve to speed up this process or it could eventually force it to lose momentum. For the sake of students’ experiences in mathematics classes across the US and beyond, let us hope for the former.

References Bacon, C. (2012). Implementing social justice in math during the standards based era. Rising Tide, 5, pp. 1–22. http://www.smcm.edu/educationstudies/pdf/rising-tide/ volume–5/Bacon.pdf [accessed 17 February 2013].

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 206

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

207

Banks J. and Banks C. (2007). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (6th edn). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley–Blackwell. Barton, B. (1999). Ethnomathematics: A political plaything. For the Learning of Mathematics, 19 (1), pp. 32–5. Beck, G. (2010). Glen Beck: What is Social Justice. http://www.glennbeck.com/content/ articles/article/198/38320/ [accessed 21 March 2013]. Bell, L. (1997). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L. Bell and P. Griffin (eds), Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, pp. 3–15. Berry III, R. Q. (2008). Access to upper-level mathematics: The stories of successful African American middle school boys. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, pp. 464–88. Bishop, A. J. (1990). Mathematical power to the people. Harvard Educational Review, 60 (3), pp. 357–70. Boaler, J. (2000). Intricacies of knowledge, practice and theory. In J. Boaler (ed.), Multiple Perspectives on Mathematics Teaching and Learning. Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing. —(2002) The development of disciplinary relationships: Knowledge, practice and identity in mathematics classrooms. For the Learning of Mathematics, 22 (1), pp. 42–7. D’Ambrosio, U. (1985). Ethnomathematics and its place in the history and pedagogy of mathematics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 5 (1), pp. 44–8. Down, B. and Smyth, J. (eds) (2012). Critical Voices in Teacher Education: Teaching for Social Justice in Conservative Times. New York: Springer. Ernest, P. (2002). Empowerment in mathematics education. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, 15 (1), pp. 1–16. François, K., Coessens, K. and Van Bendegem, J. P. (2013). The spaces of mathematics: Dynamic encounters between local and universal. In Educational Research: The Importance and Effects of Institutional Spaces. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, pp. 135–52. Frankenstein, M. (1989). Relearning Mathematics: A Different Third R—Radical Math. London: Free Association Books. —(1990). Incorporating race, gender, and class issues into a critical mathematical literacy curriculum. Journal of Negro Education, 59, pp. 336–47. Freedman, E. (2007). Is teaching for social justice undemocratic? Harvard Educational Review, 77 (4), pp. 442–73. Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53 (2), pp. 106–16. Gutierrez, R. (2010). The sociopolitical turn in mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 41, pp. 1–32. —(2013). I thought this place was supposed to be about freedom: Young Latinas engage in mathematics and social change to save their school. In E. Gutstein, and B.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 207

17/12/2013 09:38

208

Education in North America

Peterson (eds), Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (2nd edn). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics; Toward a Pedagogy of Social Justice. New York: Routledge. Gutstein, E. and Peterson, B. (eds) (2013). Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (2nd edn). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Hackman, H. W. (2005). Five essential components for social justice education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 38 (2), pp. 103–9. Horowitz, D. (2009). Indoctrination U.: The Left’s War Against Academic Freedom. New York: Encounter Books. Hytten, K. (2011). Building relationships: Reimagining ‘help’ in social justice education. In N. Pope and S. Southall (eds), South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society 2011 Yearbook. South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society Charleston, SC. pp. 69–82. Kilpatrick, J. (2012). Foreword. In D. Stinson and A. Wager (eds), Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Conversations With Educators, Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Kwako, J. (2011). Changing the balance in an unjust world: Learning to teach mathematics for social justice. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 4 (1), pp. 15–22. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32 (3), pp. 465–91. Moses, R. and Cobb, C. (2001). Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Ortiz-Franco, L. (2103). Chicanos have math in their blood: Pre-Columbian mathematics. In E. Gutstein and B. Peterson (eds), Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (2nd edn), Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Peterson, B. (2013). Write the truth: Presidents and slaves. In E. Gutstein and B. Peterson (eds), Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (2nd edn), Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Rands, K. (2013). Supporting transgender and gender-nonconforming youth through teaching mathematics for social justice. Journal of LGBT Youth, 10 (1–2), pp. 106–26. Reagan, E., Pedulla, J., Jong, C., Cannady, M. and Cochran-Smith, M. (2011). Measuring practices of teaching for social justice in elementary mathematics classrooms. Educational Research Quarterly, 34 (3), pp. 15–39. Rogoff, B. and Lave, J. (1984). Everyday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Skovsmose, O. (1994). Towards a Philosophy of Critical Mathematics Education. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. —(2012). Critical mathematics education: A dialogical journey. In D. Stinson and A. Wager (eds), Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Conversations with Educators, Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 208

17/12/2013 09:38



Education for Social Justice in the United States

209

Stemhagen, K. (2007a). Toward an empowering and socially just mathematics education: The importance of context, the dangers of expertise, and the potential of ‘outsight’. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, 20 (2). http://people.exeter. ac.uk/PErnest/pome19/index.htm [accessed 30 October 2013]. —(2007b). Social justice and mathematics: rethinking the nature and purposes of school mathematics. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, 19 (1). http:// people.exeter.ac.uk/PErnest/pome21/index.htm [accessed 30 October 2013]. Stemhagen, K. and Smith, J. (2008). Dewey, democracy, and mathematics education: Reconceptualizing the last bastion of curricular certainty. Education and Culture, 24 (2), pp. 25–40. Stinson, D. and Wager, A. (2012). Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Conversations with Educators. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Wagner, D. and Borden, L. (2012). Aiming for equity in ethnomathematics research. In Equity in Discourse for Mathematics Education. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, pp. 69–87. Zaslavsky, C. (2013). Multicultural math: One road to the goal of mathematics for all. In E. Gutstein and B. Peterson (eds), Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers (2nd edn). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 209

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 210

17/12/2013 09:38

10

The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges Leonard J. Waks

This chapter assesses internet use in American schools and opportunities for its further development. To make this assessment we will need to understand the internet, its spread in schools and classrooms, and its specific contributions to learning and social behaviour. In Part One we survey the spread of the internet technology throughout American schools and classrooms and consider its uses in instruction. In Part Two we move from the merely descriptive to the historical and conceptual levels, examining the origins of the internet to demonstrate that internet architecture by design undermines hierarchy to liberate end users at powerful workplace computers and mobile devices for rich and creative learning, collaboration and collective action. In Part Three we examine emerging internet educational applications and policy developments to determine whether American schools are taking full advantage of unique opportunities for learning provided by the internet. In particular, we ask whether they can accommodate the anti-hierarchical trend inherent in the internet.

Part One: The spread of the internet in US schools In the United States, the National Center for Educational Statistics has been charting the spread of the internet in schools and classrooms since 1994. The Center has been particularly interested in uses of the internet to enhance connectivity among teachers, students and websites; the availability of online teacher professional development; and student-to-computer ratios. It has also charted the use of technologies to prevent student access to materials considered inappropriate.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 211

17/12/2013 09:38

212

Education in North America

In 1994 only 3 per cent of public school classrooms had computers with internet access. By 2005 nearly 100 per cent of US schools and 94 per cent of classrooms had internet computers, and by 2008 97 per cent of US teachers had one or more computers with internet access in their classrooms all day, every day, and more than half had additional laptop computers or computer carts on call when needed. In 1996 74 per cent of the internet computers in schools had dial-up access but by 2005 97 per cent – and nearly 100 per cent of those in larger schools – had a broadband connection. Because of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) legislation of 2000 that made technologies blocking inappropriate uses a prerequisite for receiving the preferential e-rate discount, nearly 100 per cent of schools used blocking technologies and procedures to control student internet use. By 1999 more than half of all schools reported that teachers used the internet for instructional purposes during regular class time or assigned student work involving internet use. To accelerate the use of the internet, by 2005 83 per cent of schools reported that they had offered teachers professional development on how to infuse the internet into the curriculum within the past 12 months. Still, by 2009 only 43 per cent of teachers reported that they used the internet for instructional purposes ‘often’ and 29 per cent ‘sometimes’, suggesting that almost a third of US teachers still did not use the internet at all for instruction. The ratio of students per internet computer has rapidly declined. In 1998, when first measured, there were on average 12.1 students for each internet computer in US schools. By 2005 that ratio had declined to 3.8 students per computer, and in 2008 to 3.1. This figure does not include hand-held or mobile computer devices, so it vastly understates actual access, as many students own their own personal mobile devices. While in earlier years the ratio of students per computer was higher for low-income schools (those with 75 per cent or more students receiving free or subsidized lunch), by 2008 that difference had been almost erased, as the ratio in low-income schools was only 3.2 students per computer, just one-tenth of one student lower than average. How are these computers being used in areas other than classroom instruction? The Center reports that 89 per cent of schools use internet computers to inform school planning, 87 per cent to collect and analyse assessment data, 32 per cent to provide online instruction in courses not otherwise available in school. How can we understand these statistics? Nearly 100 per cent of schools, and 97 per cent of classrooms, now provide internet access. The number of students per internet computer is declining, and when we include mobile devices, we may imagine that a one-to-one ratio may be attained in the foreseeable future,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 212

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

213

even in low-income schools. In other words, the battles for internet access and closing the access digital divide in schools have for practical purposes been won. This shifts the question from access to use: just how are internet computers being used in instruction in US classrooms? Here the digital divide reappears in a new form. Eighty-three per cent of teachers in low-income schools report using internet technology for learning and practising basic skills. In highincome schools (those where less than 35 per cent of the students receive free or subsidized lunch) only 63 per cent of teachers report using internet resources for such purposes. This suggests the need for a distinction between shallow or superficial uses of the internet and deep uses that transform instruction and learning. Drill and practice software programs, whether resident in school computers or available online, are high-tech variants of techniques established long before the computer age – e.g. work sheets and flash cards. Computers may add to efficiency of use or speed in feedback to students, but they do not fundamentally change learning. In high-income schools, however, internet technologies are used to prepare and edit texts; create and use graphic images; create music, art and poetry; produce webcasts and videos; produce products for use by external communities, etc. These rich and creative uses are transformative and Web 2.0 technologies lend themselves directly to such uses. The significantly greater use for drill and practice in low-income schools versus the rich and creative uses in high-income schools introduces a new and deeper kind of digital divide (Valadez and Duran, 2007). This is especially troubling in light of research suggesting the counter-intuitive results that drill and practice software has no positive treatment effects, while rich and creative uses have positive effects even on tests of student achievement. Mark Dynarski and his associates at the National Center for Educational Evaluation used an experimental design to evaluate the value of commercial software packages for reading and math instruction in four distinct grade levels (United States Department of Education (USDE), 2009). The packages were selected on the basis of prior research suggesting positive effects. All teachers in the experimental group received training on how to use the packages, and no significant technical glitches prevented their optimal uses. Indeed, when teachers used them, students spent more time on task, and teachers shifted from lecturing to coaching students and facilitating learning. Nonetheless the researchers concluded that in all grades and in both math and reading the use of the packages had no significant positive effects on test scores. By contrast, Harold Wenglinsky analysed data from 40,000 students and concluded that rich and creative uses of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 213

17/12/2013 09:38

214

Education in North America

internet technologies correlated with significant increases in their scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (Wenglinsky, 2005–6).1 How are we to explain these results? One possibility is that teachers have always used drill and practice methods, and software applications simply do not add significant advantages to old-fashioned techniques. Possibly teachers in low-income schools face more pressures regarding test scores, and respond ineffectively by devoting still more time to drill and practice. Possibly children in low-income schools do not demonstrate to teachers their readiness or capabilities to use the internet in rich and creative ways, or that teachers in low-income schools are simply less sophisticated in the uses of the internet for instruction. Further research will be necessary to tease out adequate explanations. Regardless, such studies suggest that all students should get equal opportunities for rich and creative internet use, and that teachers need more professional development in using internet technologies in these ways, especially with low-income students.

Part Two: Anti-hierarchical tendencies in the internet and creative learning In this section I offer an historical and conceptual examination of the internet itself, to better understand rich and creative uses of internet technologies and their place in schools and classrooms.

What is the internet? The internet is the global network of interconnected computer networks accessible to the general public, transmitting multimedia digital data by packet switching using standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a super-network of millions of interconnected smaller networks, including personal, academic, commercial and governmental networks, support structures for e-mail, and the linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW). The internet with its billions of end-point networked computers is the largest and most powerful machine the world has ever known. The real power, however, lies not in the machinery and wires but in the end users who create, share, collaborate and act collectively. Today all areas of adult life are being transformed by the internet. The net is not merely a new technology but the grid of a new global network form of social life. The machine

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 214

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

215

is really a giant centrifuge, forcing power outward from hierarchical systems to computer end users, individually and collectively forming a networked global society. Through their actions these ‘netizens’ are building a distinct network culture, with specific norms and values, that is the antithesis of the hierarchical culture dominating our schools. To understand the challenge posed by the internet, it is crucial to grasp the extent to which the shift from hierarchical control to autonomous computer users has guided internet architecture right from the start, and to grasp the educational implications of this shift.

The origins of the internet In 1958 Burton H. Klein, a former Research And Development Corporation (RAND) organization researcher, argued in Fortune that conventional military research suffered from ‘too much direction and control’ (Klein, 1958). RAND’s loosening of planning and control, Klein asserted, had fostered creative thinking and collaboration. Another former RAND researcher spoke of the ‘anarchy of both policy and administration’ prevailing in RAND, giving each worker a unique degree of individual freedom (Ryan, 2010, p. 44). In 1959 Paul Baran signed on at RAND to study telephone grids organized around central hubs. If enemies destroyed just a few hubs – e.g. in military communications regarding nuclear weapons – they could render the whole system useless. Baran imagined a robust communication network system without central hubs, capable of continually rerouting messages from destroyed lines to those still active (Wikipedia, n.d.).

The workstation computer In 1950 a US Air Force study revealed that, in a first strike, US air defences could stop no more than 10 per cent of incoming Soviet strike forces. The Air Force proposed establishing a ring of radars around United States borders. But how could the operators communicate? The only computers then were large mainframes controlled by central systems administrators. But time delays made centrally administered computers useless for the radar station operators who needed instantaneous actionable information about enemy air positions. The operators needed something that did not yet exist: personal interactive computers. Lincoln Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) designed the ‘Whirlwind’, which the Digital Equipment Corporation DEC developed commercially as the PDP–1. In 1960 J. C. R. Licklider obtained the first PDP–1

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 215

17/12/2013 09:38

216

Education in North America

to explore computer networks, and in 1962 he envisioned an ‘Intergalactic Computer Network’ – the first detailed vision of the internet – to connect all such computers. When Licklider moved to the US military’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1963, ARPA was a far-flung network with programmes at several universities, and its researchers were unable to draw upon each other’s document files or collaborate directly. ARPA used Licklider’s ‘Intergalactic’ design to build ARPANET, and commissioned an internet translation protocol (TCP/IP) to enable all machines to talk with one another. When ARPA was refocused on immediate defence needs in 1973, funding for network research and development dried up. ARPA researchers moved from their universities to technology firms. Some migrated to XEROX PARC (Palo Alto Research Corporation), including Doug Engelbart, a specialist on human– machine interactions, whose life mission was to make the world a better place by developing computers capable of stimulating creativity, enabling collaboration and harnessing collective intelligence. In 1962, while Licklider was presenting his vision of an ‘intergalactic network’, Engelbart, with ARPA funding, expanded his mission statement as Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework (Engelbart, 1962) and in December 1968 he displayed his results, including the mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, dynamic file linking and a collaborative real-time editor, in a legendary performance that has been called ‘the mother of all demos’. Engelbart joined PARC in 1973 and rapidly produced the first interactive workstation computer, the Xerox Alto, thus connecting packet switching networks and workstation computers. By the early 1980s networked computing was available to the public. In 1990 the first commercial internet service provider (ISP), The World, opened for business and Prodigy launched the first internet portal. Five years later the internet, no longer owned by the US government, was readied for unfettered commercial and creative development.

The World Wide Web, Web 2.0 and the net culture The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessible from the internet. Armed with a web browser, a computer user can select, view and in some cases modify multimedia web pages and navigate between them via hyperlinks. In its current form, Web 2.0, users enjoy a rich multimedia environment for individual creativity and group collaboration. Web 2.0 technologies advanced rapidly after 2003. Broadband grew from 15 per cent to 25 per cent of American households. Google purchased Blogger.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 216

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

217

Friendster, the first web-based social network, came online. In 2004 ABC News listed ‘Bloggers’ among its People of the Year in 2004, and social networks MySpace and Facebook came online. Rupert Murdoch, who bought MySpace in 2005, stated that: […] the Internet […] is a transforming technology that will have as great an impact on our civilization as the invention of the wheel, the printing press, steam power and the combustion engine. (Angwin, 2009, p. 210)

In 2006, Time Magazine named ‘You’ as the Person of the Year. By ‘You’, Time’s editors meant the masses of people, especially teens and young adults, participating in user-generated content on social networks, blogs, wikis and media-sharing sites. As Time editors put it, the new web was a: […] story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before […] about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing. (Grossman, 2006)

Understanding Web 2.0 What is Web 2.0? New network technologies such as AJAX, Flash, Google Gears and Adobe AIR make the web experience more interactive and engaging, but they don’t define Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a social technology – the platform for networked individual self-expression and social participation. It enables all end users, free from central control, to express themselves, share with others, create neat things individually using digital tools, collaborate and act collectively. Because of this social technology the web today is a common possession of people, young and old, throughout much of the world. The culture and organizational structure of conventional schooling, by contrast, is hierarchical: predetermined learning goals and objectives are set by educational agencies and passed down from above to teachers for implementation. Standardized tests are employed to assure that teachers and learners conform to the mandates from above. For education to embrace rich and creative internet uses it must renounce control of learning through detailed planning and objectives and embrace a Web 2.0 culture. Like RAND, schools would have to welcome a degree of anarchy by giving each learner a considerable degree of individual freedom. Teachers could no longer act as central system administrators in the learning setting. Instead, networked learners would learn much of the time through shared access to the world’s knowledge and information available on the internet.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 217

17/12/2013 09:38

218

Education in North America

Part Three: The web in the school Can schools rise to this challenge? In this section we’ll explore new uses of the internet in web-oriented classrooms, new online cyber-schools, and new educational policies for integrating the internet into educational practice.

Classroom 2.0 A ‘Classroom 2.0’ movement has grown among teachers in the United States and elsewhere, employing the internet for creative uses in their teaching practices. Most of the participants are school teachers, technology directors and school administrators. They remain bound by confining regulations, top-down standards and standardized high-stakes tests. Not surprisingly, their concerns in seminars and workshops remain: ‘What I can do with Web 2.0 tomorrow morning in my school or classroom that is aligned with our state standards?’ Many web applications can be used in school classrooms. Students use Google and Wikipedia to find information; teachers use Skype to connect their students with those in other schools. Students use flip cameras on field trips and upload videos to YouTube; teachers blog and involve students in blogging. Teachers create lessons, units and courses on curriculum wikis like Curricki, which can be freely used, modified and augmented by other teachers. Teachers can use free open source textbooks from publishing firms such as Flat World Publishing, which permit users to modify, delete or augment the contents at will.2 If you can imagine an application of web tools in schools and colleges, it probably already exists and is in use somewhere.

Flat Classroom and the Digiteen project Classroom 2.0 is nonetheless tied to classrooms with highly regulated practices. But some Classroom 2.0 applications move beyond classrooms and use virtual learning environments to connect schools throughout the world. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach are well illustrated by Flat Classroom, a project co-founded in 2006 by Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools in the United States) and Australian Julie Lindsay (now working in Beijing, China). The project, to cite its website, ‘uses Web 2.0 tools to support communication and interaction as well as collaboration and creation between students and teachers from classrooms around the world’. If we are seeking to discover the cutting

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 218

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

219

edge of rich and creative internet uses in classrooms, Flat Classroom is a good place to look.3 Flat Classroom aims to develop ‘a deeper understanding of the effects of technology on our world that leads students to not only study but actually experience’ the ‘flattening’ impact of network technologies. Students are grouped with global partners to explain trends, give personal viewpoints and create collaborative videos; they use blogging, digital photography, videos and a wiki to build web pages. The videos they produce are reviewed by a global panel of judges. Flat Classroom has won many high-profile awards for web-based educational innovation. Digiteen is a Flat Classroom project on digital citizenship for middle and high school youth linking classrooms in separate countries. Students meet in a dedicated social network and through videoconferencing. They collaborate in learning about digital citizenship by studying personal online safety, digital security and privacy, netiquette, digital rights and responsibilities, the psychology of digital network use, laws governing intellectual property, and the basics of digital commerce. The students are presented with background information and selected videos on each of these issues. Then they do further research in their classrooms and exchange results with global partners. Using video cameras and video-editing programs, they produce video clips and exchange them with the global partners through blogs, social networks and videoconferencing. Eventually each class produces a final cut of the videos, incorporating some of its partner’s clips.4 There is obviously much to like in Digiteen. It uses rich technologies, conveys useful information, fosters collaboration, and helps in building global awareness. There are also some drawbacks. First, Digiteen does not make free use of the internet. Students do not announce their projects openly or crowdsource support. They can’t say: ‘Hey, we’re making a video about digital issues like child safety and intellectual property. Can you send along anything that might help, no matter how small?’ Instead, the assignment of global partners is top-down; Digiteen learners are constrained by hierarchical arrangements. Second, the global partners encounter each other only in classrooms, and while the youngsters from the two groups live in different cultures, the culture of the classroom is the same, limiting Digiteen as a context for intercultural learning. Third, the materials provided for the learners about digital issues are carefully selected and organized to shape an approved viewpoint on digital citizenship. Students do not freely discuss personal safety issues and come to their own conclusions; they are told up front that the internet is a dangerous place. They

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 219

17/12/2013 09:38

220

Education in North America

do not discuss intellectual copyright issues; they are told up front how ethically wrong and legally risky it is to use copyrighted files. This viewpoint is baked into the pre-specified learning objectives of the program derived from predetermined curriculum standards. These predetermined learning objectives arguably compromise student research, which is limited to materials supporting the pre-approved viewpoint. Imagine instead that students were prodded to find materials asserting multiple viewpoints, e.g. that the dangers of the internet are overblown or that the current intellectual property regime is an unethical power grab. Given norms prevailing in the youth culture, some young people are likely to find such views appealing. Genuine research involves thinking – selecting and organizing materials to make arguments and support conclusions. Digiteen arguably risks closing down thinking about the issues it addresses by baking in obligatory conclusions. These concerns are not merely abstract. The videos made by Digiteen learners have a ‘goody-goody’ feel expressing an approved viewpoint: don’t talk to strangers online, don’t use copyrighted files, don’t surf the internet in school unless the teacher tells you to. This may (or may not) be good digital citizenship. But as it is contrary to global youth norms and beliefs, it appears that the videos are not free, creative expressions of Digiteen participants. Digiteen learners are learning to use Web 2.0 tools, but also learning to comply with hierarchical classroom dictates. Digiteen may be as good as it gets so long as educational uses of Web 2.0 remain confined within a hierarchical framework, but it hardly encourages free, creative use of the internet for learning.

Web 2.0 and virtual schools New cyber-schools have brought the entire process of schooling online. They are important to understand because online learning is a rapidly growing trend. The state of Idaho recently introduced a statewide digital learning academy that now pipes online courses into every school in the state. We might expect to see important new developments in internet uses in cyber-schools, because they depend on the internet. When we examine existing cyber-schools, however, we find that despite their innovations in technology and space utilization, they still rely on age-grading, predetermined curriculum and standardized tests; they remain tightly bound by hierarchical structures. The Online High School of Utah (OHSU), directed by the visionary David Wiley, opened in 2009. Its mantra is: ‘Focus on student learning and outsource

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 220

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

221

everything else’ (Wiley, 2009, p. 37). Wiley’s central idea is that in addition to instructional tasks, schools are burdened by a number of others: financial management and accounting, government relations, grant management, public relations, facilities management, technology management, union relations, and more. Individual schools and districts can’t afford staff dedicated to these specialized functions; thus they are bundled in the job descriptions of school personnel lacking expertise in any of them. OHSU outsources these tasks to specialized strategic partners. The school staff accordingly handles nothing but instruction. OHSU has an ‘open curriculum philosophy’. This means that it uses open access tools exclusively: open source software for its virtual learning environments and its learning management system, open access textbooks and curriculum materials, and open courseware (OCW) from MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Yale. OHSU employs only a director (principal), an open curriculum development staff, and licensed teachers. In addition to producing (and retrofitting) curriculum materials and courseware for the school, the curriculum developers and teachers also make their home-grown or modified materials available through open source licences to other schools throughout the world. The school retains a commitment, however, to sequenced curriculum and state curriculum standards. Its curriculum developers ‘take open educational resources as a starting point, go through a state standards curriculum alignment and gap analysis process, create missing pieces, and then assemble complete, coherent online courses’ (Wiley, 2009, p. 38). While OHSU staff members control all instructional services, other cyberschools may choose to outsource some or all instructional services to online instructional providers and firms. This could provide schools with instructors possessing specialized state-of-the-art skill sets in cyber-education, regardless of physical location, certification or union representation.5 Global provider markets or instructional firms could then make writers, artists and musicians, scientists, engineers and craftsmen available as online teachers. The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, for example, outsources almost all instructional services to strategic partners, while the Michigan Virtual School employs 100 part-time but only two full-time teachers (Bonk, 2009, p. 105).6 Despite their ‘open’ philosophies, OHSU and other cyber-schools do not break significantly from top-down hierarchical teaching and learning: (1) the schools remain fundamentally age-graded, because subject matters are structured by standards tied to annualized age-graded courses; (2) subject matter remains organized into predetermined, pre-sequenced curricula; (3) didactic

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 221

17/12/2013 09:38

222

Education in North America

methods – for example lectures, text readings and student work sheets – continue to prevail; (4) work continues to be assessed by standardized tests. The internet is used as a delivery vehicle, not as a transformative tool freeing learners to create, collaborate and act collectively.

Emerging policy for internet use in education Schools and classrooms remain bounded by top-down practices that constrain rich and creative uses of the internet. Policy leaders have been rethinking the uses of the internet in schools. Are they rethinking these hierarchical constraints? We can get a glimpse of current policy thinking about the internet in schools by examining a recent report from President Barack Obama’s White House and Secretary Arne Duncan’s Department of Education, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology (TAE) (USDE, 2010). This report was presented to the Obama White House in 2011 after seeking guidance from policy leaders in the Department of Education and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Laced with inspirational quotes from President Obama and Secretary Duncan, the report offers a clear window into the administration’s thinking. A close look at the report shows that policymakers and their expert consultants still cannot see beyond a hierarchical approach to learning and schooling, even when embracing new digital technologies. Although the introduction to the report calls boldly for ‘revolution not evolution’ and sets out to ‘rethink basic assumptions’, to ‘redesign the system’ and implement ‘fundamental changes’ (USDE, 2010, p. x), the hierarchical approach remains firmly in place. The language of ‘revolution’ is rapidly dropped and the report returns to tired claims about ‘maximum efficiency’ in meeting specified learning objectives so that ‘every learner’ graduates from high schools with ‘world-class standards’. Readers will look in vain for signs of rich and creative internet uses. We can compare the proposed reforms of the Transforming American Education (TAE) with an approach that opens up optimal space for creative Web 2.0 uses in schools in terms of learning, assessment and teaching that we will call Education 2.0 (Waks, 2013).

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 222

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

223

Learning On TAE’s educational vision, common national standards will generate standardized goals and objectives. Assessment will consist in measuring attainment of specified learning objectives. No space is set aside for assessing learning obtained by students through rich and creative uses of the internet. Education 2.0, by contrast, rejects the idea of education as production of pre-specified learning objectives. Rather, it aims to enhance young people in their individual and collective fitness for living in the internet era through mastery of digital tools. Transforming American Education conceives internet technologies as tools for enhancing school learning. TAE acknowledges that young people with access already use the internet in rich and creative ways outside of school. It observes that students cannot use these tools effectively in today’s schools and classrooms because the curriculum has not been reshaped to incorporate them, and because schools block their use due to safety and privacy concerns. The report proposes that internet use in school should be ‘seamlessly integrated’ with out-of-school web-based learning, and that the curriculum be reorganized around national curriculum standards and translated into specific learning objectives including new twenty-first-century competencies. The Education 2.0 alternative, by contrast, conceives significant learning shaped primarily by learners’ own ways of making sense of their experiences, not as attaining ready-made learning objectives. It conceives of learners as already engaged in experiences from which they can learn. Teachers are seen as useful insofar as they establish conditions, including internet access and capabilities for internet use, in which learners’ present motivations can be leveraged to enhance learning power. The new internet technologies provide limitless means for tapping into learner motivations: to learn a program like Photoshop makes one feel more capable and enables one to create products that others can use and admire. Facebook helps young people make friends and communicate with them. Developing high-tech skills in general makes young people feel better about themselves and their abilities to achieve their goals. Because internet tools are readily learned by young people through social exchange and ubiquitous online video tutorials, kids who have access to the tools learn to use them quickly without much instruction. Twenty-first-century professionals pick up these capabilities in the same ways and for the same reasons: because the tools serve their purposes. Teachers and learners are no different: they use the tools out of school because they are useful; they don’t use

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 223

17/12/2013 09:38

224

Education in North America

these tools in school because the tools don’t link to opportunities presented in hierarchically controlled environments. The most important step in promoting rich and creative uses of the internet in schools and classes is to sharply reduce the level of hierarchical control over learning.

Assessment Transforming American Education remains wedded to the measurement of learning objectives, asserting merely that we need more up-to-date objectives, in particular ‘21st century competencies’. The report has a throwaway line about possible learning activities that lie ‘beyond’ specified learning objectives, but it never again mentions such activities. Instead, continuous measurement-based assessment is proposed to provide actionable feedback throughout instruction to improve learning of objectives. The authors propose that internet technologies be used to generate feedback to improve learning. The report also insists on a national definition of learning standards so that measurements across different municipalities, states and regions can produce data for analysis and feedback for continuous improvement. This policy would require changes in state and federal regulations to permit the collection and storage of a lifelong data trail for individuals while protecting their privacy rights. An Education 2.0 approach, by contrast, denies that the most important results of learning are analysable and measurable. What matters most in learning lies beyond analysis and measurement because it is emergent. Poems are made out of words with pre-existing meanings; drawings are made from colour patches with independent visual properties. However, the placement and interaction of words in poems and colour patches in drawings create new wholes with new values. The same applies to performances in the sciences and humanities: their properties are emergent. They involve selection and placement of parts in new relationships and attending to the interactive effects. Each of these is a new creation, not predicable from or reducible to the parts. No checklists of standard criteria can capture them. Such productions draw on unique personal experiences, interactions with others engaged in similar pursuits and persistent experimentation and self-determined learning. Rich and creative uses of internet technologies facilitate precisely these processes. They cannot be contained within any system of top-down assessment based on standards and standardized tests. The primary mode of evaluation of these internet productions is thus authentic assessment.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 224

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

225

Teaching TAE claims that a technology gap exists between teachers and professionals in other fields, creating a paucity of tech-savvy teachers. The report calls on teacher training programmes to train teachers to use the new tools. The report laments teachers’ lack of commitment to data collection, assessment and utilization, and ‘evidence-based teaching’ to improve achievement of standardized goals, objectives and competencies. They prescribe compulsory teacher training in internet utilization. An Education 2.0 approach views the technology gap quite differently, observing that individuals master new digital tools when they see good uses for them. Doctors, lawyers and financial advisors do not learn to use internet-based tools in professional school classrooms; they learn them on the fly, as needed. If professionals adopt these tools spontaneously in their work, and students adopt them outside of school, while neither teachers nor students adopt them in school, the problem must lie in the school context rather than in the training or capabilities of teachers or students. There is thus no technology gap in the teaching profession, only in the schooling context. The new technologies will be adopted by teachers spontaneously when the educational context makes their rich and creative use necessary and beneficial. When students are freed to use internet tools in rich and creative ways, teachers will need all of the resources at their disposal just to keep up. They will spontaneously form their own personal learning networks based on their own affinities and are likely to eschew those imposed in a top-down fashion. They will learn or invent new and unpredicted teaching strategies, alone or in collaboration with local or online colleagues. All of this is already happening without any top-down pressure from state policy or colleges of education, as teachers experiment with the web.

Conclusion The internet has now penetrated the schools and classrooms of the United States. Nearly every classroom has one or more networked computers, and we are slowly moving to a situation where almost all learners will have immediate access to networked computers throughout the school day. The digital divide regarding internet access in school has been erased. But a deeper and more troublesome divide is opening up between rote and ineffective internet uses in low-income schools and rich, creative and effective uses in high-income schools.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 225

17/12/2013 09:38

226

Education in North America

When we shift our attention from internet access to internet use and examine new developments in internet uses and new internet utilization policies, we discover that they do not conduce to free, rich and creative internet uses. Classroom 2.0, cyber-schools and government policies have not yet come to grips with the full potential of the internet for school and classroom learning. They remain stuck in a hierarchical paradigm. If the internet is to become a powerful and transformative tool in learning, the process of schooling will have to move beyond hierarchy and embrace frameworks open to learner-directed internet-based learning.

References Angwin, J. (2009). Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. New York: Random House Digital. Bonk, C. J. (2009). The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Engelbart, D. C. (1962). Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. SRI Summary Report AFOSR–3223, Prepared for: Director of Information Sciences, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Washington 25, DC, October 1962. http://www. dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment–3906.html Grossman, L. (2006). You – Yes, You – Are TIME’s Person of the Year. Time Magazine, 25 December 2006. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,1570810,00.htm Julia Angwin, Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America, New York: Random House, 2009. Klein, B. H. (1958). A radical proposal for R and D. Fortune 57 (5), pp. 112–13. Ryan, J. (2010). The History of the Internet and the Digital Future. London: Reaktion Books. USDE (2009). Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from Two Student Cohorts. Executive Summary. US Department of Education, National Center for Educational Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Report NCEE 2009–4042, February 2009. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094041/pdf/20094042.pdf —(2010). Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology: National Educational Technology Plan 2010. Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education, 5 March 2010. http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/ NETP–2010-final-report.pdf Valadez, J. R. and Duran, R. (2007). Redefining the digital divide: Beyond access to computers and the internet. The High School Journal, 90 (3), pp. 31–44. Waks, L. J. (2013). Education 2.0: The Learningweb Revolution and the Transformation of the School. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 226

17/12/2013 09:38



The Internet in Education: Developments and Challenges

227

Wenglinsky, H. (2005–6). Technology and achievement: The bottom line. Educational Leadership, 63 (4), pp. 29–32. http://imoberg.com/files/ Technology_and_Achievement_--_The_Bottom_Line_Wenglinsky_H._.pdf. Wikipedia (n.d.) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Baran. Wiley, D. (2009). The Open High School of Utah: Openness, disaggregation, and the future of schools. TechTrends, 53 (4), pp. 37–40.

Notes 1 Wenglinsky adds, ‘The fact that computers were most effective when teachers used them to promote higher-order thinking skills is a huge argument in favor of technology; CEOs of major companies say again and again that they need workers who can come up with creative solutions to complex problems.’ 2 Flat World has adopted a ‘freemium’ business model, making open source texts available for free online and charging competitive prices for hard copy texts and teachers manuals. 3 Information about the Flat Classroom Project is available on its website, http:// www.flatclassroomproject.org/ 4 Information about Digiteen is available on its website, http://digiteen13–1. flatclassroomproject.org/home 5 State laws may prohibit the use of uncertified, unlicensed teachers or prohibit arrangements that circumvent collective bargaining. Many school districts, however, already outsource some instructional services to partner firms, at the same time effectively outsourcing responsibility for certification and collective bargaining and opening questions about whether online teachers are certified or unionized. 6 Bonk doesn’t describe the contractual relations of the part-time teachers, but it is hard to imagine that they are all certified and unionized.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 227

17/12/2013 09:38

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 228

17/12/2013 09:38

11

World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World Audrey L. Heining-Boynton and Mary Lynn Redmond

Education is extolled as an important component that helps create and support strong, vibrant societies. A robust educational system develops contributing citizens who participate positively within their society. During the middle and last half of the twentieth century in the United States, an ongoing discussion occurred regarding what constituted the most important components of a well-educated citizenry. Science and mathematics rose to the top of the list of important subjects, but what about language education? English had become the lingua franca of the world, and communities across the United States began to perceive teaching languages in addition to English as less important, since ‘everyone speaks English’. Also adding to the decline in world language education in the 1970s and early 1980s was a lack of understanding and delivery of appropriate, rigorous language goals for a populace that needed to become more internationalized. Beginning in the late 1980s in the United States, changes began within the world language profession that broke with tradition. These changes came about based upon empirical data in fields such as the neurosciences, educational psychology and language acquisition. Concurrently, communities across the United States needed to be educated on the importance of multilingualism, and the fact that languages in addition to English belong at the core of all first-rate curricula. Preparing citizens to function in a global economy is a long-term priority. A priority of world language educators remains to demonstrate to the general population how languages in addition to English relate to all areas of the curriculum. Our economies in North America and throughout the world have become interconnected and interdependent, and we need prepared citizens who are able to function and thrive in multinational, multilingual global settings.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 229

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

230

Languages in addition to English are a needed skill of all global citizens, no matter what their life vocation may be. The purpose of this chapter is to share past and present accomplishments, how these accomplishments relate to other disciplines, and what the future holds for world language education pre-kindergarten through four years of university study in the United States. What will become evident is how interconnected language learning is to all other curricular disciplines, and how important it is to the future of international cooperation and détente that we succeed in our mission of creating multilingual populaces. This chapter will be divided into five sections: proficiency and the National Standards; when to begin language study and which languages to study; teachers and teaching; advocacy; and initiatives. These five sections will be further divided into the following subsections: past and present; connecting with other disciplines; and the future.

Proficiency and the National Standards Past and present Prior to the launch of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines, the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the Standards for Foreign Language Learning from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, language teaching across the United States was predominantly grammardriven. Yes, methods such as the direct method (Berlitz) and the audio-lingual method employed by the military during World War II utilized conversations, audio input and speaking, usually in the form of dialogue memorization or brief answers to teachers’ questions. The crux of instruction, though, continued to be manipulating language in a grammar and translation context. By the 1970s, students began announcing their displeasure with world language instruction by voting with their feet; they exited foreign language classes and programmes by the droves. Enrolments plummeted in high schools and colleges nationwide (Heining-Boynton, 2010). The advent of language learning with the goal of proficiency, a valid and reliable standardized way of assessing oral proficiency, as well as standards for foreign language teaching and learning, revolutionized and energized the profession in the mid–1980s and early 1990s. ACTFL developed in 1986 and continues to revise and refine the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines: Speaking,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 230

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

231

Writing, Listening and Reading (ACTFL, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2012d). These guidelines define in plain language for educators and learners alike performance skills on a continuum of ratings from novice to distinguished. Also created in the 1980s was the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), which is tied to the Proficiency Guidelines. The OPI is the gold standard in assessing oral performance both nationally and internationally in more than a hundred languages. The third major innovation for language education was the Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century. This was the seventh and final content area to receive federal support to create standards under President George Bush’s administration. These Standards were originally conceived for pre-Kindergarten through 12th grades, but university programmes began to adopt them as well due to their generalizability and representation of what constitutes appropriate twenty-first-century goals. The Standards define five goal areas for language instruction, known as the 5 Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities. A curricular weave also was devised that includes concepts such as communication skills, higher order thinking skills, lexical concepts and technology. This curricular weave connects the 5 Cs. The Standards revolutionized the approach to instructional delivery of world languages, since visibly absent from the 5 Cs is the use of the word ‘grammar.’ Embedded in the curricular weave with lexical concepts, the new direction pointed to the fact that grammar is a means to the end, not ‘the end’. The 5 Cs organized and redirected educators to what were considered the true purposes of learning and using languages. What follows is an elaboration of the 5 Cs. The first C, Communication, is the overarching goal of language learning. No matter the form of communication, it is ultimately why we need language. The second C, Cultures, frames language learning within cultural contexts, since we know that language and culture are inextricably intertwined. The word ‘Cultures’ is plural, since languages represent pluralistic, heterogeneous populations. The third C, Connections, demonstrates and supports the fact that language learning is connected to all other disciplines and professions; therefore, other disciplines can be a vehicle for language learning. For example, elementary schools are teaching Spanish using science as the content area, or Mandarin while teaching mathematics in schools across the United States. Although not the norm, being content-based or content-related is a goal for early world language programmes. By the time students reach high school and college, they need to see clearly that a language

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 231

17/12/2013 09:38

232

Education in North America

in addition to English will enhance any career option they choose to pursue. The fourth C, Comparisons, reminds us that the goal of comparing the target language helps gain insights and appreciation of one’s own language and culture and that of others. The fifth and final C, Communities, encourages the ultimate goal of language learning, which is to use the language in meaningful, real-life settings. The fourth step that moved world language education forward was the creation of the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K–12 Learners (1998), now revised and called the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners. The Standards describe what the learner needs to know; the Performance Descriptors identify how well students demonstrate acquired knowledge. The above four initiatives broke with centuries of tradition and moved the profession into the twenty-first century. They continue to guide educators and students alike in their quest for a populace proficient in multiple languages in addition to English.

Connecting with other disciplines The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the ACTFL OPI, the Standards for Foreign Language Learning and the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners facilitated the world languages discipline to reconnect with the other content areas of the core curriculum. Whether it was a perception or reality, until the late 1980s, individuals outside of the world language profession did not see the connection or the importance of studying languages in addition to English. Hence, the Connections and Communities Standards proved invaluable by reminding world language educators to reach out to their counterparts in all content areas, and to make the effort to demonstrate to their learners how languages in addition to English function in the world beyond their classroom. The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines formally defined what an individual’s ability was in languages, and what someone needed to do to demonstrate an even higher level of proficiency. No longer was it a nebulous, inarticulate attempt at defining language ability. The layman could understand the proficiency descriptors, hence its reaching out beyond the language community. Other subject areas such as science and mathematics had assessments that would quantify one’s knowledge of the topic. The creation of the ACTFL OPI created the same means of defining ability levels. Finally, federal support for the creation of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning announced to all content areas that world languages were on the same

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 232

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

233

playing field as six other important content areas that help define an educated citizen. This announcement notified all of the importance of languages in addition to English. As with all of the other disciplines that create the educational core, simply having standards is not enough. Preparing teachers to deliver rigorous curricula that follow the suggested goals of the standards is essential. Reports such as one from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 2012 are dire. ‘Educational failure puts the United States’ future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk’, warned Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice, chairs of the CFR Task Force. All subject areas continue to monitor whether its teachers are meeting today’s challenges of educating the population to become global citizens.

The future Years have passed since the creation of the original Proficiency Guidelines, the ACTFL OPI, the Standards and the Performance Descriptors. All have been reviewed and either revised or expanded based on international trends. All four remain strong and viable future guiding lights in our interconnected world. In particular, the Standards’ 5 Cs goal areas continue to influence world language education with communication at the core in culturally correct contexts. Connecting language learning to all disciplines continues to remind us of our mission. Comparing languages and cultures will continue to breed critically needed international understanding, and using language in one’s community or the broader community, supported by technology, will advance our reaching out and communicating across traditional borders. Although these four important innovations continue to stand the test of time in the world language profession, not all world language teachers are teaching with proficiency and the Standards in mind. Some educators teaching at all levels (Kindergarten through to university) are rooted in a pre-Standards, non-proficiency based mode; others claim their teaching settings preclude them from having students achieve high levels of communicative competence. There is more to accomplish in the future to make sure that teachers understand the goals of the Standards and the desired proficiency outcomes for learners after years of language study. The stakes have never been higher. With reports such as those coming from the 2012 Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, there is a great deal of work that needs to be done to ensure that all learners achieve the highest possible level of proficiency in multiple languages in addition to English.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 233

17/12/2013 09:38

234

Education in North America

When to begin foreign language study and which languages to study Past and present World language study in US schools has had a place in the Kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum historically since the days of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. In the twentieth century, until the National Standards movement in the 1990s, language study was viewed primarily as an elective course that students took at the secondary level rather than as an essential content area that all students should have as part of their academic experience. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, research in fields such as psycholinguistics yielded insightful information about how one learns another foreign language, which helped the foreign language education profession move language study in a new direction (Krashen and Terrell, 1982; Curtain and Dahlberg, 2010). In particular, studies pointed to the critical period in brain development before adolescence as the optimum time to begin study of another language (Harley and Wang, 1997; DeKeyser, 2000). This attention to early language learning sparked new interest in the approach to world language teaching. In addition to being able to communicate ably with speakers from other cultures and gaining perspectives that are different from one’s own, research has shown many benefits to beginning language study in the elementary grades and continuing in a sequential programme through grade 12. These include increased critical thinking and problem-solving ability, heightened creativity, greater listening acuity, ability to organize and express thoughts in both the first and second language, and increased scores on standardized tests (Robinson, 1998; College Board, 2003). By starting language study at a young age when the brain is primed for shaping cognitive and linguistic capacity, the experiences children have as they engage in early language learning can have enduring personal and academic advantages. The decision regarding the choice of language or languages that should be taught is one that districts and states have faced for many years. Factors that influence the selection of languages include business and economic needs, importance to national security and, at the Kindergarten through 12th grade level, finding qualified teachers in the desired language. A national survey on language study released by the Center for Applied Linguistics in 2008 revealed that language instruction in the elementary grades and middle school has declined significantly since 1997, and that many students in rural areas and

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 234

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

235

from low socio-economic backgrounds have no opportunity to study a foreign language, thus widening the gap in equitable education. The study showed decline in enrolment in French, German, Japanese and Russian, while Spanish remained the most commonly taught language, and Chinese and Arabic saw increased enrolment (Rhodes and Pufahl, 2009).

Connecting with other disciplines When to begin studying a language in addition to English is the same question asked of all of the core subjects. When should a student begin studying language arts? When should science and mathematics instruction begin? Virtually all of the core subjects start in the first grade and continue through the college years. An early start and a long sequence are what all content areas need and require to prepare learners for the world of work and post-secondary education. Additionally, if one looks at how the US relates and compares to educational systems across the world, educators across the globe ask the question of when to begin the study of important subjects, such as the foreign language of English. Most Chinese schools, for example, choose to teach a language in addition to Mandarin at a very early age based on a national mandate. Schools across China want their children to become proficient in English in addition to Mandarin. They begin English language instruction in kindergarten or the first grade, knowing that it takes years to become proficient in other languages (Pufahl et al., 2001). The question of which language(s) to teach also mirrors questions all content areas face. For example, what concepts of language arts should be taught and when? What approach should be taken in teaching science? With social studies and history, how much of the curriculum is devoted to the Western world and how much to Eastern cultures? The answers to these questions do not remain firm and unchanging. For all disciplines, these important decisions are often driven by world events and world economies. For these decisions, educators in all disciplines need to be flexible and versatile, paying close attention to the world around us.

The future The field of world language education has experienced many positive gains in the last 25 years as research has made evident the fact that advanced proficiency in languages takes many years to develop, similar to the way in which one learns the first language. This knowledge has been used to shape the

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 235

17/12/2013 09:38

236

Education in North America

vision for Kindergarten through 12th grade as well as higher education world language programmes based on best practices that can lead to highly successful programmes in the future. Yet, with the world language profession poised and ready to play the role that it should in Kindergarten through 16th grade education in preparing globally competent citizens for the twenty-first century, there are clear obstacles and challenges in making this a reality for students in the United States. An early start and an uninterrupted sequence of study in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade, just as one learns math, English, science and social studies, gives students in US schools the opportunity to experience languages and cultures in their formative years, which is the stepping stone required for the development of communication ability. However, decisions regarding language offerings, requirements for graduation, and at what point in the Kindergarten though 12th grade curriculum a student begins language study have been – and most likely will continue to be – determined at the state and district level, which will lead to inconsistencies in language programmes and outcomes. Colleges and universities are faced with financial issues driven by enrolments. These challenges are constraining course offerings, faculty hiring and programme sustainability. The current demand for multilingual employees offers more options for jobs than ever before at the local community level and extending overseas to US-based firms as the economy and national interests rely and will continue to rely more heavily on global interdependence (Committee on Economic Development, 2006; Stewart, 2007). The place of world language study in twenty-first-century global education is not a question to be deliberated; it is a need that will determine the United States’ future standing in education, economics and national security.

Teachers and teaching Past and present Teachers and how they teach are completely interconnected. The public views teachers and teaching as one entity. Most of us remember a favourite teacher, one who positively impacted our lives. We also have memories of not-sofavourite ones. Those special or not-so-special teachers tend to influence a learner’s impression of the subject matter. Therefore, the ways world language

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 236

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

237

teachers taught and continue to deliver instruction have an enormous impact on students’ feelings towards world languages. If students are successful in a world language class, it often means the learner, the teacher and the teacher’s way of teaching all connect. What follows is a brief look at the past and present teaching methods that have influenced students regarding their impressions of language learning as a whole. Until the 1940s, teachers taught foreign languages in much the same way languages had been taught for centuries, that is, language teaching and learning was an exercise in grammar and translation. Prior to World War II, Berlitz broke with tradition, utilizing an oral approach to teaching foreign languages. Then with World War II came the advent of the audio-lingual method. These methods and others had the teacher placing an emphasis on speaking in the classroom. Nevertheless, until the introduction of the National Standards in the United States in the 1990s, grammar and translation continued to be the norm in instructional delivery. Because of the non-practical nature of grammar and translation instruction, learners rejected world language study in unprecedented numbers by the 1970s, especially at the university level. As Met described so aptly, world language teachers ‘indirectly shape policy in a fundamental way by creating public perceptions of what it is like to learn a language and what can be accomplished. Students become parents, school board members, administrators, and the public at large. Yesterday’s students are today’s decision-makers’. Comments such as ‘I took two years of a language and can’t say a thing!’ are damaging to programmes (2005, p. 58). Hence, world language teachers were and are extremely important when formulating opinion toward language learning. World language teachers have had to make changes in curricula and instructional delivery in order to attract students once again. Change is difficult, and the process is ongoing, since research supports the notion that teachers tend to teach the way they were taught (Lortie, 1975; Nemser, 1983; Haberman, 1985). This fact is discouraging when non-effective teaching was the model. Adding to the challenge is the fact that not all world language teacher education programmes are equal. Some have higher standards than others with regard to their demands on their teacher candidates’ target language proficiency as well as their knowledge and competence in delivering instruction and how learners learn. What rallied a change in educators’ approaches to language teaching were the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Performance Guidelines for K–12 Learners in 1998, and the revision of the Guidelines in 2012. These guidelines provide a framework for how well students should perform after a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 237

17/12/2013 09:38

238

Education in North America

given number of years of studying a language. Having a national goal has helped to standardize instruction. Also supporting change in the classroom are reformed pre-service teacher education programmes at colleges and universities. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) continue to work with ACTFL to create elevated standards for teacher preparation programmes which include an advanced level of required oral proficiency in the target language on the part of the graduating teacher education candidates. Like other content areas, there exist standardized assessments in world languages. Some are known by the general public; others are not. The difference between world languages and other content areas like mathematics and language arts is that exams assessing those content areas (e.g. the Iowa Test of Basic Skills) are required of all students and are administered periodically from elementary school through high school. The costs are subsidized by local or state governments. With world languages, assessment costs are usually paid by the testee. Until recently, high stakes world language tests did not assess speaking proficiency. Now, however, most standardized assessments are based on the National Standards, and they have a component that assesses contextualized oral communication. ACTFL led the way with proficiency-based assessments, beginning with oral proficiency in the 1980s. The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview by Computer (OPIc) and the ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency (AAPPL) are a few of the suite of assessments available to determine an individual’s ability in speaking, writing, reading or listening in over a hundred languages. Elementary, middle, high school and college world language educators are encouraged to assess their students orally on both formative and summative assessments. The teachers’ intentions are noble, but assessing orally is timeconsuming. Large class sizes make oral assessments difficult to administer. Technology plays a progressively important role in language teaching and learning. Increasingly, beginning language courses are taught completely online, or the course utilizes a combination of online and face-to-face components. This is occurring more in higher education, but even high schools are incorporating online delivery. Budget cuts to teacher salaries are resulting in schools thinking creatively on how to deliver instruction. Also, some rural areas of North America have found online world language instruction as a solution to a difficult problem: how to deliver content to learners who live in remote areas that would not justify hiring a teacher for so few students. The state of Montana,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 238

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

239

for example, has made use of online world language instruction. Also, North Carolina has been delivering online high school world language classes as well. One of the downsides to classes delivered online is that class sizes have tended to increase. Large online class enrolments can be difficult for teachers to manage. Much of the change, progression and evolution in world language teachers and teaching has occurred at the pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade level. College and university teaching has lagged behind Kindergarten through 12th grade with regard to teaching for proficiency. A number of ‘old school’ college faculty remain elitist, convinced that learning a language in addition to English is not for all. Fortunately, this mindset is changing, albeit slowly (HeiningBoynton, 2010).

Connecting with other disciplines Beginning in the 1990s, world language educators pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade began to realize and value their connections to other disciplines and the similarities among teaching and learning in all disciplines. The Standards’ Connections goal supported the relationship with other content areas. Courses offered at colleges and universities now connect to other disciplines as well. Classes such as Spanish for Health Care Providers or discussion sections of a twentieth-century German history course conducted in German are examples at the higher education level. Research on general instructional topics such as differentiated instruction, constructivism and chunking has improved world language instruction. Incorporating those and many other bodies of research literature into world language instruction demonstrates to school administrators and professionals in all content areas that good teaching in a world language class looks like good teaching in any discipline. Other lines of enquiry that have benefited all content areas including world languages are those of learning styles, spiralling and recycling language through multiple representations, as well as student engagement and motivation. Equally important are the guiding premises of teaching and learning, such as: start where the learner is, the fact that students learn best from students, and the need to create student-centred learning environments. Teachers in all content areas are at the core of the educational system in North America, and based on Coleman’s seminal research in 1966, we have known that teachers are the most important school-based factor for determining student success on standardized tests. Yes, world language teachers play an important

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 239

17/12/2013 09:38

240

Education in North America

role in the success of language learners. Nevertheless, just as in all other subject areas, there are other factors that enter into the equation, such as student motivation, class size, amount of time devoted to instruction, and parental and administrative support, to name a few. For world language learners, aptitude for language learning also enters into the mix. Where languages in addition to English differ from other subjects such as language arts, mathematics and the sciences is that world languages do not always comprise the core curriculum. World languages are often placed with art and music as electives. Another agenda item that does relate to all content areas is the continued pressure at the college level on teacher training programmes. Budget cuts are causing many university teacher education programmes to combine multiple content areas into general methods classes. Additionally, these methods courses need to add additional topics to their already crowded syllabi. Overarching topics such as classroom management or multicultural education are important for all pre-service teacher training. Nevertheless, these topics divert instructional delivery time from the content-specific topics. Increasing the number of semesters to include all of the important pre-service training is a current point of contention, with students protesting payment of tuition above and beyond their expected four years.

The future In many ways, the future is extremely bright for language teachers and teaching. The Foreign Language Standards are as pertinent as when they were launched in 1996, and states and the current generation of world language educators are incorporating them as the guiding principle in their curricula. Technology is providing excellent ways for teachers to collaborate and teach. Teaching for use in the world around us is becoming the norm. Another strong force guiding the world language profession is the overarching educational decree of creating life-long learners. A goal for the future is to inculcate in foreign language teachers a desire to become proficient in multiple languages in addition to English.

Advocacy Past and present Building capacity for foreign language study in the US is a recent phenomenon, since for centuries it was simply assumed that all educated individuals should

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 240

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

241

study foreign languages. The profession has seen recently periods of heightened interest and consequently increased enrolments in languages in response to moments of critical need in national defence brought about by the country’s language deficiencies. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, following Sputnik, there was an immediate reaction to support the study of critical languages, science and math through the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 in efforts to catch up with the Soviet Union. Decades followed, and in the 1970s and 1980s world language instructional delivery was not keeping up with the needs of the population at large. The ACTFL Guidelines and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview were created, as were the National Standards. There were efforts to effectuate change among world language professionals, but the decision was made by leaders in the profession that more needed to occur. Thus was born in 1999 an advocacy campaign directed toward the Kindergarten through 16th grade teachers themselves rather than advocating outside the profession. In 1999, leaders in the world language field convened to explore with honesty the state of the world language profession in the United States. The initiative, called New Visions, was an important reality check that focused on five areas of concern for the field of world languages: the architecture of the profession; curriculum, instruction, articulation and assessment; research; teacher development; teacher recruitment. The overarching goal of this advocacy campaign was that of change and innovation to meet the language needs of current and future generations of US citizens. Among the benefits of the New Visions initiative was the realization that in order to acquire local, state and federal support for their mission, world language teachers needed to facilitate their students in achieving high levels of proficiency in the target language. In more recent years, post–9/11 efforts to strengthen national security have heightened attention to critical-needs languages. The National Security Language Initiative was launched in 2006 to promote the study of languages that are a necessity to our national security including Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi and Persian. The purpose of this initiative was to increase the number of speakers with advanced proficiency in these languages, starting instruction in the lower grades and continuing through the university level (US Department of State, 2006). The peaks and valleys in the way the United States has responded to the place of language study in its schools and in higher education is evidence of its perspective on the value of world language programmes Kindergarten through 16th grade. Without continuity in programmes and a lasting presence, the challenges remain – as they have

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 241

17/12/2013 09:38

242

Education in North America

for decades – on how to provide a global education that includes a plan for producing language-proficient citizens. Within the world language community itself, several advocacy initiatives to increase awareness and raise consciousness about language study in Kindergarten through 16th grade have had an impact on world language education in the US. Focus on the need for an early start in languages was evident in the emergence of organizations and professional events, beginning in the 1980s with goals to promote and sustain programmes beginning in the early grades. For example, the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), formed in 1987, was founded as part of a grassroots initiative to serve educators, administrators, parents and other stakeholders who are interested in supporting languages in pre-Kindergarten through grade 8. Another group focused on promoting early languages, Advocates for Language Learning (ALL), began as a parents’ group in the early 1980s to advance elementary school foreign language education across the US. Concurrently, as these groups brought attention to an early start for languages, several annual conferences convened world language educators and administrators expressly to share expertise to assist in strengthening language study in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade. Since the National Standards movement began in the 1990s, the world language education profession has approached advocacy as an integral component of professional practice. The Standards movement created a vision for language study in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade for all students that did not exist prior to the 1990s, and this led the profession to consider ways in which it can make the vision a reality. An increased level of understanding on the part of educators, administrators, legislators and stakeholders about the need for long sequences of study with clear expectations for proficiency development, and the urgent and pressing needs for language users in our twenty-first-century global society have shaped the way the profession thinks about advocacy for languages. In 2005, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) sponsored the Year of Languages, a year-long campaign to promote languages that included the National Language Policy Summit. The summit convened leaders in business, government and education for the purpose of setting priorities and creating a plan of action for language policy in the US. Among the year-long state and national events of the Year of Languages were public service announcements that promoted languages in addition to English. States and locales across the United States took advantage of the initiative, organizing summits with their own stakeholders. Products of the summits were blueprints of action, mapping out directions for partnerships

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 242

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

243

with businesses and schools. The goal of the summits was to plan for the preparation of multilingual employees of the future who would sustain and grow local and state economies. After the Year of Languages, the campaign by ACTFL, Discover Languages – Discover the World, commenced in 2006. This campaign has aided the world language education profession to maintain momentum in its advocacy efforts.

Connecting with other disciplines In the past few years, the world language education profession has begun to take note of the way in which other disciplines that are not evaluated through high stakes testing are advocating for their place in the Kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum, including music, visual arts, dance, theatre and healthful living. The arts education field, for example, has gained national attention in its efforts to promote the value and benefits of the arts in the core curriculum as part of a well-rounded education for all students. It has taken bold steps to increase its visibility through public relations work, including advertising campaigns such as public service announcements on radio and television featuring acclaimed musicians, actors and artists. The presence and active involvement of artists and arts educators in national and state education policymaking decisions as well as extensive dissemination of research about the benefits of arts in education have garnered support from the local community to the national level. World language education has many similarities to arts education with regards to the benefits students gain from the integration of the arts and foreign languages in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade, and our profession has learned much from their advocacy model. In recent years, the world language profession has been more strategic in its efforts to inform and engage educators of all languages and levels as advocates, and to help them play a more prominent role in advocacy at the local, state and national level. Just as teachers in arts education showcase their students’ creations as evidence of the talent and skills the students possess as a result of their experience in the arts, world language specialists have recognized the imperative need to provide proof of what their students can do in their use of languages. Just as in other disciplines, sharing evidence of students’ language growth with the community (parents, school board members and legislators), beginning in the early years and continuing through the university level, has become essential to sustaining and promoting programmes.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 243

17/12/2013 09:38

244

Education in North America

The future The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages has been the voice for the profession at the national level, working closely with the Joint National Committee for Languages – The National Council for Languages and International Studies to advocate for legislation and funding to support Kindergarten through 16th grade foreign language study, and these efforts will continue to shape the future of world language education. Ongoing collaboration with the US Department of Education and government agencies whose national interests are dependent upon language-proficient citizens such as the Department of State, Department of Defense and Office of National Intelligence will be critical in ensuring that a plan of action is established and put into action. ACTFL’s collaborative partnerships with other education organizations such as the Language Flagship, the National Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)/Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) will be essential in providing input about Kindergarten through 16th grade language study that informs education policy. In addition, their work with leaders of organizations such as the American Educational Research Association and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development to share research from the field about best practices in developing students’ proficiency as well as data from programmes that are achieving success in proficiency gains can further solidify a place at the table with other content areas. In 2012, five state advocacy teams were formed to mobilize efforts in support of state and federal legislation. These types of strategic action, along with future national campaigns to promote languages across America, will help the profession continue to advance its mission for all students to have the opportunity to study languages and cultures. Language educators of all levels must be advocates in their own school community.

Initiatives Past and present Trends in world language programmes and language enrolment across the US have changed in response to learner perceptions of language learning, the status of the economy and national defence needs. Despite the challenges that the lack of a national policy for language study in US schools presents, the profession

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 244

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

245

has endeavoured to maintain a national presence in the preparation of globally competent citizens. One of the initiatives in world language education that has had the most impact is in the area of proficiency development. The Professional Programs Department of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages has played a central role in providing proficiency training and testing for the government, national defence, business and the world language field. Proficiency assessments have grown to offerings in more than a hundred languages, demonstrating the current demand that exists for highly skilled language users (ACTFL, 2012). Yet, even with the continued increase in requests for language testing, the US lags far behind in its commitment to language study in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade and post-secondary education that could produce the supply of multilingual speakers to meet the nation’s demands. A federally funded initiative announced by former President George W. Bush in January 2006 is STARTALK. The programme was created to expand the National Security Language Initiative. The mission of STARTALK is to advance the teaching and learning of the critical languages of Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu in Kindergarten through 16th grade settings. Additionally, in 2012 federal funding initiatives began to promote teacher licensure in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) content areas that also include critical languages. These connections with languages are natural ways to promote content knowledge and language proficiency in Kindergarten through 12th grade schools, which are significant in developing skills needed in the twenty-first-century workforce. Yet another initiative begun in the state of North Carolina is Project Calling All Future Educators (CAFE). In the early 2000s, the shortage of qualified language teachers in the United States was at a crisis level. North Carolina and other states committed to an early start and a long sequence of language teaching and learning were hard hit by the lack of trained teachers. A group of higher education, elementary, middle school and high school teachers joined forces to begin recruiting teachers at an early age. In Project CAFE, students from first grade through university undergraduate courses are identified as having ‘what it takes’ to be a language teacher. Other states and communities across the US have adopted the initiative.

Connecting with other disciplines Several initiatives in recent years have advanced the profession in supporting

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 245

17/12/2013 09:38

246

Education in North America

high quality academic expectations consistent with those of other disciplines. For example, global education and world languages align naturally with the current Common Core Standards initiative in preparing students in grades Kindergarten through 12th grade to become global citizens. The Common Core Standards share the same goals as world languages in their focus on a rigorous, evidence-based curriculum that develops students’ higher order thinking and communication ability for real-world experiences (Heining-Boynton and Redmond, 2013). The document, entitled Alignment of the National Standards for Learning Languages with the Common Core State Standards (ACTFL, 2012), provides evidence of how the Standards for Foreign Language Learning support the goals of English Language Arts and Literacy. In a similar initiative focusing on the preparation of Kindergarten through 12th grade students for the twentyfirst-century global society, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills collaborated with professional organizations representing the core subject areas to demonstrate connections across disciplines. The 21st Century Skills Map (ACTFL, 2011) depicts how the study of world languages supports twenty-first-century preparation across disciplines in developing students’ competence in the areas of information, media and technology, and life and career skills. Another initiative that places world languages alongside other content areas is the development of the Teacher Standards in foreign languages. The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)/ Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) determines which colleges of education meet rigorous national standards in preparing teachers. In 2002, the NCATE Standards for Teacher Education Programs were developed, distinguishing the performance outcomes world language specialists should have as initially licensed teachers. The NCATE/CAEP Teacher Standards are aligned with the Student Standards and provide a high level of accountability, congruent with the level of expectations for teachers of all disciplines (ACTFL, 2002). A recent initiative begun by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages that follows the work of other content areas is the Research Priorities Project. This initiative, begun in 2011, identified key areas in which research is needed in the field of world language education, and ACTFL endeavours to support this research for the purpose of informing and improving instruction and sharing results with the field and its stakeholders. By setting a research agenda for the field, ACTFL is advancing the profession in alignment with other content areas, using research to improve world language instruction and increase visibility of world language study amongst stakeholders.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 246

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

247

The future The world language profession in the United States has become one that understands and embraces the importance of partnerships with other disciplines. Interconnectedness among content areas will remain an important link for world languages. Combining resources for research and instructional delivery initiatives will continue to provide what is best for students.

Summary and conclusions The purpose of this chapter was to take the reader on a guided tour of five significant components of world language education in the United States, relating how these components connect with and mirror other disciplines in the curriculum. Additionally, predictions were cited for the future in these five vital areas: proficiency and the National Standards; when language instruction should begin and which languages should be taught; teachers and teaching; advocacy; initiatives. Proficiency and the standards: The norm for the profession is no longer grammar/ translation but teaching and learning for proficiency. The profession has established national standards for Kindergarten through 12th grade students and university teacher candidates in world languages that are research-supported and built upon best practices that can produce proficient users of languages. However, without the mechanism to connect with other disciplines and to have a place in Kindergarten through 16th grade education, students cannot be prepared for the twenty-first-century global society in which we all live. When language instruction should begin and which languages: The need for world language study in US schools has never been at a more critical point in US history. As the United States endeavours to maintain its position as a leader among other nations, global education that focuses on producing multilingual and multicultural citizens remains a serious void in pre-Kindergarten through university level academic preparation. As a result, the United States continues to lag behind most developed and even developing nations in its understanding and value of languages as a core subject in pre-Kindergarten through 16th grade. Therefore, world language instruction should begin as early as possible with a well-articulated sequence progressing from early childhood through higher education.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 247

17/12/2013 09:38

248

Education in North America

All languages are important; they define people and their cultures. Nevertheless, difficult choices must be made regarding which languages to teach. Those choices are based on economic, defence and détente needs as well as the practicality of recruiting and hiring qualified teachers. Languages are central to one’s development of intercultural skills in a workforce that relies heavily upon highly advanced ability in technology, research, national security and international affairs. The future of the United States and its economy can no longer depend on a workforce that is primarily English-speaking. Teachers and teaching: In order for the field of world language education to be able to participate fully in preparing students who are equipped to compete in an increasingly interconnected global society, the disconnect that world languages currently experience in the pre-Kindergarten through university level must be recognized and addressed. Languages connect to all disciplines, providing a natural context for developing communication in both the first and subsequent language while enhancing one’s knowledge of other subjects. The limited availability and even absence of world languages in many areas of the US further exacerbates the urgency of the need for education reform on the part of stakeholders and policymakers. Technology is aiding to solve the issue of accessibility, but it is not the only response to this complex dilemma. A comprehensive and strategic plan that includes world language study beginning in the elementary grades and continuing through the post-secondary level is a part of the plan for the future. Advocacy: The profession continues to make inroads in educating the populace on the value and importance of learning languages in addition to English with existing and future initiatives. While English remains the lingua franca, the task of convincing the public and policy makers remains a challenge. Initiatives: The world language profession is at a pivotal point in the contributions it makes to US Kindergarten through 16th grade education, business, government and national defence. Close bonds in the form of initiatives continue to be formulated and nurtured between schools, industry and the government sectors. What should the future hold for world language education in US schools? The goal is to offer well-designed proficiency-oriented programmes with long sequences of uninterrupted study, just as one expects with math, science, English language arts and social studies. World languages will continue to work to make the same connections that other subject areas

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 248

17/12/2013 09:38



World Language Education: Connecting with the Rest of the World

249

have in their articulation of study with universities in order to ensure uninterrupted development of proficiency and cross-cultural competence. Similarly, teacher preparation programmes can further strengthen these connections in building high quality global education by producing highly competent language professionals who build a multilingual citizenry.

References ACTFL (1998) Performance Guidelines for K–12 Learners. http://www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. —Oral Proficiency Interview. www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. —a). 1986, 1991, 2001, 2012. Proficiency Guidelines: Listening. http://www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. —b). 1986, 1991, 2001, 2012. Proficiency Guidelines: Reading. http://www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. —c). 1986, 1991, 2001, 2012. Proficiency Guidelines: Speaking. http://www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. —d). 1986, 1991, 2001, 2012. Proficiency Guidelines: Writing. http://www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. —2005–2015: Realizing Our Vision of Languages for All. Editor Audrey L. —(2012). Performance Descriptors for Language Learners. www.actfl.org [accessed 1 March 2013]. Coleman, J. S. Campbell, E. Q., Hobson, C. J., McPartland, J. and Mood, A. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Committee for Economic Development. (2006). Education for Global Leadership: The Importance of International Studies and Foreign Language Education for US Economic and National Security. Washington, DC: Author. Curtain, H. and Dahlberg, C. A. (2010). Languages and Children: Making the Match: New Languages for Young Learners, Grades K–8 (4th edn). Boston, MA: Pearson Education. DeKeyser, R. M. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies In Second Language Acquisition, 22, pp. 499–533. Haberman, M. (1985). Does teacher education make a difference? A review of comparisons between liberal arts and teacher education majors. Journal of Thought, 20 (2), pp. 25–34. Harley, B. and Wang, W. (1997). The critical period hypothesis. Where are we now? In A. M. B. de Groot and J. F. Kross (eds), Tutorials in Bilingualism. Pyscholinguistic Perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 19–51. Heining-Boynton, A. L. (2010). The case for a realistic grammar syllabus: The round peg in the round hole. Hispania, 93 (1), pp. 96–100.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 249

17/12/2013 09:38

250

Education in North America

Heining-Boynton, A. L. and Redmond, M. L. (2013). The common core framework and world languages: A wake-up call for all. The Language Educator, 8 (1), pp. 52–6. Krashen, S. and Terrell, T. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Hayward, CA: Alemany Press. Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Met, M. (2005). Realizing our vision: Teachers at the core. In A. L. Heining-Boynton (ed.), 2005–2015: Realizing our Vision of Languages for All, ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson World Languages, pp. 55–73. Nemser, S. F. (1983). Learning to teach. In L. S. Shulman and G. Sykes (eds), Handbook of Teaching and Policy. New York: Longman, pp. 150–71. Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 2011. Washington, DC. www.P21.org Pufahl, I., Rhodes, N. and Christian, D. (2001). What We Can Learn From Foreign Language Teaching in Other Countries. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Reynolds, M. C. (ed.) (1989). Knowledge Base for the Beginning Teacher. New York: Pergamon Press. Rhodes, N. and Pufahl, I. (2009). Foreign Language Teaching in US Schools. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Robinson, D. W. (1998). The cognitive, academic and attitudinal benefits of early language learning. In M. Met (ed.), Critical Issues in Early Second Language Learning. Building for our Children’s Future. Glenview, IL: Addison-Wesley, pp. 37–43. The SAT College Board (2003). College-bound Seniors: A Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. College Examination Board. http://www.collegeboard.com [accessed 8 February 2013]. Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century (1996, 1999, 2006). Stewart, V. (2007). Becoming Citizens of the World. Educational Leadership, 64 (7), pp. 8–14. US Department of State (2006). http://www.state.gov/ [accessed 22 February 2013]. US Education Reform and National Security. Council on Foreign Relations (2012). http://www.cfr.org/united-states/us-education-reform-national-security/p27618.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 250

17/12/2013 09:38

12

International Outreach in Education in the United States Anthony C. Ogden and Sharon Brennan

This chapter discusses the growth and development of international outreach that has become a distinctive mark of higher education in the United States. The chapter begins with a brief overview of international student mobility enrolment trends to/from the United States. Next, the role of national and international policies shaping the expansion of international education in the United States is introduced through a brief discussion of the historical and contemporary rationales for international outreach, the major advocacy initiatives and players that have propelled this momentum and the push-and-pull factors of US higher education. The chapter provides brief descriptions of the major national and international student and scholar mobility schemes that have supported the internationalization of US higher education. Next, the chapter introduces some of the major modes of educational mobility, such as programmes offering students an overseas teaching experience as part of their teacher preparation. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the significant challenges, opportunities and emerging trends in the international outreach of US higher education.

International student and scholar circulation By almost any measure, the US higher education system is arguably one of the largest, most comprehensive and dynamic in the world. The US is home to 4495 institutions of higher learning and enrols an estimated 21 million students in its two- and four-year institutions, private and public colleges and universities and for-profit and non-profit enterprises (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). In spite of its size, higher education in the US is not centrally

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 251

17/12/2013 09:38

252

Education in North America

organized or administered at the national level. There is no national university in the US, no ministry of education that governs a national system, and no federal governance of post-secondary education. Rather, higher education in the US is better understood as an amalgam of 50 unique state schemes, each with its own purpose, provisions and oversight of post-secondary education. Even in the absence of a national system of higher education, all states are still very much tied to the federal government, which plays varying roles in shaping American higher education through inducement-driven funding and financing schemes, accreditation standards and, increasingly, in areas of assuring quality, affordability and accountability in higher education. And while domestic considerations often take centre stage in the minds of educational policymakers, the international dimension of US higher education is increasingly relevant. International student and scholar mobility is of central importance to the country’s ongoing efforts to maintain global leadership in higher education and in terms of advancing workforce development, capacity building, research and development and national security. International student and scholar mobility has been an important element of US higher education since the nineteenth century (de Wit and Rumbley, 2008). In fact, the modern US research university owes much to the experiences and subsequent leadership of the talented American scholars who travelled abroad in the mid–1800s (Hoffa, 2007). These scholars brought back with them concepts of doctorate-granting research institutions which were adapted to the American context with unique teaching, research and service components. From this influential beginning, international student and scholar circulation, encompassing both international students and scholars coming to this country and sending US students abroad, has become a distinctive dimension of higher education in the United States. Today, the US is widely considered the premier destination for higher education in the world. The current enrolment of international students increased by 6 per cent in 2011/12 to a record high of 764,495 international students. After a slight downturn in the mid–2000s, 2011/12 data mark the sixth consecutive year that the Institute of International Education (IIE) reported expansion in the total number of international students in US higher education (IIE, 2012a) (see Figure 12.1). There were 31 per cent more international students studying at US colleges and universities in 2011/12 than there had been a decade earlier. The growth is largely driven by strong increases in the number of students from Asia, particularly at the undergraduate level. For example, Chinese student enrolments increased by 23 per cent in total and by 31 per

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 252

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

253

International students studying

cent at the undergraduate level. Large increases in undergraduate students from Saudi Arabia, funded by Saudi government scholarships, also help explain why international undergraduates studying in the US now outnumber international graduate students for the first time in 12 years. Students from the top five places of origin (China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada) comprise 56 per cent of all international students studying in the US in 2011/12. Doctorategranting universities host 64 per cent of international students and the STEM fields, including engineering, maths/computer, science and health account for 41 per cent of all students, with business and management hosting another 22 per cent. The strong increase in international student enrolments attests to the continued conviction of international students in recognizing that a US degree remains a sound investment in their future careers. According to the Center for Academic Mobility Research, the US hosts the largest share of the over four million globally mobile students at 19 per cent in 2011 (IIE, 2012b). The United Kingdom remains a distant second at 12 per cent. However, the US has seen its market share decline in the last decade as other countries intensify efforts to export higher education. Although both inbound and outbound circulation of students and scholars are relevant in the US context, there is a significant imbalance in terms of these flows into and out of the country. In comparison to the large number of international students seeking degrees in the US, only about 46,000 US students studied abroad to obtain degrees from foreign institutions (IIE, 2012b). Anecdotal evidence suggests that among the varied reasons students pursue international 800,000 750,000 700,000 650,000 600,000 550,000 500,000 450,000 400,000 350,000

00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 Academic year of enrolment

Figure 12.1  US International Student Enrollment, 2000–2012 Source: IIE, 2012a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 253

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

254

degrees, many want to avoid the increasingly high cost of US tuition and are hoping that a degree from a prestigious institution abroad will help differentiate them from their peers. The outbound movement of US students abroad as part of their home degree has experienced steady growth in recent decades. In 2010/11, nearly 275,000 US students received academic credit for education abroad, representing a modest 1.3 per cent increase over the previous year (see Figure 12.2). The majority of these students are from the social sciences, humanities and foreign languages, while students who major in engineering, mathematics, computer science or education are under-represented. In fact, over 50 per cent of the total enrolment represents just three academic fields of study: business and management (20.5 per cent), humanities (11.3 per cent) and the social sciences (22.9 per cent). The most popular destinations include the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China (IIE, 2012a).

National and international policies shaping the internationalization of higher education The globalization of societies and economies has greatly impacted higher education around the world. Higher education in the US has not been immune to the forces of globalization but rather has become an active player in the global education arena. In discussing the major policy initiatives that have shaped the internationalization of higher education in the US, it is important to examine the rationales central to this level of engagement. The rationales driving the

Students studying abroad

300,000

250,000

200,000

150,000

50,000

99/00 00/01 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 Academic year of enrolment

Figure 12.2  US Education Abroad Enrollment, 1999–2011 Source: IIE, 2012a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 254

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

255

internationalization of higher education have generally been presented in four broad areas: political, economic, social/cultural and academic (Altbach and Knight, 2006; de Wit, 2008; Knight, 2008). Considered together, these rationales provide a useful framework for further understanding the international dynamics of higher education in the United States. Political rationales include foreign policy, national security, technical assistance, peace and mutual understanding, national and regional identity, etc. (Altbach and Knight, 2006; de Wit, 2008; Knight, 2008). International competition has long been an important factor in the US government’s rationale for promoting international education (de Wit and Rumbley, 2008). Stretching back to 1958, the educational and foreign policy crisis sparked by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite led to the National Defense Education Act and the establishment of Title VI programming. For the last half-century, Title VI funding has been used to promote language study and the establishment of international studies centres as national resources for teaching modern foreign languages (National Resource Centers, n.d.). It has also been used to encourage US students and scholars to pursue study and research abroad in areas deemed strategically important to national interest. Although federal funding appropriations for Title VI has diminished in recent years, the government continues to prioritize international education initiatives that are tied to foreign policy and national security. For example, the National Security Language Initiative introduced in 2006 aimed to coordinate resources and efforts to expand the number of students studying critical needs languages, such as Arabic, Chinese and Russian, and increase the number of foreign language teachers (US Department of State, n.d.-e). Similarly, the National Security Education Program (NSEP) was established by the National Security Education Act of 1991 to provide undergraduate scholarships for education abroad, graduate fellowships and institutional grants. It is guided by a mission that seeks to lead in development of the national capacity to educate US citizens, understand foreign cultures, strengthen US economic competitiveness and enhance international cooperation and security. Moreover, President Barack Obama’s 2010 launch of the 100,000 Strong Initiative to dramatically increase the number and diversify the composition of American students studying in China is another example of the existence of political will in furthering cultural understanding. A similar initiative was later launched in 2012 for Latin America. Also in 2012, the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative was launched as a partnership between India and the US to further strengthen, through faculty exchanges, joint research and other collaboration partnerships between American and Indian institutions of higher education.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 255

17/12/2013 09:38

256

Education in North America

International competition has captured the attention of US educational policymakers who are feeling pressure from initiatives undertaken by the European Union and increasingly from other regions of the world, too (de Wit and Rumbley, 2008). For example, in 1999 the Bologna Declaration was signed with the common goal to create a European space for higher education (now called the European Higher Education Area or EHEA) in order to enhance the employability and mobility of citizens and to increase the international competitiveness of European higher education (Huisman et al., 2012). Moreover, the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (ERASMUS) programme has served as the operational framework for the European Commission’s initiatives in higher education and to date over 2.2 million students have received support to study in other EU countries. Established in 1993, University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) was founded by government and non-government representatives of the higher education sector in the region to achieve enhanced international understanding through increased mobility of university students and staff (UMAP, n.d.). The rapid economic progress and advances in research and development in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in China and Japan, have seen large-scale governmental initiatives to encourage student and scholar mobility (Ogden, 2009). Initiated by their Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan’s ‘Global 30’ Project aims to have 300,000 international students in Japan and has realigned its top universities to offer degree programmes taught in English (MEXT, n.d.). Similarly, China’s National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, also known as Hanban, manages a scholarship programme via their wide network of Confucius Institutes throughout the world with the purpose of encouraging students to pursue Chinese language study in China (Hanban, n.d.). The second group of economic rationales includes growth and competitiveness, national education demands, the labour market and financial incentives (Altbach and Knight, 2006; de Wit, 2008; Knight, 2008). Within the context of US higher education this rationale has centred on the impact made by international students on the US economy and the importance of training internationally competent Americans to work effectively in the global economy. As competition with other countries for international students has become more pronounced and as the US market share dominance weakens, the importance of the economic rationale has intensified. According to the US Department of Commerce, international students contributed over $22.7 billion to the US economy in 2011, making higher education a major export tied to economic growth. IIE claims that 64 per cent of international students

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 256

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

257

(82 per cent of undergraduates) rely primarily on personal and family sources to pay for their studies (IIE, 2012a). The federal government often relies on this economic position, stating frequently that international education is vital to strengthening economies and societies both in the US and around the world. It is this very perspective that was used to pass the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act during the Clinton administration in 2000 and the STEM Jobs Act (H.R. 6429) currently under discussion in congress. Perhaps one of the most recent and compelling government-sponsored initiatives concerning the internationalization of American higher education is the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Act of 2007 (S. 991 and H.R. 1469). The Simon Act sought to enhance the national security and global competitiveness of the US by establishing the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation, which would work to dramatically increase the number and diversity of US students studying abroad. Within ten years of the date of enactment, no less than one million US undergraduate students would be studying abroad for credit. Although the Simon Act was never authorized, the intention of the legislation demonstrates clear intersections between de Wit’s political and economic rationales as expressed in the Act’s goals to enhance the global competitiveness and international knowledge base and to enhance the foreign policy capacity of the US by significantly expanding and diversifying the talent pool of individuals available for recruitment by US foreign affairs agencies, legislative branch agencies, and non-governmental organizations involved in foreign affairs activities. The third group of rationales includes cultural and social considerations (Altbach and Knight, 2006; de Wit, 2008; Knight, 2008). Cultural rationales are focused on the role that universities can play in furthering the intercultural understanding and competency development of their students and faculty. Similarly, the social rationale focuses on the extent to which being internationally engaged, institutions, and thereby their faculty and students, are perceived as being less provincial. Citizenship development, intercultural competency and community engagement are driving factors. Hudzik and McCarthy (2012) claim that comprehensive internationalization on US campuses must be an imperative as global forces are impacting all aspects of an institution, especially its external frames of reference, partnerships and linkages. They stress that internationalization must be mainstreamed to include all faculty and students, international perspectives integrated into teaching, research and service missions, the range of stakeholders expanded to engage all academic and support units, and that efforts must be interconnected to build partnerships throughout the institution.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 257

17/12/2013 09:38

258

Education in North America

To illustrate, the University of Pennsylvania established its Penn Compact principles in 2004 to demonstrate its commitment to: (1) increasing access to the best students from all over the world; (2) integrating interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge exchange; and (3) engaging local and global communities together to discuss compelling issues (University of Pennsylvania, n.d.). In their timely report, Leading Comprehensive Internationalization: Strategy and Tactics for Action, Hudzik and McCarthy (2012) present key strategies and tactics to advance comprehensive internationalization on US campuses, which include suggestions for promotion and tenure, creating international partnerships, revising core curricular requirements, etc. Finally, the fourth group is the academic rationales, which concern the extent to which institutions prioritize the international dimensions of their teaching, research and service and the mechanisms through which students and faculty can extend the reputation and status of the institution internationally (Altbach and Knight, 2006; de Wit, 2008; Knight, 2008). Within the US, this has most commonly been gauged by the extent to which institutions recruit international students to their campuses and send American students abroad. The presence of international faculty, scholars and doctoral students has also been valued. In fact, the number of foreign scholars working on US campuses continues to rise, from 79,651 in 2000/01 to nearly 117,000 in 2011/12. China, India and South Korea represent the largest population of scholars in the US and, not surprisingly, the country’s most prestigious institutions regularly attract the largest number of scholars, including Harvard University, Stanford University and Columbia University. Institutions have come to highly value and often trumpet their standings in international rankings and comparisons. Numerous world university rankings exist, but the most notable are Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings, and the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. US institutions regularly dominate the top 25 institutions in the world and include such universities as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the University of Chicago. In addition to hosting international students and scholars in the US, a growing number of institutions are capitalizing on their ‘brand-name recognition’ to establish overseas branch campuses. For example, six American universities, along with one British and one French university, have branch campuses in Qatar.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 258

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

259

Advocacy initiatives and key players Although the international dimension is very much a priority of US higher education, and has the obvious interest of the federal government, de Wit and Rumbley (2008) argue that efforts are weakened by the lack of a clear national policy for the internationalization of higher education. They emphasize that the drive to implement such a policy has not been spearheaded by federal policymakers, but rather by associations and non-governmental organizations. These organizations have called on the federal government to announce a bold vision and funding scheme that would coordinate a national effort to encourage strategic and sustained recruitment of international students and scholars and incorporate education abroad programming into the mainstream American undergraduate experience. Federal leadership is seen as critically important, especially as other countries, most notably Australia, France and the United Kingdom, work through centrally coordinated and funded efforts to attract the world’s best and brightest students and scholars to their institutions. Major US-based players in this advocacy arena encompass both institutional and individual membership-based organizations. The following influential players have assumed unique and yet complementary platforms on which to advocate for federal leadership and direction. 1. Founded in 1993, Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange is an association of non-governmental organizations comprising the international educational and cultural exchange community. Its mission is to formulate and promote public policies that support the growth of international exchange linkages between the people of the US and abroad. 2. The American Council on Education (ACE) is arguably the nation’s largest higher educational organization and is consistently at the centre of federal policy debates in areas critical to higher education. ACE represents presidents of US accredited, degree-granting institutions and is often the key point of contact on higher education matters for congressional staff and members of the executive branch at relevant federal agencies. 3. Founded in 1982, the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) is composed of senior international officers on US campuses who work collectively in advancing the international dimensions of higher education. AIEA encourages members to share institutional strategies and provide a unified voice on matters of public policy and ensures that organizations’ voices are heard on matters of public policy in Congress.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 259

17/12/2013 09:38

260

Education in North America

4. With roots going back to 1887, Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) is the nation’s oldest higher education association. APLU is a research and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions and state university systems. The association provides a forum for the discussion and development of policies and programmes affecting higher education and the public interest. APLU has long encouraged presidents and chancellors to take responsibility for internationalizing their campuses, as expressed in their often-cited publication, A Call to Leadership, The Presidential Role in Internationalizing the University (APLU, n.d.). 5. Founded in 2001 as an institutional-membership association, the Forum on Education Abroad is the only US-based organization whose exclusive purpose it is to serve the profession of education abroad. Recognized by the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission as the Standards Development Organization (SDO) for education abroad, a Forum promotes best practices and excellence in curricular design, data collection and research, quality improvement, and advocates on behalf of the profession of education abroad. 6. NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world’s largest and arguably one the most influential non-profit associations dedicated to international education and exchange. With over 10,000 members located worldwide, NAFSA advances public policies that promote international education and is committed to supporting a broad public dialogue about the value and importance of international education. For the 113th Congress, NAFSA is challenging the basics of the 1952 US immigration law, claiming that the ‘dysfunctional immigration regime’ is impeding the ability to foster a robust system of educational and scholarly exchange (NAFSA, n.d.). Advocacy efforts have not exclusively targeted national-level policy decisions, but ongoing efforts have been instrumental at the state and regional levels, too. For example, members of these associations across the country have worked closely with their state legislatures to pass resolutions recognizing the necessity of increasing participation in education abroad and attracting international students to their respective states and have subsequently leveraged these resolutions for policy-level decisions. A number of state-wide professional associations have also formed over the years to advance international education. For over 40 years, the Pennsylvania Council for International Education (PaCIE) has worked on behalf of K–16 educators to strengthen and advocate for international education in the

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 260

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

261

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Similar state-wide associations exist throughout the country, from California and Texas to Minnesota and Kentucky.

Push and pull factors To better understand the international dimensions of higher education in the US requires an examination of the variables that affect the magnitude and direction of major enrolment patterns for international students and scholars to and from this country. Altbach and Lulat (1985) have grouped variables by ‘home country’ and ‘host country’. Home country variables, sometimes called ‘push factors’, refer to issues within the home country that push students towards international opportunities for higher education. Such variables can include poor educational facilities in the home country, lack of ‘world-class’ institutions at home, failure to gain admission to local institutions, perceived value of a foreign degree, politically untenable domestic situation, discrimination or bias toward minorities, etc. (de Wit, 2008). Host country variables, also called ‘pull factors’, refer to issues pertaining to a particular host country that draw students to its institutions. Such variables may include the availability of scholarships and funding opportunities for international students, perceived quality of education, perceptions of academic freedom, availability of research facilities and academic opportunities, a congenial socio-economic and political environment, presence of relatives and friends willing to provide assistance and financial support, etc. (de Wit, 2008). Among the many other cultural and economic rationales for which students seek higher education abroad, an OECD (2004) study stresses the importance of target language, cultural and geographic proximity, historical and economic ties, perceived quality of life, network of students that have studied in the host country, breadth and accessibility of post-secondary studies offered, and the reputation and quality of the educational system (de Wit, 2008). The many pull factors commonly associated with US higher education have, in particular, enabled the country to achieve and maintain market share dominance for international students and scholars (IIE, 2012b). De Wit and Rumbley (2008) have outlined a number of these persuasive factors that pull students to the US each year. Among the most influential factors relate to the consistent world rankings and status of higher education in the US, the diversity and capacity of the US higher education system, and the perceived quality and allure of life in the United States. De Wit and Rumbley (2008) are quick to note, however, that in spite of the US higher education system being one of the largest,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 261

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

262

most comprehensive and most dynamic in the world, it is also facing increasing competition from other regions of the world, particularly from Europe and Asia. Ironically, they also raise concerns about the parochialism of American higher education by pointing specifically to the significant imbalance in the number of inbound students and scholars compared with the considerably fewer number of Americans seeking education abroad. For de Wit and Rumbley (2008), international student and scholar circulation in the US must be equally concerned about both inbound and outbound forms of mobility. As mentioned, degree-seeking Americans students abroad have been few in number and there has been only marginal growth in recent decades (IIE, 2012b). Of the more than 21 million US students enrolled in higher education in 2010/11, only 1 per cent studied abroad as part of their home degree (IIE, 2012a). That percentage increases to roughly 14 per cent when accounting for only four-year degree-granting institutions. Moreover, of the nearly 275,000 US students that did receive academic credit for education abroad in 2010/11, almost 58 per cent chose programmes of less than eight weeks in duration. Whereas the majority of students once participated in Junior Year Abroad (JYA) or full academic year programmes, only 3.7 per cent do so today (IIE, 2012a). If there is any one region that has significant pull factors for US students, it would be Western Europe. In 2012, an overwhelming 54.6 per cent of US students chose destinations in Europe (IIE, 2012a; Ogden et al., 2010). There is some evidence to suggest that heritage is also a significant pull factor for particular populations to study in specific locations (Comp, 2008; Ogden, 2010). Whereas international students are primarily drawn to the US to earn degrees, US students have been mostly motivated by the idea of experiencing other cultures and mutual cultural understanding. Along these lines, US students are often pushed abroad to learn languages in context, experience world cultures at first hand, develop marketable skills for career enhancement, and expand their worldviews. As international perspectives have increasingly been embedded into the curricula, students are increasingly pushed abroad to supplement or complement their academic studies.

Major student and scholar mobility schemes Through its Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), the US Department of State provides much of the leadership in international education and exchange at the federal level. Mandated by the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, the ECA is responsible for a collection of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 262

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

263

international education and exchange programmes that have been designed to foster mutual understanding between the peoples of the US and other countries through academic, cultural, sports and professional exchanges. ECA programmes continue to grow and in 2010 alone nearly 58,000 people throughout the world participated in ECA programming (US Department of State, n.d.-a). Arguably the best-known and largest ECA programmes include the International Visitor Leadership Program, EducationUSA, the J. William Fulbright Program and the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship Program. 1. Launched in 1940, the International Visitor Leadership Program connects current and emerging foreign leaders with their American counterparts through short-term visits to the United States. Professional meetings reflect the participants’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States. 2. Similar to the British Council and Campus France, EducationUSA supports a network of overseas educational advising centres in 170 countries. These centres offer comprehensive information about educational opportunities in the US and guidance to students on how best to access those opportunities. The advising centres also provide assistance to US institutions seeking to recruit international students or expand education abroad programmes for US students (US Department of State, n.d.-b). 3. The J. William Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange programme and is arguably the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange programme in the world. Established in 1946, the programme now operates in 155 countries and approximately 318,000 people have participated in it (US Department of State, n.d.-c). 4. The Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship Program offers grants for US undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. Since its inception in 2001, nearly 13,000 scholarships have been awarded. In addition to the US Department of State, other federal agencies have wellestablished international education priorities, most notable of which is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Established in 1961 by President Kennedy, USAID primarily administers programmes in developing nations targeting a wide range of issues, including food security, human rights, gender equality, etc. With regard to education, the focus has been less about student and scholar mobility as it has been about expanding access to education and workforce development. Since 1997, USAID has supported

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 263

17/12/2013 09:38

264

Education in North America

more than 400 partnerships between US institutions of higher education and 77 developing countries (USAID, n.d.). In addition to US-supported student and scholar mobility schemes, other notable internationally based schemes have greatly supported mobility to and from the United States. For example, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) is a publicly funded organization that promotes international academic relations and cooperation by offering mobility programmes primarily for students and faculty, but also for administrators and others in the higher education realm. Similarly, the Japan Foundation was established in 1972 as Japan’s public institution dedicated to sharing Japanese culture and language with people throughout the world. Its Center for Global Partnership promotes exchange and mobility between Japan and the United States. Established in 2011, the Brazilian government’s Scientific Mobility Program (formerly Science Without Borders) provides scholarships to Brazilian students in  the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields to study in the United States. This programme is part of the government’s larger initiative to grant 100,000 scholarships for the best students from Brazil to study abroad at the world’s best universities.

Modes of international mobility Although international student and scholar mobility has become a defining characteristic of contemporary higher education in the US, it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that international education began to take hold. The flow of students and scholars into the US has a long history reaching back to the sons of the early English colonial governors and other administrators. The first truly international student in the US was Francisco Miranda (1750–1816), the son of a prominent Venezuelan family (Hoffa, 2007). Miranda came to the new American republic soon after it was founded and enrolled at Yale in 1784. The first international student to actually receive an American degree was likely Jo Niishima from Japan, who graduated from Amherst College in 1870. Hoffa (2007) claims that, from the outset, the ebb and flow of international students on Americans campuses has always been linked to America and its social, political and economic ties abroad. Conversely, the earliest forms of outbound study from the US usually resembled the European Grand Tour, through which elite Americans travelled abroad to make acquaintance with important families and prepare themselves for eventual leadership roles back at home. The earliest

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 264

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

265

forms of credit-bearing education abroad actually began at Indiana University when in the 1870s the faculty encouraged students to enrol in summer courses taught in Switzerland, France, England, Germany and Italy. In the 1920s the University of Delaware became the first institution to begin offering creditbearing education-abroad programmes for US undergraduate students (Hoffa, 2007). Thus, a high degree of asymmetry in student flows has existed from the start – that is, with a large number of degree-seeking foreign students coming to the US and relatively few American students studying abroad. Although student enrolment patterns have constantly shifted, the primary modes of student mobility have remained fairly constant.

Inbound modes of mobility The primary modes of contemporary inbound international student flows have been consistent over time, in that the vast majority of students seeking higher education in the US are doing so as degree-seeking students – albeit the rationales for choosing to study in the US and the patterns for doing so have varied over time. For example, when once undergraduate students dominated the international student population, enrolment trends began to shift in favour of graduate students in 2000/1 and remained dominant for most of the decade. The pendulum appears to be shifting back once again. Business and management, engineering and math and computer science have long remained the primary fields of study. In much the same way, the number of international scholars coming to the US has been increasing each year to 116,917 in 2011/12 and yet the major fields of specialization have remained constant, with those in the biological and biomedical sciences, health sciences, engineering and physical sciences accounting for nearly half of all international scholars (IIE, 2012a). A number of other primary modes utilized to pursue education in the US have intensified in the last decade, namely the number of students pursuing intensive English programmes (IEPs) in the US, the number of non-degree students, and the number of OPT participants (see Figure 12.3). In spite of immigration restrictions on short-term English language study in the US (NAFSA, 2006), nearly 117,000 IEP students were studying at private language schools in the US in 2011/12, in addition to the 72,711 IEP enrolments reported at colleges and universities. The college and university-based IEP enrolment alone has grown over 120 per cent since 2002/3 (IIE, 2012a). Almost half of all IEP students in the US now come from Asia. A growing number of non-degree students are also coming to the US for educational purposes, more

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 265

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

266

than doubling over the last ten years to nearly 70,000. Finally, an increasing number of students are participating in Optional Practical Training (OPT), or the period during which students are permitted to work in the US without needing to acquire a work visa in order to gain practical training to complement their field of studies. The number of students choosing OPT has more than tripled in the past decade to 85,157 in 2011/12 and almost eightfold over the last twenty years.

Outbound modes of mobility Recent decades have seen unprecedented growth in the number of US students travelling abroad for academic study and an expansion of the profession in such a way as to allow contemporary students to study virtually any subject in almost any part of the world and for nearly any length of time. Because the vast majority of US students seeking international education opportunities do so through programming offered as part of their home degrees, a variety of modes of student mobility have naturally emerged over time. The most commonly utilized modes include reciprocal student exchanges, faculty-directed programmes, consortia programming, and third-party provider organizations. 1. Reciprocal Student Exchanges. The exchange of students has a long history in US higher education reaching back to 1909 when the Association for the International Interchange of Students was formed to promote exchanges 140,000

Number of students

120,000 100,000 IEP

80,000

OPT 60,000

Non-degree

40,000 20,000

12

1 20

01

1/

/1

0

10 20

/1

9 20

09

8

/0

/0 20

08

7 /0 20

07

6 20

06

5

/0

/0 20

05

4 /0 20

04

3

03 20

/0

2

02 20

/0 01

20

20

00

/0

1

0

Academic year

Figure 12.3  OPT, IEL, Non-degree Seeking Students, 2000–2012 Source: IIE, 2012a (Note: IEP data are only available since 2004/5)

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 266

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

267

of students among England, Canada and the United States (Hoffa, 2007). Bilateral exchanges typically involve the reciprocal movement of students between institutions (Peterson et al., 2008). Multilateral exchanges, through which students are exchanged among a network of institutions, is also a common mode of education abroad. A notable example is the International Student Exchange Program, which offers a worldwide network of over 300 institutions. 2. Faculty-Directed Programmes. The most rapidly growing mode of mobility in the US today, faculty-directed programmes are those in which a faculty member (or members) from the home campus accompanies students abroad. These programmes are typically discipline-specific, short-term and offered during the summer months (Spencer and Tuma, 2002). 3. Consortia Programming. As education abroad programming grew over time, so did the number of inter-institutional consortia that ‘share one or more education abroad programs within a membership group in order to provide greater access, quality control, and/or cost efficiency in education abroad programs to students’ (Peterson et al., 2008). Today, consortia are now commonplace, from region-specific consortia such as the Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS) and the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA) to nationwide consortia such as the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES Abroad) and the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), both of which work with over 200 public and private US colleges and universities. 4. Third-Party Provider Organizations. In recent decades, there has been a proliferation of for-profit and non-profit organizations that offer education abroad programme services to students. These organizations provide a wide range of programme offerings, from island programming to direct enrolment. Many institutions utilize these organizations to supplement their portfolios so as to offer a full complement of programmes. While once ‘study abroad’ was the catch-all term for outbound mobility, the term ‘education abroad’ is increasingly preferred as a broader category consisting of five distinct experience types of outbound study: Study Abroad, Research Abroad, Intern Abroad, Teach Abroad and Service-Learning Abroad. 1. Study Abroad programmes generally offer students the opportunity to enrol in academic coursework abroad that complements coursework at the home institution. Programmes range in length from a couple of weeks to a full academic year.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 267

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

268

2. An emerging education abroad mode, Research Abroad programmes allow students to conduct independent research in the field. A growing number of students in healthcare professions conduct rotations and clerkships abroad in local healthcare contexts. Notable organizations that provide research programmes for US students include SIT Study Abroad, which offers field-based ethnographic research opportunities, and EuroScholars, which offers traditional bench science opportunities at prestigious institutions throughout Europe. 3. In response to the growing student demand to develop skills and knowledge to be effective in the globalizing workforce, credit-bearing Intern Abroad opportunities abroad have proliferated. Students can choose among full-time internships over the summer or enrol in hybrid study abroad programmes during the academic year that integrate both academic coursework and internship opportunities. 4. A growing number of Teach Abroad programmes allow students to fulfil student teaching requirements abroad. As a result, institutional consortia have emerged that collectively ensure licensure requirements are met and students are appropriately supervised (see inset for notable examples). 5. Service-Learning Abroad has long been an interest of US students, reaching back to the latter half of the nineteenth century when American students began to pursue overseas missionary and volunteer service programmes (Hoffa, 2007). Although such experiential programming still continues, contemporary education abroad experiences are generally offered via formal international service-learning projects through which students earn academic credits. Notable organizations that provide service-learning programmes for US students include the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Experiential Learning Abroad Programs.

Teacher preparation and international education Student teaching abroad allows participants to broaden their view of the world as they immerse themselves in communities quite different from their own. Students who participate in international experiences learn about new ways of teaching and learning as they are exposed to different material, curriculum and instructional approaches. For example, US student teachers in New Zealand learn different approaches to teaching literacy. In South Africa, they become acquainted with different methods of assessing student progress. Those placed

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 268

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

269

in England are exposed to different perspectives in teaching about war than in those placed in schools near their home university. The premise is that student teachers who learn about different cultures are more likely to communicate effectively across cultures and have the expertise to help prepare learners in their classrooms for living and working in the global community (Brennan and Cleary, 2007; Cushner and Brennan, 2007). Three long-standing programmes illustrate the benefits of this approach. The Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST), Global Gateway for Teachers (GGT) and Educators Abroad (EA) are noteworthy in that they have coordinated carefully structured professional experiences for many years and are well regarded for upholding high quality standards. MM

MM

MM

One of the oldest organizations facilitating international student teaching placements, COST was established as a formal organization in 1973 (Heyl and McCarthy, 2003). The founders established the programme out of concern that students who attended their institutions had little or no intercultural experiences; many, in fact, had never travelled beyond the region in which they lived. Their primary goal was to reduce cultural barriers and increase global understanding among school children through teaching. COST has since placed thousands of teacher candidates in international settings. Offered through Indiana University as part of their cultural immersion program, GGT serves more than a dozen universities in the US placing candidates in schools in seventeen countries annually. Using the motto ‘education unites the world’, GGT aims to foster the development of worldminded teachers and has been recognized for excellence by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Founded in 1987, EA provides a range of opportunities for teacher candidates and practising teachers to strengthen their global understanding and practice through short-term field experiences, student teaching placements and professional development programmes. EA is comprised of a network of educators from around the world and has provided placements for more than 2,000 participants in 58 countries.

Although each of these programmes has unique characteristics, they share several features that can be adapted to revise existing programmes or develop new ones. All provide carefully structured, well-supervised, international immersion experiences for teacher candidates. They are committed to helping participants develop a global perspective in a way that they can effectively serve the diversity of students in their classrooms. Each emphasizes the importance of helping students understand the commonality in issues facing the world and the value of learning from one another.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 269

17/12/2013 09:38

270

Education in North America

Challenges and opportunities Over the past century, international education has moved from the margins toward the centre of US higher education. While once the purview of a small number of institutions and departments, internationalization efforts have become central to the mission of most universities and colleges around the country. Joining in the chorus of promoting the internationalization of higher education are federal, state and local governments. In addition to funding national scholarship schemes in support of education abroad, the US federal government has supported major initiatives to welcome international students and scholars to this country through well-known and highly respected mobility schemes and state governments have similarly invested in the internationalization of their public institutions. As internationalization efforts continue to take on greater prominence in an increasingly globalizing world of demographic changes, political and economic uncertainty, strides toward achieving universal education and ever-shifting migrations patterns, US educators and policymakers will have to work collaboratively and strategically to tackle difficult challenges and pursue emerging opportunities.

Challenges The following key areas represent some of the most critical issues and challenges for the ongoing internationalization of US higher education: 1. Retaining leadership in attracting international students and scholars. The world’s best and brightest students and scholars are able to choose from among many nations that are eager to welcome them. As competition with other countries for students and scholars becomes more pronounced and as the US begins to lose its status as the leading destination of choice, it will be important to find new ways to ensure that the complex and decentralized US higher education system remains accessible and attractive to new generations of international students and scholars (NAFSA, 2006). Educators will need to strategically leverage the pull factors of US higher education and remove barriers to students from diverse parts of the world while not becoming overly reliant on student and scholar populations from Asia. NAFSA (2003, 2006) has repeatedly stressed the need to develop a national marketing plan that advances a clear and consistent message about the advantages of US higher education and that supports students and scholars in smoothly navigating the complexity of the system.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 270

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

271

2. Absence of a national policy on international education. In the increasingly competitive global environment for attracting students and scholars and ensuring that American students graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete effectively in a globalizing workforce, educators have consistently called for a national policy on international education. In particular, NAFSA (2003, 2006) has cautioned that in order for the US to retain its status as a premier destination for international students and scholars, it will be imperative for the country to develop a comprehensive national recruitment strategy that coordinates the efforts of all relevant federal agencies. Fortunately, the US Department of Education released its first-ever, fully articulated international strategy in November 2012, which is designed to strengthen US education and advance the nation’s international priorities (US Department of Education, n.d.). Although not specific to higher education, the report marks what may be a significant shift toward establishing a systematic and integrated approach to international engagement based on measurable goals and objectives. 3. Need to reform the US immigration system. US immigration laws may need to be reformed in order to create and support a climate that encourages rather than intimidates international students and scholars. NAFSA (2006) stresses that the current regulations and visa procedures are excessively imposed by the government and lack the ‘flexibility to accommodate the international nature of scientific inquiry, academic collaboration, and business’ (p. 7). For example, the system still requires that students prove that they have no intention of remaining in the US after graduation, which incorrectly assumes that all students want to immigrate permanently to the US, all of which further dissuades students from applying their knowledge and talents to the betterment of the country. International students are not permitted to work part-time off-campus as US students are able to do. Moreover, NAFSA (2006) has stressed that the intensive English industry in the US could be even more robust if immigration policies would permit short-term study (less than 90 days) on tourist visas, as most other countries do, and that OPT should be permanently extended from one to two years. 4. Expanding and enhancing education abroad programming for all American students. The contemporary education abroad participant remains white, middle- to upper-class, female, majoring in the social sciences or humanities, studying in Europe on a short-term programme and comes from a highly educated family background (IIE, 2012a). In order to

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 271

17/12/2013 09:38

272

Education in North America

incorporate international education programming into the mainstream American undergraduate experience, institutions must continue to identify and remove barriers and provide sustained support to diverse students from traditionally under-represented populations – namely, members of a racial/ethnic minority, students from low socio-economic backgrounds, first-generation students, learning or physically disabled students, males, students in STEM disciplines, Community college students, etc. Unless the current trends are reversed, these populations risk falling further behind in developing the essential knowledge and skills for today’s global society. 5. Assessing student learning outcomes. As the national debate on issues of accountability, affordability and transparency in higher education has intensified (US Department of State, n.d.-d), so too have the calls to colleges and universities to critically re-examine the relative value and quality of higher education (Spellings, 2006). Spurred by rising costs, disappointing retention and graduation rates, and employer concerns that graduates do not have the knowledge and skills needed in the global workplace, educators are increasingly being asked to demonstrate that students are learning essential knowledge and skills (Leveille, 2006). Therefore, institutions have begun to direct more attention to documenting practices that effectively maximize student success. With this increasing attention to assessing student outcomes has come growing interest in understanding and documenting what students learn through international education programming (Bolen, 2007; Green, 2012). It is simply no longer enough to claim in this environment that education abroad is a good thing for students without offering specific evidence to support such assertions. Like others in higher education, international educators must also justify the value of their efforts. These have thus far been hindered by the general lack of valid and reliable data needed to respond to the rising barrage of questions.

Opportunities The following key areas represent some of the emerging opportunities for the ongoing internationalization of US higher education: 1. Establishing and enhancing international networks and multilateral partnerships. International partnerships and linkages are instrumental for

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 272

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

273

developing and maintaining successful forms of international engagement and, in fact, IIE has attributed the continued growth in the number of international students and scholars in the US to such international linkages (IIE, 2012a). During this prolonged period of funding shortages and budgetary realignment, federal support for projects aimed at bridging partnerships between US and foreign institutions is waning. Notable programmes such as ATLANTIS (Actions for Transatlantic Links and Academic Networks for Training and Integrated Studies), FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education), and the US–Brazil Higher Education Consortia programme have experienced major funding cuts. In response, institutions are turning toward professional associations, funding agencies and international networks as vehicles through which to establish and nurture international collaborations. One notable example is the WUN, or Worldwide Universities Network, which is comprised of 19 researchintensive institutions spanning six continents. WUN strives to create new, multilateral opportunities for international collaboration in research and graduate education. 2. Integrating international education into the curriculum. As educators respond to institutional momentum toward internationalizing the campus, curriculum and the overall student learning experience, the concept of curriculum integration of education abroad has begun to take hold (Brewer and Cunningham, 2009; Woodruff and Henry, 2012). Whereas education abroad may have once been understood in terms of international travel, curricular integration efforts have stressed the importance of engaging the faculty in positioning international education as an integral part of academic degree programmes and tied to the measurable learning outcomes of the disciplines. The University of Minnesota’s pioneering work in curriculum integration has served as a model for other institutions around the country on integrating international perspectives into on-campus instruction and developing major-specific advising tools. Looking forward, measuring success in education abroad will move beyond merely documenting enrolment numbers but rather assessing the extent to which education abroad is strategically aligned with the curriculum and with documented learning outcomes. 3. Establishing joint, dual and consecutive degree programmes. International joint, dual and consecutive degree programmes have an important role in higher education (Knight and Lee, 2012). Although Europe is far ahead in establishing such degree programmes, US universities have become

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 273

17/12/2013 09:38

274

Education in North America

increasingly interested in joint, dual and consecutive degree programmes as key internationalization strategies (Yopp, 2008). Although the rationales driving collaborative degree programmes vary significantly, students are often attracted to the possibility of earning two degrees from two universities located in different countries. At the institutional level, collaborative degree programmes have the potential to lead to deeper and more sustainable relationships that bring other institutional benefits. Although perseverance is needed to surmount the many complex issues and challenges for establishing these types of initiative, the investment appears worthwhile. The American Council on Education’s Handbook for Advancing Comprehensive Internationalization: What Institutions Can Do and What Students Should Learn (2006) provides an excellent resource on collaborative programming. 4. Expanding cross-border delivery. Cross-border delivery is not a new concept, but as student and scholar mobility is projected to continue increasing, higher education institutions may need to leverage this strategy within the broader array of their international engagement strategies (Burgesss and Berquist, 2012). Transnational programmes take many forms, including twinning arrangements, branch campuses, online learning (i.e. distance learning, e-learning, etc.) and franchising. Altogether, US institutions presently offer roughly 200 transnational programmes, which pales in comparison to the UK, which is reported as having more than 1,000 such programmes in 2007/8 (Burgesss and Berquist, 2012). When utilized as part of a strategic and comprehensive internationalization strategy, cross-border education has been shown to produce very positive outcomes.

Conclusion This chapter has presented the growth and development of international education as a distinctive mark of higher education in the United States. The US higher education system has become one of the largest, most comprehensive and vibrant educational systems worldwide and enrolment trends show that it is also widely respected as the premier destination for higher education in the world. Although competition with other countries for students and scholars has intensified, the many pull factors associated with US higher education, along with the ever-changing push factors from abroad, have worked together to enable the US to achieve market share dominance. The outbound movement of US students abroad as part of their home degrees has also experienced growth

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 274

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

275

over time and educators and policymakers have joined in a national chorus calling for the significant expansion of US education abroad (NAFSA, 2008). As the forces of globalization continue to impact societies and economies, there are few that would disagree that US students must graduate with the essential skills and knowledge necessary to compete effectively in a globalizing workforce. Towards this purpose, US educators and federal policymakers have strategically leveraged political, economic, social/cultural and academic rationales over time to advocate for major policy initiatives that have substantially shaped the internationalization of higher education in the United States. A number of state- and national-level associations have also worked collectively to call upon educational policymakers to fund and maintain initiatives that encourage and sustain recruitment of international students and scholars and incorporate education abroad programming into the mainstream American undergraduate experience. In result, a number of well-respected international education and exchange programmes have been implemented and serve as symbols of the US commitment toward fostering mutual understanding between the peoples of the US and other countries. As the modes of student and scholar mobility have changed over time, so too have the challenges and opportunities in the international outreach of US higher education. US educators and policymakers will have to work collaboratively and strategically to tackle some difficult challenges, such as increased competition, immigration reform and assessing student learning outcomes. Similarly, new opportunities must be actively sought and pursued, whether through new partnerships and linkages or through the sharing of best practices with other educational systems around the world.

References Altbach, P. and Knight, J. (2006). The internationalization of higher education: Motivations and realities. NEA Almanac of Higher Education. Washington, DC: National Education Association, pp. 27–36. Altbach, P. and Lulat, Y. (1985). Research on Foreign Students and International Study: An Overview and Bibliography. New York: Praeger Publishers. Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) (n.d.) A Call to Leadership: The Presidential Role in Internationalizing the University. http://www.aplu.org/page. aspx?pid=570 [accessed 25 March 2013]. Bolen, M. C. (2007). A Guide to Outcomes Assessment in Education Abroad. Carlisle, PA: The Forum on Education Abroad.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 275

17/12/2013 09:38

276

Education in North America

Brennan, S. and Cleary, J. (2007). Promoting reflection during overseas studentteaching experiences: One university’s story. In K. Cushner and S. Brennan (eds), Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 159–77. Brewer, E. and Cunningham, K. (eds) (2009). Integrating Study Abroad into the Curriculum: Theory and Practices Across the Disciplines. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing. Burgess, P. and Berquist, B. (2012). Cross-border delivery: Projects, programs and providers. In D. Deardorff et al. (eds), The SAGE Handbook of International Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 325–42. Comp, D. (2008). US heritage-seeking students discover minority communities in Western Europe. Journal of Studies in International Education, 12 (1), pp. 29–37. Cushner, K. and Brennan, S. (2007). The value of learning to teach in another culture. In K. Cushner and S. Brennan (eds), Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 1–11. de Wit, H. (2008). The internationalization of higher education in a global context. In H. de Wit et al. (eds), The Dynamics of International Student Circulation in a Global Context. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Press, pp. 1–14. de Wit, H. and Rumbley, L. (2008). The role of American Higher education in international student circulation. In H. de Wit et al. (eds), The Dynamics of International Student Circulation in a Global Context. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Press, pp. 199–231. Green, M. (2012). Measuring and Assessing Internationalization. NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Washington, DC. Hanban (n.d.). Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. About Hanban. http://www.hanban.ca/hanban.php?lang=en [accessed 30 March 2013]. Heyl, J. and McCarthy, J. (2003). International education and teacher preparation in the US Presentation at the national conference entitled Global Challenges and US Higher Education: National Needs and Policy Implications, Durham, NC: Duke University, January. Hoffa, W. (2007). A History of US Study Abroad: Beginnings to 1965. Carlisle, PA: Forum on Education Abroad. Hudzik, J. and McCarthy, J. (2012). Leading Comprehensive Internationalization: Strategy and Tactics for Action. NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Washington, DC. Huisman, J., Adelmanm C., Hsieh, C., Shams, F. and Wilkins, S. (2012). Europe’s Bologna process and its impact on global higher education. In D. Deardorff et al. (eds), The SAGE Handbook of International Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 81–100. Institute for International Education (IIE) (2012a). Open Doors. New York: Institute for International Education.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 276

17/12/2013 09:38



International Outreach in Education in the United States

277

—(2012b). Project Atlas: Trends and Global Data 2012. New York: Institute for International Education. Knight, J. (2008). Internationalization: Key concepts and elements. In M. Graebel et al. (eds), Internationalization of European Higher Education. European University Association and Academic Cooperation Association, A 1.1, pp. 1–21. Knight, J. and Lee, J. (2012). International joint, double and consecutive degree programs. In D. Deardorff et al. (eds), The SAGE Handbook of International Education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 343–57. Leveille, D. (2006). Accountability in Higher Education: A Public Agenda for Trust and Cultural Change. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) (n.d.) Global Thirty. http://www.uni.international.mext.go.jp/ [accessed 30 March 2013]. NAFSA: Association of International Educators (n.d.) Immigration Reform Priorities for the 113th Congress. http://www.nafsa.org/113thcongress.rss [accessed 25 March 2013]. —(2003, January). In America’s Interest: Welcoming International Students. http:// www.nafsa.org/Resource_Library_Assets/Public_Policy/In_America_s_Interest__ Welcoming_International_Students/ [accessed 27 March 2013]. —(2006, June). Restoring US Competitiveness for International Students and Scholars. http://www.nafsa.org/Resource_Library_Assets/Public_Policy/Restoring_U_S__ Competitiveness_for_International_Students_and_Scholars/ [accessed 27 March 2013]. —(2008, January). Strengthening Study Abroad: Recommendations for Effective Institutional Management for Presidents, Senior Administrators, and Study Abroad Professionals. http://www.nafsa.org/resourcelibrary/default.aspx?id=8387 [accessed 30 March 2013]. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (n.d.). Fast Facts. http://nces.ed.gov/ fastfacts/display.asp?id=98 [accessed 30 March 2013]. National Resource Centers (NRC) for Foreign Language, Area & International Studies (n.d.). Welcome. http://www.nrcweb.org/index.aspx [accessed 30 March 2013]. OECD (2004). Internationalization and Trade in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges. Paris: OECD. Ogden, A. (2009). Trends in international educational exchange between Japan and the United States. Economy, Culture and History Japan Spotlight. Japan Economic Foundation, July/August, pp. 44–5. —(2010). Education Abroad and the Making of Global Citizens: Assessing Learning Outcomes of Course-Embedded, Faculty-Led International Programming. Saarbruecken, Germany: VDM Publishing. Ogden, A., Soneson, H. and Weting, P. (2010). The diversification of geographic locations. In B. Hoffa and S. DePaul (eds), A History of US Study Abroad: 1965 to the Present. Carlisle: PA: The Forum on Education Abroad.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 277

17/12/2013 09:38

278

Education in North America

Olson, C., Green, M. and Hill, B. (2006). Handbook for advancing comprehensive internationalization: What institutions can do and what students should learn. Washington, DC: American Council on Education. Peterson, C., Engle, L., Kenney, L., Kreutzer, K., Nolting, W. and Ogden, A. (2008). Education Abroad Glossary. Carlisle, PA: The Forum on Education Abroad. Spellings, M. (2006, September). A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of US Higher Education. A Report of the Commission Appointed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. Spencer, S. E. and Tuma, T. (eds) (2002). The Guide to Successful Short-Term Programs Abroad. NAFSA: Association of International Educators. University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) (n.d.). About UMAP. http://www. umap.org/en/about/ [accessed 30 March 2013]. University of Pennsylvania (n.d.). The Penn Compact: From Excellence to Eminence. http://www.upenn.edu/president/penn-compact/penn-compact-landing [accessed 30 March 2013]. US Agency for International Development (USAID) (n.d.) Education. http://www. usaid.gov/what-we-do/education [accessed 10 May 2013]. US Department of Education (n.d.). Succeeding Globally Through International Education and Engagement: US Department of Education International Strategy, 2012–16. http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/international-strategy–2012–16.pdf [accessed 30 March 2013]. US Department of State (n.d.-a) Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Impact. http://www.eca.state.gov/impact [accessed 24 March 2013]. —(n.d.-b) Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. EducationUSA. http://www.eca. state.gov/educationusa [accessed 24 March 2013]. —(n.d.-c). Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Fulbright Program. http://www. eca.state.gov/fulbright [accessed 24 March 2013]. —(n.d.-d). College Affordability and Transparency Center. http://collegecost.ed.gov/ catc/# [accessed 27 March 2013]. —(n.d.-e). National Security Language Initiative. http://web.archive.org/ web/20080916093923/http://exchanges.state.gov/NSLI/ [accessed 30 March 2013]. Woodruff, G. and Henry, H. (2012). Curriculum Integration of Education Abroad. NAFSA: Association of International Educators. http://www.nafsa.org/epubs [accessed 27 March 2013]. Yopp, J. (2008). Convergent evolution of European and US education systems. In M. Graebel et al. (eds), Internationalization of European Higher Education. European University Association and Academic Cooperation Association, Berlin, Germany. A 3.2–1, pp. 1–24.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 278

17/12/2013 09:38

13

Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013: A Faculty Member’s Point of View Wayne J. Urban

Introduction This chapter deals with a half-century of American higher education. It has a rather personal perspective, of which the author is cognizant, and not ashamed. I am nearing the end of my career and have, as a result, taken to being much more personal in my writing than I had been earlier in my career. Generally speaking, the results have been satisfactory (Urban, 2010a). I hope that this chapter will enlighten readers and I apologize if I appear self-indulgent herein. That is not my intent. I have chosen to begin this account with the year 1963, when I received my Bachelor’s degree from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, an urban Jesuit university in the Midwest. I got my Master’s (1965) and doctorate (1968) from Ohio State University, the leading public university in the state of Ohio and an institution that in many ways was the opposite of my undergraduate school. What I want to do in this chapter is deal with the 50 years in question from my point of view as a graduate student for the first five of the 50 years and then as a faculty member for the rest of the period, 1968–2013. I still am a faculty member and will work a good while longer. I like being a faculty member; but it does have its downside. I hope to illustrate both aspects of that sentence in what follows. It will be arranged into sections on research, teaching and service, the great trinity of academic life. Before embarking on that effort, however, I want to make two more points in this Introduction. The first is that American higher education has been enormously successful, by several measurable criteria. And the success of American higher education had its beginnings long before 1963. There has been a rather remarkable increase in the United States in numbers of institutions,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 279

17/12/2013 09:38

280

Education in North America

in staff size in those institutions, in the number of students attending those institutions, and in the number of degrees conferred by those institutions since the second half of the nineteenth century. Prior to that time, enrolment was relatively steady, increasing slowly and fitfully from the time of the establishment of Harvard College in 1636 through the end of the Civil War. After that conflict, however, the twin influences of the land-grant acts and the rise of the research university, along with changes in the larger society, propelled the number of higher education institutions and enrolment in these institutions to unprecedented heights. That phenomenon has been summarized dramatically, at least for the years 1869 through 1990, in a volume published by the United States Department of Education (Snyder, 1993). That volume, entitled 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait, was published by the United States Department of Education in 1992. It is full of interesting information, both in its narratives and graphically. It shows, for example, that the number of institutions offering American higher education increased from 563 in 1869 to 3,535 in 1990. Additionally, the number of professional instructional staff working in those institutions increased in the same period from 5,553 to 987,518; the total enrolment went from 62,839 to 13,538,500; the number of bachelor’s degrees rose from 9,371 to 1,049,657; and the revenue expended in operating the institutions increased from $76,883,000 in 1899 (the first year for which this figure is available) to $139,635,477,000 (Snyder, 1993, p. 75). The Department of Education has updated those figures steadily since 1993. In its most recent effort, the Institute of Education in the United States Department of Education has brought the analysis up to the year 2010. The number of institutions of higher education in that year was 4,495. The number of faculty employed was 1,439,144. Total enrolment was 20,427,711 and the number of bachelor’s degrees was 1,650,014 (Snyder and Dillow, 2012, p. 289). Measures for expenditure are not available for the post–1990 years. This is a remarkable success story. The numbers do not lie. Nor do the increasing numbers of international students, coming in a steady stream from most parts of the globe to study in American colleges and universities. Our higher education system is in many ways a stunning success. Yet within that success is hidden a reality that there is a great diversity of people and programmes evident in American higher education. That is, much of what goes on in higher education differs significantly from institution to institution. The student body at Harvard or Brown is far different from that at a place like my own institution, the University of Alabama, or at schools like the University of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 280

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

281

West Florida in Pensacola. The enormous variety of private and public institutions in the United States, including large state universities, smaller state colleges, private liberal arts colleges, historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and community colleges, means that the institutions and the people in them are quite likely to be different from each other. This illustrates the incredible diversity present in the universe of American higher education. One might argue that this diversity is so broad that it is difficult to write about American higher education with any confidence that one can say something meaningful about the enterprise. That concern is mitigated, though it is not answered completely, by two considerations. The first is what David Riesman described as the ‘academic procession’, writing in the late 1950s (Riesman, 1958). In this discussion Riesman depicted the academic procession as akin to a conga line, or snakelike dance, in which institutions like Harvard are at the head and institutions like small two-year colleges are at the tail. In between are institutions representing the several categories mentioned in the previous paragraph and other institutions and categories not discussed. What holds this assemblage together with a semblance of coherence is that each institution in the procession has its eyes set firmly on the institution, or set of institutions, that is ahead of it in the procession. Thus, Emory or Duke look closely at Harvard, as do the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin. Southern state universities like my own University of Alabama look closely at the Big Ten and other more prestigious public institutions; state colleges and regional universities look at flagship institutions in their own and other states, and two-year colleges look at four-year colleges. It is not that the institutions are committed to mimicking other institutions, but it is that institutions are cognizant of what other institutions are doing, particularly those above them in the academic pecking order. In some states, this has yielded rather remarkable results. In the state of Georgia, for example, where I spent more than three decades of my career, when I started working there in 1971 there were a number of two-year colleges that were committed to a rather traditional mission of offering the first two years of four-year college work, as well as offering some vocational courses and some community enrichment activities. In many of these institutions, however, over the years they embarked on a successful move to become four-year colleges. This meant that they added professional curricula to four-year courses in the arts and sciences, and cut back on vocational and community studies. Still other institutions, existing four-year colleges including a few which had been two-year

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 281

17/12/2013 09:38

282

Education in North America

colleges, became state universities with regional names such as the University of West Georgia. These institutions eagerly sought graduate programmes to go with their existing undergraduate programmes and often embarked on research activities, though usually more applied than those which went on in the major research universities. Thus a kind of push toward mimicry, if not sameness, was institutionalized in Georgia and elsewhere to varying degrees, as colleges sought to become like other colleges, and even to become universities. The check on unlimited diversity represented by institutional desire to become like those ahead of them in the academic procession is enhanced by faculty. Almost all faculty members at American colleges or universities hold doctorates, most of which come from institutions much higher in the academic pecking order than those at which they work. Faculty members come to institutions that are often unlike the ones in which they were trained with a firm view of what a higher education is and should be. Understandably, that view looks very much like their experience at the institution in which they received their doctorate. Sometimes, there is a fortuitous conjunction of an ambitious faculty with an institution on the way to being something else. These two forces work together to make a two-year college into a four-year college, a four-year college into a regional public university, a regional university into a research university. At other times, the interests of faculty and institutions are not in tune with each other, and the interests of individual faculty members are not always in tune with each other. This tension or conflict is often represented in an ideological contest between faculty from places far distant – and not just geographically – from the place where they work, and other faculty and administrators who have become advocates of their institution, advocates who look with suspicion on the ideas and values held by outsiders. In the terms of Robert Merton (1949), there is a conflict between cosmopolitans and locals that may be sparked by any number of issues. But I am getting ahead of my story. The point to be made is that in spite of the enormous diversity involved within the institutional universe of American higher education, there are centripetal forces which tend to modify that diversity, to make the institutions more like each other than their structure would indicate. Chief among these forces is the faculty in higher education. To illustrate these and other points about American higher education, I now turn to a consideration of the three main constituent categories of faculty work in American higher education: research, teaching and service.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 282

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

283

Research Research is a major value or orientation that doctoral students usually learn in their training. In the more prestigious doctoral granting institution, research is an unquestioned value. In my case, getting a PhD in education in a large state university, research was not as stressed in my major studies as it was in other areas in which I studied such as American history. My dissertation was an exercise, one that I enjoyed but not one that produced any remarkable publications or had any remarkable impact on my subsequent academic work. Thus, it is difficult for me to understand exactly why I have wanted to do research ever since entering academe in 1968. My first job was at a second tier institution in the state of Florida, the University of South Florida in Tampa. My immediate colleagues, with one exception, had gotten their degrees at the University of Florida and, at least to my mind, had come to South Florida to teach until retirement. They were firmly in the ‘local’ camp and disinterested in, if not suspicious of, research. They were fine people, and good colleagues in many ways, but they did not do much research. There were other faculty members, both in education and elsewhere in the university, who did do research. I think that I had enough interaction with them, and with the one exceptional colleague mentioned above, to sustain my interest in research. That colleague and I were going through the catalogue of the institution one day and found out that over half of the faculty had doctorates from either the University of Florida or Florida State University. This enhanced my sense that the institution in which I was working was not in any sense a research university and, further, was not the one where I wanted to work forever. Having not done too much research previously, however, I had to learn how to do it ‘on the job’. Fortunately, there had been a cataclysmic event in Florida education in February of 1968 when 35,000 Florida teachers walked out of their classrooms, which still galvanized school teachers. They made up the bulk of the students in the graduate classes that I taught when I arrived in September of that year. I decided that this strike was worthy of serious investigation and started with discussions of the strike with my students. That led to interviews with the leaders of the strike as well as other teachers who were not in my classes. That, in turn, led to my first research publication, an article on the Florida strike in a journal devoted to labour relations (Urban, 1973). I was trained generally in foundations of education, but had been an undergraduate history major who had loved history long before enrolling in college. That meant that, though my work on the Florida teachers’ strike stimulated me, I thought that I wanted to do historical research.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 283

17/12/2013 09:38

284

Education in North America

In the interest of accomplishing that objective, I sought to leave the University of South Florida. A senior educational historian, John Hardin Best, had been at the University of Florida for a year and I had met him during that year. He stayed in Florida only a year and quickly moved to Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta. A year later, I was hired on the GSU faculty, mainly to work in the history of education. I was delighted and set out to make a mark as an educational historian. My quest was aided by my senior colleague and by one of my students, who alerted me to the records of the original teachers organization in the city of Atlanta, the Atlanta Public School Teachers’ Association, which were mouldering in a file cabinet in a local high school. I succeeded in obtaining these records and having them placed in the Archives at Georgia State University. I used them as a springboard to my first single-authored book, a study of early teacher unions nationally and in three cities, Atlanta, New York and Chicago, which was published in 1982 (Urban, 1982). I was hooked on historical research by that initial effort and have persevered in that endeavour since then. Historical research in education attracted me, as I said earlier, because I had been an undergraduate history major and a consumer of history for a long time. Becoming a producer was a short but significant step that I took relatively early in my career. Historical research is not particularly technical, and one can learn it in a number of ways. The best way probably is to be apprenticed to a senior researcher, a step that is accomplished by many during their doctoral work. I was not so fortunate. My doctoral advisor taught me many things, mainly an approach to teaching that I will discuss in the next section. He did not mentor me in historical research methods. Fortunately, I had had a very good course in historiography and historical research as a history major in my undergraduate programme, in which the text was an early edition of Barzun and Graff (1957), a book which says most of what needs said to embark on historical research, and another one in a master’s program at Ohio State. These two courses taught me things like distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, putting one’s work in the context of work done previously by other historians, and several important factors that went into good writing. The problem for young scholars nowadays is that they don’t have the luxury that I had as a young scholar to feel my way along and to gradually enter into a career devoted to research in educational history. Institutions like the one where I first taught at, and the one to which I moved, are less patient with young faculty than they were with me and expect them to be relatively accomplished scholars when they are hired. Being on the tenure track is a grind for a young scholar,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 284

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

285

whether an historian or a practitioner of other types of scholarship. This is a result of the downward influence of the scholarly mentality and skills learned in doctoral programmes which I discussed earlier in this essay. I daresay that Ohio State and its College of Education is much more attuned to scholarship as a priority for its graduate students now than it was when I attended. And institutions like the two in which I worked now also have doctoral programmes which teach students to value and how to do research. Research is the essential skill for a successful academic career in most, if not all, institutions of higher education. It is also the one thing that faculty can point to as uniquely their own. Research ability and research accomplishment are the property of faculty, more so than either teaching or service, both of which can be done by non-researchers with quite acceptable results. Research accomplishment also allows a faculty member to be noticed and valued away from his or her campus, another quality that distinguishes it from teaching or service. An added strength of research, especially for a faculty member, is that it can enhance one’s teaching. A good researcher can utilize the results of that process, as well as the steps involved in carrying it out, to enrich classroom content and diversify classroom activities. Getting students involved in historical research has been a successful outcome for me in my work, and that involvement shows students that they can become learners through their own research just as much as through consuming what is disseminated in classrooms by their instructors. I often take students to archives or introduce them to published documents in order to get them to work with those documents and see how scholarship is created through their study. Similarly, I want them to see that historical research – like most, if not all, research – is the result of interpretation. Studying documents, and studying interpretations of those documents and other documents, allows young researchers to see how they might create new and different interpretations which will mark them as scholars in their own right. None of this discussion of research should be taken to mean that it is the only accomplishment that a faculty member can take pride in. Teaching and service are important, as I will note in the subsequent sections of this essay. Research, however, is judged by one’s scholarly colleagues, many if not most of whom are not at one’s own institution. This makes it a bit more objective, somewhat insulated from political factors such as personal friendships that can affect the judgement of one’s teaching and service activities. Research is not apolitical, as any good researcher knows. It is, however, less political than teaching or service. It introduces a scholar to his colleagues throughout the nation and, as happened

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 285

17/12/2013 09:38

286

Education in North America

in my case, throughout the world. There is a community of scholars in my field, history of education, which operates on regional, national and international stages on which one can play a role. Those roles allow one to interact with others who are doing work in the same scholarly traditions using similar methods, to compare results and the processes used to achieve those results with colleagues in distant places, and to publish the results of one’s work in journals that are read in places far away from one’s campus home. Academics who don’t do research are becoming rarer in today’s American university world. On the whole, this is a good thing, I think. While research is not necessary for good teaching or good service, it is helpful to both of those activities. More importantly, it is done within a scholarly tradition and with a set of circumstances that allow a judgement of merit to be made differently from what is done in mainly on-campus endeavours. In short, that judgement is called ‘peer review’. In this sense, research is the purview of the faculty, on and off the campus, and their most important accomplishment.

Teaching As I mentioned earlier, my doctoral advisor had a major impact on me as a teacher. I was in graduate school in the 1960s, and intellectual ferment was the order of the day. My advisor was an incredibly demanding teacher, constantly badgering his graduate students about what they were reading and what they were getting out of that reading. In his undergraduate classes, he sat on a desk and entertained and interrogated whoever was in the seats with discussions of intellectual currents unfamiliar to most students. He would engage in heated discussions, with graduate students, with undergraduate students, and with the un-enrolled visitors to his classes who often showed up. He was the leader of a kind of intellectual salon where those who came in were expected to participate, knowledgeably and often aggressively. It was the 1960s and it was a style and an orientation very much in vogue in that decade. Although my advisor was hired as a historian of education, he was more of a free-floating intellectual who used history as a platform from which to comment on the controversies and the deep concerns of the day. He was what I had to model myself on, though I knew I could not replicate what I was experiencing. I can’t say that I teach like my advisor did. But I was greatly informed by his teaching, by his commitment to inquiry, to argument, and to meaningful student engagement. I have tried to honour those commitments in my teaching, whatever the course and whatever the venue. My earliest teaching was as much

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 286

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

287

in foundations of education, or school and society types of courses, which are commonplace in American teacher training programmes, as in history of education. I worked hard at it and tried to get to know my students in the process. I’ve never been much of a lecturer, though I respect a good lecturer. Alas, really good lecturers are, in my experience, few and far between. My classes most often are discussions in which I try and use the reading that my students are doing, as well as current controversies, to get them embarked on a genuine intellectual inquiry into the issues at hand. As the years have progressed, I have increasingly become engaged in teaching educational history courses and been involved in fewer foundations courses. But my commitments as a teacher have not changed. It is difficult for me to discuss good, or great, teaching. I am generally of the ‘you know it when you see it’ school. Increasingly over my career, we have used an objective form of evaluation of teaching that gives students several items on which to rate their instructors. These items deal with things like course content, teacher preparation, make-up of class sessions, examinations, assignments, etc. The entire process tells you something important about anyone as a teacher; but by no means does it tell you everything, or even the most important things. My ratings have been consistent over the years. I am not the best teacher, as judged by objective student evaluations; nor am I the worst. I usually receive good marks on enthusiasm and commitment, and lower marks on things like sticking to the material and my own evaluation procedures. I have never used objective tests, except in cases of teaching large sections (100 to 200) of an introduction to education course, where to do anything else would have been to consign me, and my assistants, to a semester in which grading papers was our primary, if not only, activity. The higher you get in the academic food chain – that is, the more you teach graduate and advanced graduate classes – the less relevant the normal student evaluations become. There is an enormous literature on teaching in higher education, its conduct and its evaluation. Generally, I find it arid. University teaching is often, if not usually, inferior to high school teaching in that university teachers too frequently are obsessive about their subject matter and indifferent to their students. That is quite likely the result of their doctoral training which has been more concentrated on research in their subject matter than on teaching it. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has been aware of the problem in teaching in higher education and has tried to do something about it for the past several decades. It has resulted in signature volumes on faculty work, mainly teaching, such as that by Ernest Boyer (1987) and, more recently,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 287

17/12/2013 09:38

288

Education in North America

under the leadership of Lee Shulman (Shulman and Keislar, 1966; Hillocks and Shulman, 1999). Boyer’s focus was on undergraduate teaching while Shulman had a broader interest, including teaching in graduate and professional schools as well as in undergraduate colleges. It would take far more space than is available here to summarize these efforts, as well as efforts underway at most campuses, to improve university teaching. It seems to me that all these efforts have been undertaken to liberate university teachers from their rather slavish devotion to their subjects and to get them more interested in and involved in how their subjects are perceived and internalized, or perhaps why they are not internalized, by students. The advent of technology has provided new occasions for trying to understand and improve teaching, but I will leave this phenomenon for the concluding section of this essay. As I progressed as a teacher, I became used to things like a student one day asking to tape my classes in a history of American education course I was teaching. I thought nothing of this until I was asked by Jennings Wagoner, a fellow graduate student with me at Ohio State in the 1960s, to join him in writing a textbook in the history of American education. Jennings had gotten the contract for the book from McGraw-Hill, a prominent publisher of textbooks, but he was having difficulty conceptualizing and executing the project. After some discussion, we agreed that he would be responsible for the discussion of education up to the common school era (the 1840s), and would also write a chapter on education in the South. I would be responsible for the rest of the material. In preparation for the writing of that material, I remembered the tapes and tracked the student down who had made them and asked him for a copy. The tapes were transcribed and the transcriptions formed the basis of Chapters 4 and 6 to 12 of the textbook that Jennings and I produced (Urban and Wagoner, 1996). That textbook has gone through four editions with a fifth recently published. I found the tapes to be informative as to student interest in the material and suggestive as to what material needed to be added to what I had covered in class. Judging by its several editions, the textbook has been a success. I am happy to have worked with Jennings Wagoner on this project and am sorry that his death earlier this year means that we will no longer work together. Fortunately, he had completed his part of work on the fifth edition. Writing a textbook with Jennings has shown me that there can be an interesting connection between teaching and scholarship. Interacting with colleagues who have served as reviewers for the several editions of the textbook has underscored the reality that teaching is much more than an individual act,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 288

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

289

that teachers of a subject are just as much members of a community as are researchers. Ernest Boyer (1987) was indeed correct when he posited that there was a scholarship of teaching that is just as important as the scholarship that goes into the act of research.

Service The final member of the faculty member’s trinity is the area of service. This is a bit less well defined than either research or teaching, and it can involve many more permutations for faculty members than either of the other two. Most often, service is subdivided into institutional, professional and community service. This category was the least well defined in my own mind when I set out on my academic career forty-five years ago. I find, however, that it has become increasingly important as that career has developed. In my first academic position, I thought little about service. My work studying the teachers’ strike in Florida was, for me, a kind of service, in that I undertook it to try and understand the forces behind the teachers’ activity in the hopes of being able to explain it and possibly using it to make for more effective teachers’ associational activity in the future. Working in colleges of education training teachers for more than four decades has cemented the associational affinity that I began to forge with teachers as an undergraduate training to be a teacher. Graduate school reinforced that tie, as did a dissertation that paid considerable attention to teacher union developments in the 1930s and the 1960s. The Florida work put me in contact with the leaders of the Florida teachers’ organization, the Florida Education Association, the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). After leaving Florida, when I came to Georgia, my work on the Atlanta teachers’ union which was also affiliated with the NEA led me to interaction with the Georgia Association of Educators, the Georgia NEA affiliate. After coming to Alabama in 2006, I made it my business to interact with the Alabama Education Association, the state NEA affiliate and arguably the most effective of the three state affiliates in the states where I have worked. All of this work could, I suppose, be seen as service to the community, that is, to the educational community, or service to the profession, that is, to the educational profession that colleges of education are called on to serve. The label put on it is less important to me than the substance of the activity. Interaction with teachers’ associations always appealed to me and so, when I was asked in the late 1980s to help the Research Division of the National Education Association with its seventy-fifth anniversary celebration, I was

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 289

17/12/2013 09:38

290

Education in North America

happy to respond. That effort also resulted in a publication that enhanced my research portfolio, a history of the NEA Research Division (Urban, 1992). As part of the research for the research division history, I also collected material related to a larger history of the NEA, a work that I completed several years later (Urban, 2000). Those service activities clearly enhanced my research record and testify to the artificiality of iron-clad distinctions between service and research. My NEA contacts were maintained over the years and I was happy to participate in the move to relocate the National Education Archives from a location in a warehouse in Arlington, Virginia to the Special Collections division at George Washington University. Now the entire NEA Archives are easily open to scholars, who do not have to navigate the NEA organizational bureaucracy to get access. As part of the George Washington effort, digitization of some of the NEA archives is also taking place, another enhancement to scholarly study of that organization. Again, the lines between service and research were blurred here, to the benefit of both activities as well as to my own academic career. Throughout my faculty career, I have participated in institutional service, most often through faculty governance activities in my college and at the university level in all the institutions where I have worked. At all three institutions where I have been employed full-time, I have been a member of the academic senate or council, at the college level in the first institution when I was an Assistant Professor, and at the college and university levels in the institutions where I was tenured and served at the advanced faculty ranks. These activities have taught me several things. First, such service is necessary, often mundane, and even more often a thankless task. Yet, such service activities taught me much about universities that I did not know and gave me opportunities to help colleagues who had run afoul of one or another level of administration in the complicated bureaucracies that modern universities have become. These activities have also helped me to understand university administrators, to appreciate the accomplishments of some and the stupidity of the actions of others. The most obvious institutional service performed in my career consists of two stints as a department head at Georgia State University. The two terms of service combined totalled less than ten years and they confirmed in my mind what I had felt almost from the beginning of my academic life: I was not cut out to be an administrator. Though I was elected by faculty to the position of department chair on three different occasions, I usually found the work to be much like the service I discussed above – important, mundane, and largely unacknowledged. In fact, my dissatisfaction with university administration also influenced my scholarship. In the late 1980s, after serving for seven years

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 290

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

291

as a department head, I undertook the writing of a biography of a noted black scholar who also became a college dean and then a president. The theme of the biography was that my subject, Horace Mann Bond, was a very good scholar who became a somewhat mediocre college president (Urban, 1992). Rather than embark on a similar path, I made the decision to finish my academic career as a faculty member, a decision only interrupted by a brief stint as an acting department chair in the early 2000s. I have been most active over the years in the area of service to the academic profession; I have been a long-time member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and held office in local and state AAUP chapters on several occasions. AAUP, like the NEA, is an organization that seeks simultaneously to represent the immediate occupational interests of its members as individuals and the long-term interest of the academic profession. Both organizations are floundering somewhat now, as the two interests are becoming increasingly harder to reconcile. Working in and for both has taught me, however, that the two interests – collective protection of individuals and the pursuit of professional improvement of the occupation that those individuals belong to – are enormously important and worthy of attention. The fact that the second interest, professional improvement, has languished a bit in each association is unfortunate. On the other hand, the professional emphasis has not disappeared and, hopefully, will revive itself. The most satisfying version of service that I have encountered is service to the academic speciality area, history of education, with which I am most closely associated. I have participated in regional, national and international organizations of historians of education, and benefited greatly from contacts made in those efforts. Annual meetings provide an occasion to present one’s own work, to hear and respond to the work of colleagues, and to socialize with those colleagues and build relationships that, for me, have lasted several decades. Entering the latter stages of a career, I have been called on to discuss and to write about the history of the history of education society (Urban, 2010b) and to edit a volume of autobiographies of noted historians of American education (Urban, 2011). Both of those efforts have been extraordinarily rewarding to me personally, allowing me to renew meaningful contact with many of the scholars whom I have encountered over the years and to engage in reflections with them that allow me to see my field in newer and more complex ways. These efforts, of course, also have enhanced my profile as a scholar. Being in a small field like history of education, but one that is practised in many places in the world, has allowed me to obtain Fulbright fellowships in Poland and Canada, and to

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 291

17/12/2013 09:38

292

Education in North America

maintain an ongoing relationship with historians of education in Australia that was begun through an initial invitation to come there in the 1980s. The benefits of teaching in other countries and of interacting with scholars in my field from those countries cannot be overrated. The one sub-area in the service arena which eluded me for most of my career was community service, that is, service to people other than scholars who live and work in the community where I live and work. Coming to the University of Alabama to work in the Educational Policy Center there constituted my late career attempt at community service. I would judge the results of that effort to be mixed. I have done some writing on issues of concern to the larger community in the state of Alabama, though the positions I have taken have tended to be ones that are not always popular to most community members. In 2012, I wrote a position paper on charter schools that was used to help the state legislature as it considered whether or not to approve enabling legislation (Urban, 2012). Their decision not to approve the legislation was welcome to me, though my writing consciously strove not to advocate approval or non-approval. The policy work that provides advice to legislators and other decision-makers is important, but it also raises a whole raft of political concerns that I was generally free to ignore in the earlier phases of my career. The most heartening part of my work has been as a liaison from the Policy Center to the faculty in the College of Education, organizing brown bags, lectures and other activities to involve the faculty in the consideration of wider policy issues and concerns. Work in the Policy Center has also provided me with the subject for what likely will be my last large scholarly project. That project is a study of American educational policy through a consideration of the administrative work and writing of James Bryant Conant, president of Harvard University from 1933 to 1952, administrator of the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb during World War II, the first American ambassador to West Germany in the Cold War decade of the 1950s, and prescriptive analyst of the American high school in the 1960s. Conant contributed much to American higher education, especially his advocacy of merit-based admissions to Harvard College and his institution of meritocratic standards for promotion and tenure of Harvard faculty. He also contributed to American secondary education, advocating the comprehensive high school as an institution that served academic, vocational and citizenship goals. More importantly, and less noticed, is that Conant was involved in the creation of the Education Commission of the States, working with then North Carolina governor Terry Sanford. This was part of a larger movement to involve politicians in the affairs of American education, a

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 292

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

293

movement undertaken by Conant with little conception of some of the more negative consequences that might follow. But fleshing out that argument is a task to be accomplished in other places than in this essay.

Conclusion This sojourn through the activities in the career of a university faculty member for the past 50 years has reinforced at least one major message. That message is that the discrete categories of research, teaching and service are much less discrete than they seem. Good research informs good teaching, and vice versa. Meaningful service is – or at least can be – dependent on one’s research and can enhance that activity. The categories are much more interdependent, at least as experienced by this faculty member, than their discrete listing might suggest. Additionally, to conclude this essay I want to address some problems in the contemporary climate in which universities function and within which faculty members work. Before doing that, however, I want to add one final qualifier about my, or anyone else’s, career. When I was a graduate student, I read a book by two sociologists that argued that a faculty career could realistically only be pursued at institutions lower in prestige than the institution from which one received the doctorate (Caplow and McGee, 1958). The authors offered empirical evidence to support this conclusion and I would add that my career has borne it out. I was prepared at a Big Ten university and have spent my career at state universities in the Southeast, only making it to a flagship state university in the last few years of my working life. There is much good that I have experienced at the University of South Florida, Georgia State University and the University of Alabama, but a sustained intellectual climate of excellence has not been part of the experience. To have that experience, I would think, one needs to have completed doctoral education at one of the top tier research universities and then to make one’s way back as close as one can to that tier in one’s work life. My own career has been rewarding in scholarly accomplishment, but not as rewarding as it might have been if I had taken a doctorate at a more prestigious research university and been imbued with the scholarly values and connections such an institution provides. I’ve learned those values along the way, rather than being imbued with them in graduate school. Now, some comments are in order on contemporary problems that plague university faculty members. These comments relate to the areas of teaching and research. If there is a theme to these problems, it is the intrusion, unwarranted but formidable, of corporate and large governmental values and priorities into

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 293

17/12/2013 09:38

294

Education in North America

the academy. This theme is well illustrated in the relatively recent volume of former Harvard president Derek Bok on the commercialization of American higher education (Bok, 2003). In that work Bok discusses direct corporate intrusion into university teaching in at least two ways. The first is for-profit education, where universities have been established directly by for-profit entities, a process unheard of until relatively recently. The evolution of for-profit graduate institutions in fields like education has been on the scene for a few decades, but the development of for-profit undergraduate education at institutions such as the University of Phoenix is a more recent development. These institutions feature a curriculum which is usually exceedingly narrow, oriented to the immediate employment of graduates, and dependent for the most part on federal grant and loan funding to students. Those characteristics are also creeping into public and private, non-profit universities which are scrambling to meet the threat provided by the for-profit sector. The use of part-time faculty in place of full-timers is rife in for-profit higher education, and it is also becoming increasingly present in traditional universities, whether public or private. The diminution in the number of tenure track faculty lines in favour of term, part-time and/or adjunct teaching seems to be a trend nowadays, a trend that is justified by concerns such as the need for flexibility in hiring. Flexibility, for me, is a weak reed on which to build a college or university. But flexibility is a hallmark of the market mentality that drives for-profit institutions and is invading others. Its problem is that it is a market value and in no sense an academic value. Technological advancements have provided another contemporary challenge to higher education as we know it. Online courses have proliferated at most, if not all, universities and serious study of the consequences of such teaching is at best just beginning. I have several colleagues who are doing online courses and one colleague who is writing about this phenomenon. Their efforts range from well thought-out syllabi that demand as much or more from the online teacher and student as regular courses to obvious and successful attempts to do less and earn more. Evaluation of those efforts is just as difficult as evaluation of traditional teaching – a process which I have argued earlier, in the teaching section of this essay, is at best imperfectly developed. Even the best online courses, however, are not the equal of excellent traditional courses. A chat room cannot function as immediately and intimately as a seminar room. Of course, the number of excellent traditional courses is not as great as one would like it to be, at least in my experience. This all leads me to the conclusion that online education is being adopted for reasons far less related to the improvement of instruction than to the pursuit of economic gain of some kind.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 294

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

295

The recent efforts of the nation’s most prestigious universities to partner in the offering of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) is another technological development worthy of attention (Lewin, 2012). While the content of MOOCs is free to anyone who is interested, there is no relation between that content to a degree, certification, or other type of ‘qualification’. If and when that relationship gets established, it does not seem too cynical to conclude that cost will become a consideration – a prime consideration. The justification that online exposure to the best instruction from elite universities merits attention and praise is counterbalanced, in my mind, by the lack of empirical support for the argument that the best instruction is going on at the best institutions. They have the best students, according to existing measurable criteria, and the best faculty, according to their research output, but neither of these translates necessarily into excellent teaching. In discussing the corporate foray into research activity, Bok (2003) spends most of his time on science and technology disciplines where the conduct of research can result in significant economic gain for an institution and for the scholars in the institution who conduct it. Research which results in patents, which in turn generate profits, presents real problems for traditional academic approaches. Academic research is supposed to be a collective endeavour in which individual researchers share their findings with each other in the pursuit of the best solution to the problems that are under study. Introducing the profit motive interrupts this process, by putting a check on the dissemination of findings before a patent or other type of licence used to obtain economic benefit is granted. Privacy is the opposite of the collegiality and communication that are characteristic of a community of scholars. Additionally, the pursuit of lucrative research grants on the part of university scientists and other scholars threatens – if it has not already accomplished – the displacement of the academic value of research and discovery by the value of monetary gain and the prestige that accompanies that gain. Some institutions now make obtaining a certain amount of grant funds part of their promotion and tenure criteria, usually in the sciences and applied fields dependent on the sciences. If and when this tendency comes to the social sciences and humanities, where grants are much less frequent and less remunerative, one trembles at what the results might be. There is another development in the research arena that impinges directly on the humanities and social sciences in threatening ways. The existence and recent evolution of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) on university campuses have presented significant challenges to social scientists, humanists and scholars in non-science-related professional schools. Schrag (2010) has documented the

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 295

17/12/2013 09:38

296

Education in North America

clumsy adoption of procedures related to scientific studies in the non-scientific disciplines on university campuses over the last several decades. Review of scientific research because of developments such as the exposure of the Tuskegee airmen to syphilis is understandable. Scientific experiments deserve to be scrutinized for the possible damage they might inflict on their subjects. Using this as a model for studies in non-scientific fields that use things such as surveys, oral histories and other field methods, as is becoming increasingly the case, is poorly thought-out, inappropriate and a threat to the academic freedom of these non-scientific researchers. Yet the effort to increase the role and significance of institutional review proceeds with relatively little challenge, as Institutional Review Boards develop into Research Compliance Offices on many university campuses. The federal government is used as an excuse for such developments and Schrag (2010) documents the intermittent federal efforts that can be seen to support such development. What he also documents, however, are the gray areas in the development of federal policies, areas that would allow universities to develop their own procedures rather than adopt wholesale the most stringent and restrictive sets of procedures to avoid being left behind in the research grant sweepstakes. Bok (2003) is not the only commentator on recent higher education to have discussed, and critiqued, the inversion of academic values under an onslaught from advocates of corporate values, too often politicians with an imperfect understanding of both the academy and the corporate world (Marginson and Considine, 2000). What the intrusion of a commercial ethos into academe portends for the long run seems to me to be nothing but threats to the proper conduct of the academic enterprise. It is a personal relief but a more chilling realization for me to say that I am thankful that I likely will not be around to experience the consequences. The contemporary picture in American higher education may not be as gloomy as I have painted in this last section of the essay. One can hope – and I do sincerely – that I have overstated the threat to higher education as we know it from a commercial incursion. Whatever happens in the future, I am happy to have been a scholar who came up in the post-World War II golden age of academe (Freeland, 1976) and to have had a career as a faculty member who has generally enjoyed his experience. Those who follow will have to be assiduous analysts and responders to commercialism. I wish them the best of luck in that effort.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 296

17/12/2013 09:38



Fifty Years of American Higher Education, 1963–2013

297

References Barzun, J. and Graff, H. (1957). The Modern Researcher. New York: Harcourt, Brace. Bok, D. (2003). Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Boyer, E. (1987). College: The Undergraduate Experience in America. New York: Harper & Row. Caplow, T. and McGee, R. J. (1958). The Academic Marketplace. New York: Basic Books. Freeland, R. M. Academia’s Golden Age: Universities in Massachusetts, 1945–1970. New York: Oxford University Press. Hillocks, G. and Shulman, L. S. (1999). Ways of Thinking, Ways of Teaching. New York: Teachers College Press. Lewin, T. (2012). Instruction for masses knocks down campus walls. New York Times, 4 March, P. A 11. Marginson, S. and Considine, M. (2000). The Enterprise University: Power, Governance, and Reinvention in Australia. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Merton, R. K. (1949). Patterns of influence and of communications behavior in a local community. In P. F. Lazersfeld and F. Stanton, Communications Research, 1948–1949. New York: Harper and Bros, pp. 180–219. Riesman, D. (1958). Constraint and Variety in American Higher Education. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor. Schrag, Z. (2010). Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965–2009. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Shulman, L. J. and Keislar, E. R. (1968). Learning by Discovery: A Critical Appraisal. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally. Snyder, T. D. (ed.) (1993). 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education. Snyder, T. D and Dillow, S. A. (eds) (2012). Digest of Educational Statistics, 2011. Washington, DC: United States Department of Education. www.nces.ed.gov/ programs/digest Urban, W. J. (1973). The effects of ideology and power on a teacher walkout: Florida, 1968. Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector, 3, Spring, pp. 259–65. —(1982). Why Teachers Organized. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. —(1992). Black Scholar: Horace Mann Bond, 1904–1972. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. —(1998). More than the Facts: The Research Division of the National Education Association, 1922–1997. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. —(2000). Gender, Race, and the National Education Association: Professionalism and Its Limitations. New York and London: Routledge. —(2010a). Autobiography and biographical research in higher education. In Gasman, M. (ed.), The History of US Higher Education. New York: Routledge, pp. 30–43.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 297

17/12/2013 09:38

298

Education in North America

—(2010b). The word from a walrus: Five decades of the history of education society. History of Education Quarterly, 50, 3, November, pp. 429–59. —(ed.) (2011). Leaders in the Historical Study of American Education. Amsterdam and Boston, MA: Sense Publishers. —(2012). Charter Schools: An Analysis of the Issues. Tuscaloosa, AL: Education Policy Center, University of Alabama. Urban, W. and Wagoner J. (1996, 2000, 2004, 2009, 2013). American Education: A History. New York: McGraw-Hill 1996, 2000, 2004; Routledge 2009, 2013.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 298

17/12/2013 09:38

14

Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–20131 D. E. Mulcahy and D. G. Mulcahy

Introduction The focus in this chapter is on the involvement of recent US Presidents – particularly President George H. W. Bush and President Clinton – in the formulation and application of policy in education following the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, the overall impact of which was momentous (Rury, 2013). Matters to which attention is given include the impact of economic considerations, the emphasis on standards, and the degree of continuity and change in educational policy from one presidential administration to the next. What conservative commentator and one-time candidate for the Presidency, Pat Buchanan referred to in 1992 as a ‘cultural war’ for the soul of America came to be known as the Culture Wars, signifying a sense among many that the country was slipping away from its foundations. There was a growing sentiment that this must be reversed, and schools came to the fore as a battleground for political ideology (Perlstein, 2004; Gresson, 2004). The ‘eclipse of liberalism’ (Perlstein, 2004, p. 2) in New York City resulting from a battle for community control in Brownsville, Brooklyn, for example, extended beyond the school. By one account, the turbulent year of 1968 in Brownsville seemed to usher in a flight to the perceived safety of the status quo over a continued move toward black power and liberal politics (Perlstein, 2004). Aaron Gresson voiced a similar opinion, saying that by the late 1970s the conservative ‘backlash’ in American society had occurred and worked as ‘a corrective to so-called political correctness’ (2004, p. 2). By the 1980s the backlash had resulted in the election of a conservative president in the form of Ronald Reagan. The winds of political change soon to become evident in educational policy and practice were not confined to the United States. In his Ruskin College

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 299

17/12/2013 09:38

300

Education in North America

address at Oxford University, then British Prime Minister, James Callaghan (Callaghan, 1976) had called on educators to engage in a ‘Great Debate’ regarding the future of education. Mr Callaghan identified the link between the economy and education as especially important. He pointed to the shortage of well-educated young people willing to go into industry and to follow careers in science and technology. Students leaving school for these fields, he felt, lacked preparation. He cited a failure to attain basic skills in the areas of mathematics and reading. He expressed a concern for what was perceived as a decline in academic standards in secondary education and a lack of discipline among students. There was also the suggestion that undue emphasis in education on personal goals detracted attention from economic goals. Within a few years of Prime Minister Callaghan’s call, a number of official responses were published that greatly contributed to the curriculum debate in Britain (for example, Department of Education and Science, Curriculum 11–16, A Working Paper by HMI [December 1977]). Following considerable debate and controversy, and a marked increase in the influence of the right in educational thinking and policymaking well documented at the time (Jones, 1989; Chitty, 1989; Green, 1991), the Education Reform Act of 1988 was passed. Described shortly afterwards by Robert Stradling (1991) as ‘the most far-reaching piece of educational legislation for England and Wales in over forty years’ (p. 2), the act instituted a centrally directed national curriculum and national assessment in all state-supported primary and secondary schools. While concern was also brewing in the United States regarding the issues that had led Mr Callaghan to call for debate in Britain, it was not until the early 1980s that attention was turned to the issue with intensity comparable to that in Britain. When this occurred, parallels to events in Britain were clearly evident. Conservative critics had been in the ascendancy as both countries were feeling the challenge of a changing global marketplace to their economies and educational institutions. When governments in both countries finally became engaged, partly at the urging of the business community, large-scale efforts ensued. With Britain moving decisively to terminate its long-standing practice of local control of schools in 1988, the question arose if the United States would likewise change course.

President Reagan and A Nation at Risk: The impact on education In the 1950s, the major spur to educational reform in the United States was the threat of Soviet dominance in space, symbolized by the launching of the Soviet

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 300

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

301

satellite Sputnik in 1957. By the 1980s, as in Britain, it was a perceived dulling of the competitive edge in industry and technology and the startling advances of Japan and a number of European nations. Reverting to the national defence theme evident in the response to Sputnik, A Nation at Risk expressed strong concerns. It boldly stated that ‘if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war’ (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, p. 5). It continued: Knowledge, learning, information, and skilled intelligence are the new raw materials of international commerce […] If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we still retain in world markets, we must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system for the benefit of all. (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, pp. 6–7).

In the Cold War era and the arms race of the 1980s, the militaristic and nationalistic rhetoric in these statements was highly evocative. In this context, A Nation at Risk warned Americans that they were at risk of disintegration because ‘the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people’ (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, p. 5). In highlighting low test scores, it asserted that ‘lax academic standards were correlated with lax behavioral standards and that neither should be ignored’ (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, p. 5). The solution proposed was a return to the basics. Concluding that ‘declines in educational performance are in large part the result of disturbing inadequacies in the way the educational process itself is often conducted’ (National Commission on Excellence in Education, p. 18), A Nation at Risk identified four areas of schooling that were of major concern: content, expectations, time and teaching, and it made recommendations for improvement in each of the areas. Recommendations regarding content and expectations or standards had the greatest impact and set in motion an era of concerted effort by the federal government to bring about school reform. This was so even though it is the states and not the federal government that has constitutional authority in education.

Educational reform in the states A Nation at Risk did not go quite so far as to recommend a national curriculum and national examinations, as was the case in Britain. Some were dismissive

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 301

17/12/2013 09:38

302

Education in North America

of the report for its economic view of education, its misplaced criticisms of schooling and its simplistic solutions (Nash and Ducharme, 1983; Berliner and Biddle, 1995). Mary Lee Smith voiced the opinion that A Nation at Risk amounted to little more than ‘a jeremiad unwarranted by evidence’ (2004, p. 18) and viewed the report as ‘a prime case of stories of decline’ (2004, p. 20). In short, she suggested, its purpose was to strike fear in the public. This fear would pave the way for a leader to emerge and ‘save the day’ (2004, p. 20). Prominent historian Lawrence Cremin expressed scepticism by not wholly accepting dire reports on the state of education of the 1970s and 1980s. He believed ‘results were far more mixed’, and added, ‘standardized tests measure at best only a fraction of what young people have learned in school, and they measure that imperfectly’ (1990, pp. 39–40). Berliner and Biddle even suggested, and carefully evidenced their assessment, that A Nation at Risk was essentially a fraud (1995). Yet, in the view of others it did voice some truths. As Urban and Wagoner put it, despite its sensationalism, A Nation at Risk ‘raised a concern that many political, educational, and business leaders considered to be of the utmost importance. These groups saw that behind the metaphor of an education-based global economic competition lay real phenomena alluded to in the report’ (Urban and Wagoner, 2014, p. 319). These included declining test scores in reading, mathematics and science and lessened academic requirements for high school graduation and college admission. Whatever the interpretation, the report became a catalyst for increased attention to education reform. It affirmed the view that the touchstone of a good education is how well it prepared the young for the workplace and the nation for economic competitiveness. In this regard, the school reform movement that took root in the United States in the 1980s was similar in ways to that of the decade of the 1890s almost a century earlier. This is especially so to the extent that the thrust of both movements was uniformity, efficiency of performance and control. Although considered by many to be the most important educational values to pursue, social justice, moral formation, community development and the historical aspiration of education for democratic citizenship were almost entirely overlooked.

The rise of standards This matter notwithstanding, following the appearance of A Nation at Risk there was increased pressure to develop standards and school programmes to serve economic ends. In an article called ‘The Original Education President’ for

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 302

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

303

the National Review (2004), Chester Finn made the point that under Reagan ‘business leaders became involved with education as never before’. Even by the time A Nation at Risk appeared in 1983, individual states had already mounted reform efforts in that direction. Pressure from business interests to provide the kind of educated workforce they demanded were also factors, and by the early 1980s many states had initiated omnibus or broadly based legislative reform measures. Thereafter, under the leadership of Lamar Alexander, in the mid–1980s, the National Governors’ Association invigorated and guided the push for education renewal and policy reform in the states. As the 1980s came to a close, hardly a single state had remained untouched by the movement. States had passed reforms such as increased high school graduation requirements, salary increases for teachers, reduction of class size in the earlier grades, increased and new forms of student testing, changes in teacher certification, and increased opportunities for gifted students. Following the publication of Time for Results by the National Governors’ Association in 1986, a second wave of reforms encouraging school-based innovations was beginning to take shape and attention shifted to the adoption of goals for education. Reform measures such as increasing graduation requirements, instituted in the 1980s, were criticized as merely cosmetic and misguided, with results from reforms overall being mixed. Any evidence of improvement in student performance was downplayed, and the governors were not satisfied that sufficient work had yet been done to improve standards and achievement (1995; National Governors’ Association (NGA, 1986). As a consequence, there was a growing belief among the governors in the need for a greater contribution by the federal government in the educational reform effort. As the governors began to emphasize educational outcomes as a basis for educational accountability, standards-based and results-based schooling emerged more broadly as an answer to perceived problems. Expressing a view in ‘A Nation Still at Risk,’ in 1989, and consistently promoted in the years that followed, Finn asserted the need for greater attention to assessment of student achievement (Finn, 1989; Bennett et al., 1998).

George H. W. Bush: The education President? The education summit While much was accomplished in the states during the 1980s to effect change aimed at improvements in curriculum and assessment, at the federal level

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 303

17/12/2013 09:38

304

Education in North America

movement was slower. Those who sought change, however, had not quieted their advocacy. The convening of the education summit by President Bush in September 1989 in Charlottesville, Virginia marked new concerted efforts by the federal government to that end. The new emphasis was evident at the summit in the words of welcome by Governor Carroll Campbell of South Carolina. One of two Co-Chairs of the National Governors’ Association Task Force on Education, Governor Carroll Campbell reflected the governors’ growing emphasis on educational goals and international competitiveness through education. A Republican, Campbell departed from the themes of the Reagan administration in asserting that there was indeed a role for the federal government in identifying national goals for educational performance. Accordingly, he both offered and sought partnerships between the states and the federal government to restore American education to international prominence. In his major address at the summit (Bush, 1989), President Bush welcomed the opportunity to work with the governors in bringing about educational reform. He accepted that public education was in decline. The status quo, he said, ‘could scarcely be worse’ (Bush, 1989, p. 1276). While Bush recognized the primary role of the states in education, in a departure from Reagan he accepted that the federal government also had a significant role to play. A Nation at Risk had detailed the educational weaknesses of the nation, he reminded his audience. Now the time to decide a new course of action was at hand. Items on the agenda included competitiveness, teaching quality, improving the learning environment, accountability, tougher standards, a results-oriented system, and school choice. President Bush aimed to achieve one outcome above all else from the summit, however: national goals for education. It would be an understatement to say that Bush merely departed from Reagan’s policy of leaving educational matters largely to the states. In fact, he declared, six years after the appearance of A Nation at Risk, ‘our nation is still at risk’ (Bush, 1989, p. 1274). ‘For myself,’ he added, ‘I envision “tradition-shattering reform”’ (Bush, 1989, p. 1275). As he saw it, to accomplish tradition-shattering reform, there were five areas of priority to be attended to: the adoption of a core curriculum for all; diversity of approach to meet the national goals of education; choice among schools – by which he meant private school choice as distinct from choice among all schools, public and private; accurate assessments linked to the national goals to provide for accountability; and higher standards and expectations for all students. The education summit was significant in that it saw President Bush joining with the governors in the push for educational reform. When he declared at

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 304

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

305

the summit that he would follow through on the commitments into which he had entered, an important point had been reached: the recognition that while constitutional authority in education lay with the states, the President too had responsibilities. The summit was significant also in the less symbolic outcomes to which it led, especially in the progress made toward adopting national goals for education. These goals were formally proposed by President Bush in his 1990 State of the Union Address (Bush, 1990) and adopted by the governors in their spring meeting later that year. The goals were the product of bipartisan and joint federal and state decisionmaking and they provided the justification for the policy initiatives contained in America 2000, President Bush’s major legislative and strategic initiatives for educational reform. The fact that then Governor Clinton was a key figure in the deliberations of the education summit and in advancing the case for national goals in education was important also. A Democrat and a state governor, before long he would become a President committed to educational reforms. These reforms would be broadly directed by the national goals for education for which Clinton himself was perhaps the leading advocate at the summit. These goals, in amended and expanded form, would later become codified in President Clinton’s Goals 2000: Educate America Act, which was passed by Congress on 27 March and signed by the President on 31 March 1994 (H. R. 1804). Included in the goals was a further development of what should constitute the core of common learning, a theme that was sounded in A Nation at Risk, in President Bush’s address at the education summit, and now in the national goals for education. The idea of a core of necessary subjects was even proposed by the Secretary of Education whom Reagan appointed in his second term, William Bennett. A vocal conservative critic of federal government intrusion into the educational affairs of the states, Bennett was a soldier in the culture wars who also called for ‘common values, common knowledge, and a common language’ (in Tozer et al., 2009, p. 356) for all our children – in effect, a national curriculum in everything but name. The Common Core State Standards being implemented now in forty-six states are, in many respects, a continuation of this idea. Not all differences were sorted out at the education summit in 1989, however. On some issues, such as school choice and the level of federal funding for education, differences of opinion persisted, even among the governors themselves. But important agreements were reached between the governors and the President on a range of issues, including establishing a process for setting results-oriented or outcome-related national education goals. The framework for the goals was established and, as was itemized earlier, a formal agreement

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 305

17/12/2013 09:38

306

Education in North America

on six national goals followed in as many months. There was agreement also on undertaking a major state-by-state effort to restructure the education system, even though, strictly speaking, no such system existed and, according to David Tyack, ‘restructuring’ meant different things to different people (Tyack in Tozer et al., 2009, p. 358).

Beyond the education summit Of the agreements reached at the education summit, a number of features are striking. The focus of the resulting reform agenda was in achieving the kind of economy-driven excellence in education championed in A Nation at Risk. Notably absent were defining characteristics of both the conservative and liberal agendas. In both cases, these embraced social, religious and political values ranging well beyond economic competitiveness. In their place were performance values such as results and standards-based measures of achievement, including national goals, national standards and national tests. Notwithstanding any improvements that had been made, President Bush’s dissatisfaction with the lack of progress following the education summit led to the resignation of Lauro Cavazos, President Bush’s first Secretary for Education, toward the end of 1990. Cavazos was succeeded by Lamar Alexander, the former Governor of Tennessee. As was seen already, as Governor, Alexander had assumed a leadership role in education both among governors and in his own state. Being well versed in the issues at hand, he quickly took charge of the Bush agenda in education and promoted it vigorously under a strategy initiative that went by the same name as the major educational legislation President Bush sent to Congress in May 1991, namely America 2000. Around the time of announcing the America 2000 strategy and presenting the America 2000 legislative proposal to Congress in 1991, a US Labor Department Committee known as SCANS (the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) was completing its first year’s work. Reflecting the impact of economic consideration newly evident in educational policymaking since A Nation at Risk, this was an inquiry into the nature of the changing workplace and the implications for schooling, with particular reference to the objectives, content and methods of education necessary to prepare all Americans for employment in the workplace of the future. The first of the SCANS reports was published in June 1991 and the final report came in April 1992. Both reports showed a keen awareness of the educational agenda of President Bush and of a rapidly changing economic scenario. They also addressed the issue of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 306

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

307

competencies and skills that those entering the workforce in the years ahead were thought to need – issues revisited in today’s fascination with twenty-firstcentury skills. While it was acknowledged that such skills and competencies were necessary, and that the schools should be called on to educate students accordingly, the SCANS reports acknowledged that more was needed from education than preparation for work alone. In this, they focused on what was seen as ‘one important aspect of school: what we call the “learning a living” system’; they also took the view that schooling should prepare students for citizenship, personal growth and leisure (US Department of Labor, 1992, p. xiii). Hearkening back to the mindset of the reforms of the 1890s, the identification of the skills and competencies in question was based on an analysis of the skills and competencies found or likely to be found in the workplace of the future. In all, five competencies and three foundational skills were identified. Taken together, they were believed to constitute ‘workplace know-how’ (US Department of Labor, 1991, p. 18). The five competencies were the productive use of resources, interpersonal skills, information, systems, and technology. The foundation skills were basic skills such as the three Rs, thinking skills, and personal qualities such as individual responsibility and self-esteem, qualities that ‘make workers dedicated and trustworthy’ (US Department of Labor, 1992, p. xiii).

Privatization By the time of the first Bush presidency, private school choice through the use of vouchers had become a feature of conservatives’ stance on schooling. This may have been influenced in part by an oppositional stance toward teachers’ unions on the matter and a harbinger of a trend toward privatization of schooling/ educational entrepreneurship that emerged in the Bush administration (Carl, 2011). With the work of the SCANS Committee inquiring into workplace skills of the future underway, and around the time of Alexander’s appointment as Secretary toward the end of 1990, another characteristic feature of Bush’s educational policy became more prominent. This was the twin policies of privatization and an increased involvement of corporate America in the reform of education. President Bush was not the first to embrace privatization or increased corporate control of education. Joel Spring (2001, pp. 431–4) locates the beginnings of corporate America’s growing interest in education in the early 1980s. In this, the report of the Task Force on Education for Economic Growth, Action for Excellence (1983) was an important point of departure. Tellingly, the task force,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 307

17/12/2013 09:38

308

Education in North America

of which Alexander was a member, was dominated by politicians and business people. Between them, they numbered thirty of the forty-three-member body. Just as tellingly, there was but one teacher, one school principal, and one representative of labour (Task Force, 1983, pp. 6–7). As did A Nation at Risk, the report of the task force saw a crucial role for the schools in the economic well-being of the nation. Accordingly, without a blush, it called for a greater involvement by the business community ‘in both the design and delivery of education’ (p. 18) – matters clearly exceeding their limited competence. The perceived need among politicians to act and the influence of the business community over emerging policy was immense. What was considered achievable by the business community as regards improving schooling blinded many to the potential contradictions inherent in this model and to the argument of Margonis that the failures of American business identified in A Nation at Risk were brought on by itself and not the school was overlooked (Tozer et al., 2009, pp. 358–60). Reflecting his predilection for relying on the private sector, it was this same business community that was now being asked by Bush to guide education for improved business results. A conspicuous example is Bush’s proposal for the establishment of the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC), a private non-profit corporation funded by private corporations to develop and promote break-the-mould, model schools. Once more, the composition of the controlling board was telling: twelve representatives of business, two publishers, two politicians, the Chair of the executive committee of Children’s Television Workshop, and the Commissioner of the National Football League (Spring, 2001, p. 433). No school principals or practicing teachers were included. Scarcely designed to boost teacher morale – listed as a cause of concern in A Nation at Risk – the shunning of educators from decision-making now raised serious concerns and painted a telling portrait of the evolving character of American education and decision-making processes pertaining to it.

America 2000: Excellence in Education Act Unlike the situation in Britain, the adoption of national education goals during the first Bush presidency did not lead to anything like a national curriculum or even a national curriculum framework. On the contrary, as part of the America 2000 strategy pursued by Secretary Alexander, the emphasis by the Bush administration during this period was upon state and local communities adopting the national goals and developing their own responses to them. At the same time,

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 308

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

309

as is evident in America 2000: An Education Strategy Sourcebook (1991) put out by the US Department of Education, the Bush administration also proposed regular national assessment of students at the end of grades four, eight and twelve (pp. 5, 21–2, 47–8). The idea of national testing, of course, brought with it enormous potential for control of the school curriculum. The most comprehensive expression of Bush administration reform policy on education, one that attempted to bring various strands together, is found in the bill America 2000: Excellence in Education Act, sent by Bush to Congress in May 1991. The bill reflected many of the themes enunciated in President Bush’s address at the education summit. They resonated with A Nation at Risk and included themes we hear reiterated today. According to the bill, America 2000, progress in educational reform since A Nation at Risk had been insignificant. There was need for a more urgent, bold and comprehensive effort involving all citizens. The bill suggested, for example, that the federal government should provide monies to initiate model schools that would promote world-class standards. It proposed rewarding schools for progress in hopes of spurring others to do better. It also suggested that teachers and educational leaders needed additional training in subject matter, pedagogy and instructional leadership and that new approaches to certification should be introduced to encourage people from other fields into education. It promoted expanding parental choice among schools, an expanded National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and itemizing how much time should be spent on learning. Merits of the proposed legislation notwithstanding, it encountered strong opposition in congress. Many in both parties objected to the provisions in the bill dealing with school choice, which entailed making tax dollars available for private schooling. Whatever the manoeuvrings, the upshot was that President Bush’s America 2000 bill never passed Congress and so was never signed into law. It would be a new president who would send up the next such bill. In its specifics it would depart from President Bush’s bills, but it still bore the imprint of A Nation at Risk and may even have been closer to the spirit of the education summit.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 309

17/12/2013 09:38

Education in North America

310

President Clinton: Continuity and change Changing the guard A Nation at Risk made clear the manner in which education was to be viewed – namely, as a means of promoting the economic competitiveness of the nation. In the early days of the Clinton Administration, the Secretary for Education, Richard Riley explained that education was considered a prime ingredient in Clinton administration domestic policy and was seen as improving the economic prospects of the nation. Not surprisingly, Clinton administration policy adhered to the thrust of the Bush administration insofar as it remained committed to the six national goals and related initiatives. Consistent with this, on April 21 1993, President Clinton sent to Congress his major bill on education, Goals 2000: Educate America Act. There were five titles in the bill. The details would be changed and the bill expanded in the course of the legislative process, but Title I, which proposed to give statutory recognition to the goals agreed upon following the education summit of 1989, would remain the centrepiece of the legislation. Accordingly, the bill proposed the following as the National Goals for Education. By the year 2000: 1. All children in America will start school ready to learn. 2. The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 per cent. 3. American students will leave grades 4, 8 and 12 having demonstrated competence in English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, arts, history and geography. 4. United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. 5. Every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. 6. Every school in America will be free of drugs and violence and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning. The national goals were envisaged as directing comprehensive systemic reform in which all important matters, including curriculum and assessment, would be determined with reference to the goals, although it was not intended that each state or school district would have to adopt the one curriculum, as was the case with the national curriculum in Britain. There were yet other early indications

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 310

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

311

in the Clinton administration that comprehensive, systemic educational reform which embraced significant change in curriculum and assessment was seen as a legitimate area for involvement by the federal government. As understood by Riley, comprehensive, systemic reform included setting goals and standards, improving curriculum and instruction, developing better assessments to report on how well students were meeting high standards, encouraging parental and family support, restructuring schools, and giving students new opportunities to move from school to work or college. Such systemic reform was considered to be already underway in a number of states and was seen as the best prospect for attaining the national goals for education. The systemic reform programme which the Goals 2000 act was intended to initiate was seen, moreover, as providing the framework for the re-authorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). It was intended, through this re-authorization, to identify opportunities to link the major elementary and secondary education programmes of the federal Department of Education more closely to the national education goals and to the state and local reform strategies supported by the systemic reform legislation.

Goals 2000 As passed through Congress and signed into law by President Clinton, there were ten titles or main parts in Goals 2000. Of particular interest here are Title I, which established the national goals, and Title II, which addressed the issues of standards and curriculum and how they were to be implemented. As regards the national goals, aside from word changes and elaboration, the six goals formally proposed by President Bush and adopted by the governors were retained. Two others were added, however: teachers would have access to programmes for continued professional improvement and schools would promote partnerships increasing parental involvement in education. Title II established in the Executive Branch a National Education Goals Panel composed largely of political appointees, which was to report ‘the progress the Nation and the States are making towards achieving the National Education Goals’ (Sec. 203. (a) (1)). Title II also established a National Education Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC) composed more broadly of professional educators and representatives of business, industry and higher education, and the public. The Council was responsible for the certification of voluntary national content and student performance standards ‘that defines what all students should know and be able to do’ (Sec. 213. (a) (1) (B)), exemplary

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 311

17/12/2013 09:38

312

Education in North America

opportunity-to-learn standards that provide all students a fair opportunity to achieve (Sec. 213. (c) (1)), and state assessments that are submitted voluntarily by a state ‘if such assessments are aligned with the State’s content standards certified by the Council’ (Sec. 213 (f) (1) (A)).

Continuity and change from G. H. W. Bush to Clinton President Clinton’s adherence to those elements of President Bush’s educational policy which he had helped to fashion was nowhere more evident than his advocacy of the national goals for education. These elements included a partnership between the federal and state governments. But Goals 2000 also departed from President Bush’s policies and went beyond reforms envisioned by him. Among these were procedural measures contained in Goals 2000. The role envisaged for NESIC in relation to the certification of curriculum content, student performance and opportunity-to-learn standards is a case in point. Goals 2000 was also more favourably disposed towards a national curriculum and national standards. Even though the national goals for education outlined by President Bush were not incorporated in his bill, America 2000, they became the foundation stone of Goals 2000. Despite the fact that participation in Goals 2000 was voluntary on the part of the states, and the states retained latitude to come up with their own state plans for education, the potential for a national curriculum permeated the act. This idea was already implicit in the national goals for education agreed at the education summit of 1989, but Goals 2000 went further and provided a legislative underpinning that could pave the way for it. In the entirety of Goals 2000 no aspect was more independent of the positions enunciated by President Bush, nor generated more debate and opposition, than the specific provisions for establishing national standards, especially opportunity-to-learn standards, and NESIC. Between them these were seen by their mostly Republican critics as the opening gambit in the establishment of a national curriculum and interference by Washington in the affairs of local school boards. Two factors favoured the critics and signalled an end to Clinton’s own leadership in the quest for educational reform in the months following the actual signing into law of Goals 2000. President Clinton and the Democrats suffered a huge political setback by losing control of both houses of Congress in the 1994 mid-term elections. The new Congress successfully exerted pressure on the President not to activate NESIC, thereby forcing President Clinton to back away from the search for the

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 312

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

313

wide-ranging standards proposed in the act. The upshot of these developments was a weakening of the impact of Goals 2000 and, ironically, of the push for standards introduced in A Nation at Risk and maintained by the first President Bush. In an address to the governors in 1996 (Clinton, 1996), President Clinton appeared to accept that the battle for comprehensive national standards was largely lost. Following his re-election in 1996, and subsequently a call to politicians in his State of the Union Address that in educational policy, as with foreign policy, ‘politics should end at the schoolhouse door’ (Clinton, 1997a), he settled for a refocusing on educational issues other than Goals 2000. Following his State of the Union Address in 1997, this redefining was set forth under a ten-point plan entitled ‘A call to action for American education in the 21st century’ (Clinton, 1997b). Here the aspiration to wide-ranging national standards was retained in principle, but the focus for the foreseeable future would be upon only two subjects: reading and math. National standards and national tests were to be established for fourth grade reading and eighth grade maths.

Refining and reframing reform: Presidents G. W. Bush and Obama No Child Left Behind Without the matter being fully resolved, it was on this note that the Clinton administration and its plans for educational reform drew to a close, and with it the most determined efforts to deliver on the recommendations of A Nation at Risk and the agreements of the education summit, especially as relates to the national goals for education. Whether by accident or design, a key feature of the educational policy adopted by President Clinton’s successor, President George W. Bush first emerged during one of the presidential debates that preceded the presidential election of 2000. In that, Governor Bush announced, somewhat surprisingly, that he would call for a more thorough educational testing regime than that advocated by his Democrat opponent, Vice-President Al Gore, whose position was in line with the policies of the Clinton administration and essentially at odds with Republicans in Congress. Following his election as President, G. W. Bush gave a summary presentation of the key elements in his proposed legislation on education at Central Connecticut State University in 2001 (Bush, G. W., 2001). The definitive version came in the form of PL 107–110, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which was signed into law by Bush on 8 January

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 313

17/12/2013 09:38

314

Education in North America

2002 (NCLB, 2002) and which legally was an amendment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Building on A Nation at Risk, the education summit in Virginia, and Goals 2000 which had given the notion of national standards a greater sense of tangibility than before, and thereby maintaining the emphasis on standards as a path to reform put in place by his immediate predecessors, NCLB was G. W. Bush’s major legislative achievement in education. Bought into by Democrats under the leadership of Senator Ted Kennedy because of concessions on civil rights issues, it led to a formalizing of standards and testing as the means by which schools and school districts could qualify for prized federal education funds. As stated in the act, one of its purposes was ‘to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments’ (Sec. 1001). This purpose, it added, could be achieved through a variety of measures, including, for example, (1) ensuring that high-quality academic assessments, accountability systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional materials are aligned with challenging State academic standards so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress against common expectations for student academic achievement; (2) meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children in our Nation’s highest-poverty schools, limited English proficient children, migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian children, neglected or delinquent children, and young children in need of reading assistance; (3) closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and nonminority students, and between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers. (Sec. 1001)

With the implementation of NCLB, core recommendations of A Nation at Risk were once again reasserted. But there was an additional feature of the act that would now grow in prominence: pressure on schools to compete with one another for federal monies and even mere survival. The premise of the law was to withhold federal monies from states and schools that did not follow mandated criteria for setting standards, testing and attaining results. Districts that relied heavily on federal funds and whose students were lower on the economic ladder were most impacted by the new legislation. In addition, the cost of

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 314

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

315

implementation was enormous. The federal funds that were promised to help cover the costs, however, were lacking. This led some states to sue the federal government on the grounds it was not financially supporting the mandates it had issued. Teachers and teacher unions found the new mandates increasingly restrictive and unhelpful and other educators were not shy in expressing their strong reservations regarding its deficiencies (Darling-Hammond, 2004).

Race to the Top With many viewing NCLB negatively, hopes were high in many quarters that the election of President Obama would lead to a significant overhaul of NCLB and the policy thinking behind it and perhaps issue in a new thrust in federal education policy. But this was not to be. The Obama administration not only retained the emphasis on standards but brought with it an even greater emphasis on competition among schools and states alike for federal funding. For many it also represented a move toward greater control of higher education. In an address delivered in Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin (Obama, 2009) in 2009, President Obama introduced key elements of this policy, which would become known as Race to the Top (RttT). The goal of RttT was to incentivize states through competitive bidding to improve student performance in return for federal funding. It was designed to encourage and reward states for supporting innovation and reform, improving significantly student learning outcomes, closing the achievement gap, improving graduation rates, preparing students for college education and for careers, and implementing plans relating to assessment and standards, building data systems to measure student growth, recruiting effective teachers and principals, and turning around low-achieving schools (USDE, 2009). Some 18 states and the District of Columbia obtained funding through the first three RttT bidding contests that were held. By the beginning of 2013, states that had won RttT grants were beginning to report the impact in terms of tests results, on the basis of which it was generally viewed that greater improvement was needed. As with NCLB, RttT has attracted both supporters and critics. One concrete outcome of the programme is what is known as the Common Core State Standards already referred to. At last count, these have been adopted by forty-six states. But critics of RttT see in it many of the weaknesses of NCLB, including unhealthy competition between both schools and teachers and a continuing undue reliance on the kind of testing regimes associated with NCLB as a way of measuring student growth and determining teacher tenure.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 315

17/12/2013 09:38

316

Education in North America

Looking to the future If growing public discontent with them is any indication, in looking to the future one may anticipate increased opposition to the policies represented by NCLB and RttT. One may also see greater attention to a new educational initiative highlighted by President Obama in early 2013, namely, a commitment to strengthen provision for early childhood education – that is, ‘to make high-quality preschool available to every single child’ (Obama, 2013). If this is so, we may be about to witness a shift in focus from that found in A Nation at Risk and the kind of educational policies to which it gave rise and sustained for over 30 years.

References Bennett, W. J., Fair, W., Finn Jr, C. E., Flake, Rev. F. H., Hirsch Jr, E. D., Will, M. and Ravitch, D. (1998). A Nation still at risk. Policy Review. Hoover Institute. Stanford University, 90, 18. Retrieved from http://www.hoover.org/publications/ policyreview/3563967.html [accessed on 31 August 2009]. Berliner, D. C. and Biddle, B. J. (1995). The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud and the Attack on America’s Public Schools. New York: Perseus Books. Buchanan, P. J. (1992, September). The cultural war for the soul of America. (92). Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20070927193059/http://www.buchanan. org/pa–92–0914.html [accessed on 9 May 2013]. Bush, G. H. W. (1989). Remarks at the University of Virginia Convocation in Charlottesville, September 28. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George Bush. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, pp. 1271–6. —(1990). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=18095&st=&st1= [accessed 9 May 2013]. Bush G. W. (2001). Remarks at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Connecticut, April 18. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=45657 [accessed 9 May 2013]. Callaghan, J. (1976). Address at Ruskin College, Oxford University. http://education. guardian.co.uk/thegreatdebate/story/0,9860,574645,00.html [accessed 10 May 2013]. Carl, J. (2011). Freedom of Choice: Vouchers in American Education. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Chitty, C. (1989). Towards a New Education System: The Victory of the New Right. London: Falmer Press.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 316

17/12/2013 09:38



Presidents and Policies in American Education, 1981–2013

317

Clinton, B. (1996). Remarks to the National Governors’ Association Education Summit in Palisades, New York, March 27. Presidential Documents, Volume 32, Number 13, pp. 573–81. —(1997a). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=53358&st=&st1= [accessed 9 May 2013]. —(1997b). A Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century. http:// www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research%20-%20Digital%20Library/ Reed-Education/94/647429-sotu.pdf [accessed 9 May 2013]. Cremin, L. A. (1990). Popular Education and its Discontents. New York: Harper & Row. Darling-Hammond, L. (2004). From ‘Separate but Equal’ to ‘No Child Left Behind’: The collision of new standards and old inequalities. In D. Meier and G. Wood (eds), Many Children Left Behind. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, pp. 3–32. Department of Education and Science (1977). Curriculum 11-16, A Working Paper by HMI, December. Department of Education and Science (1989). The National Curriculum. London: Department of Education and Science. Finn, Jr, C. E. (2004). The original education President: Reagan’s ABCs. National Review, 9 June. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/finn200406090839.asp [accessed 9 May 2013]. —(1989). A Nation Still at Risk. Commentary, May, pp. 17–23. Green, A. (1991). The peculiarities of English education. In Education Group II, Education limited: Schooling and training and the new right since 1979 (London: Unwin Hyman), pp. 6–30. Gresson, A. D. (2004). America’s Atonement: Racial Pain, Recovery Rhetoric, and the Pedagogy of Healing. New York: Peter Lang. H. R. 1804 – 103rd Congress: Goals 2000: Educate America Act. (1993). http://www. ed.gov/legislation/GOALS2000/TheAct/index.html [accessed 10 May 2013]. Jones, K. (1989). Right Turn: The Conservative Revolution in Education. London: Hutchinson Radius. McGuinn, P. J. (2006). No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy, 1965–2005. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. Nash, R. J. and Ducharme, E. R. (1983) Where there is no vision, the people perish. A Nation at Risk. Journal of Teacher Education, 34 (4), July, pp. 38–46. National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983). A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. National Governors’ Association (1986). Time for Results. Washington, DC: National Governors’ Association. NCLB (2002). No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, Public Law (P.L.) 107–110.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 317

17/12/2013 09:38

318

Education in North America

Obama, B. (2009). Remarks to students at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, 4 November. —(2013). Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Perlstein, D. (2004). Justice, Justice: School Politics and the Eclipse of Liberalism. New York: Peter Lang. Reich, R. B. (1992). The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism. New York: Vintage. Rury, J. (2013). Education and Social Change: Contours in the History of American Schooling. New York: Routledge. Smith, M. L. (2004). Political Spectacle and the Fate of American Schools. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Spring, J. H. (2001). The American School 1642–2000 (5th edn). New York: McGraw-Hill. Stradling, R. (1991). Research into Secondary Education in England and Wales. DECS/ Rech 91 (52) 2. Task Force on the Education for Economic Growth (1983). Action for Excellence. Denver: Education Commission of the States. Tozer, S. E., Violas, P. C. and Sense, G. (2009). School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: McGraw-Hill. Urban, W. J. and Wagoner, Jr, J. L. (2014). American Education: A history. New York: Routledge. US Department of Education (USDE) (n.d. 1991). America 2000: An Education Strategy Sourcebook. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. —(2009). Race to the Top Program: Executive Summary. Washington, DC: US Department of Education. US Department of Labor (1991). The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). What Work Requires of School: A SCANS Report for America 2000. Washington, DC: US Department of Labor. —(1992). The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Learning a living: A blueprint for high performance: A SCANS report for America 2000. Washington, DC: US Department of Labor.

Note 1 The authors wish to thank Kelly Kolodny, John Rury, Roger Saul and Wayne Urban for helpful comments on an earlier version of this chapter.

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 318

17/12/2013 09:38

Index Abdi, Ali A. viii, 4, 6, 7, 75–94 Aboriginal peoples 4, 5, 7, 8, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 49–73, 80, 81, 91, 92 First Nations Education Act (Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada 2012) 53, 65 First Nations (North American Indians) 25, 26, 27, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 61, 62–3, 64, 65 Inuit 25, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 66 Metis 25, 49, 52, 54, 55, 63, 64 Action for Excellence (1983) 307, 308 Africa 78 African Americans 165, 166, 168, 176, 189, 181, 182, 183, 199 African Canadian youth 80 Alberta 38, 53 An Education Strategy Source Book (1991) 309 America 2000: Excellence in Education Act (1994) 308, 309. Goals (2000) 305, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314 Asia 78, 252, 256, 262, 265, 267 Asian-Canadian students 81 Asia-Pacific 256 Asians 146, 168, 176, 177, 252 Australia 18, 33, 259, 252 Brazil 76, 264 Brennan, Sharon viii, 17, 251–78 Britain 300, 301, 308, 310 British 28, 35, 258, 300 British Columbia 8, 33, 36, 42, 53 British North America (BNA) Act 24, 25, 29, 30, 31 call to action for American education in the 21st century, A 313 Canada 1–9, 23–48, 49–73, 75–94, 95–115, 117–35, 185, 253, 266, 291

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 319

Canadian Department of Indian Affairs (1913–32) 26 Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) 25 Canadian Multicultural Act (1988) 6, 75 Canadian Teachers Federation (2013) 35, 36 Canadian teacher training 95–115 Child Study movement, 39, 40–2 Community Practicum Programme (CPP) 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 102 Dominion Education Association (DEA) 35, 38 Indian Control of Indian Education (ICIE) 27 Institute of Child Study 41 Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds (1879) 25 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) 51, 52 Cape Breton 49 Caribbean 78 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 287 Casella, Ronnie viii, 14–15, 175–93 China 4, 76, 218, 235, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258 Christou, Theodore Michael viii, 5, 8, 23–48 Common Core State Standards 142, 187, 246, 305 Conant, James Bryant 292, 293 Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST) 269 Cousins, Sean viii, ix, 23–48, 58 critical ethnography 108–10 Denmark 66, 204 Dewey, John 14, 23, 40, 42, 44, 45, 79, 97, 144, 161, 169, 195, 205 digital literacies 8, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122 disabilities 189, 314

17/12/2013 09:38

320 Index diversity 96, 99, 160, 176, 179, 180, 183, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 281, 282 Dominion Education Association (DEA) 1891: 35, 38, 39, 43 Education Commission of the States 292, 295 educational equity 6, 75–94, 96, 103, 112, 125, 151, 159, 182, 184, 185, 186, 196, 199, 235 inequity 5–6, 7, 53, 159, 165, 167, 186, 189 philosophies 144–5 Education Policy Centre (University of Alabama) 292 England 33, 264, 266, 268 English-Canadian public education system 36, 37 ethnicity 6, 35, 80, 81, 89, 137, 165, 177, 180, 186, 187, 189, 202, 272 Ethnography 108, 109, 110, 111, 112 Europe 35, 185, 262, 271, 273 European 14, 75, 176 Commission 256 Union 17, 256 European Higher Education Area (EHEA) 256 fifty years of American higher education (1963–2013) 279–98 Finland 185 Florida 283, 289 France 254, 258, 259, 263, 264 Campus France 263 Freire, Paulo 14, 196, 201, 202 French Canadian culture and language 30 Fulbright fellowship 17, 263, 291 Gary Plan 38, 39, 40 gender 3, 4, 78, 106, 112 globalization 6, 8, 10, 17, 75, 76, 83, 138, 254, 269, 270, 271, 272, 275, 302 Goals 2000: Educate America Act 305, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314 Gutstein 202, 204, 206 Head Start 167 Heining-Boynton, Audrey ix, 17, 229–50 Hispanics 146, 166, 168, 169, 176, 177, 178 history of education 291, 292, 310

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 320

immigrants 3, 4, 6, 30, 78, 80, 83, 84, 86, 92, 103, 126 immigration 3, 4, 5, 30, 31, 78, 80, 92, 96, 103, 104, 145, 191 Indian Control of Indian Education (1972) 52 Indians 18, 24, 25, 26, 28–9, 314 Indigenous education in Canada 49–73 Indigenous peoples 5, 10, 18, 49–73 Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) 145, 146 Institute of International Education (IEE), 252 see also Open Doors internet use 9, 10, 13, 14, 49, 117, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 211–27 Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) 2000 212 cyberbullying 121 cyber-schools 220, 221, 226 digital literacies 8, 118, 120, 121, 122 multimodality 123, 126, 128, 130, 131 online practices 294, 295 social web 117, 118, 122, 123, 129 web 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 128, 129, 213, 216, 217, 218, 220, 222 Wikipedia 124, 125 World Wide Web 121, 214, 216 Japan 76, 256, 264, 301 Japan Foundation 264 J. William Fulbright Program 17, 263, 291 Kelowna Accord 52 Kilpatrick, William Heard 40, 161 Kolodny, Kelly ix, 10, 137–53 K–12 Curriculum 234, 236, 237, 239, 242, 243, 245 K–16 Curriculum 236, 239, 241, 242, 244, 247, 248, 260 Pre-K-grade 8, 242, 247 languages 7, 10, 17, 28, 34, 36, 49–50, 51, 55, 56, 58, 76, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 89, 91, 92, 117, 139, 142, 143, 146, 160, 175, 180, 203, 229–50, 255, 265, 305, 310, 314

17/12/2013 09:38

Index 321 American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) 242, 243 Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) 230, 231, 232, 233, 238 Performance Descriptors for Language learners 23, 233 Proficiency Guidelines 230, 231, 232, 233 foreign language study 235, 240, 241, 242, 246, 248, 310 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 131 National Security Language Initiative (2006) 241, 245 Latin America 78, 255 Latinos 179, 180, 181, 183 literacy 8, 9, 10, 14, 29, 42, 110, 117, 118, 120, 125, 127, 128, 130, 132, 156, 157, 197, 202, 246, 268, 310 Madras schools 28, 29 mass schooling 27–31, 32, 33 mathematics 11, 12, 25, 142, 144, 157, 195–209, 213, 229, 231, 235, 238, 241, 302, 310, 313 Algebra project (2001) 198, 199 ethnomathematics 199, 200, 201 mathematics education 195–209 critical mathematics 198, 202, 203, 204 culturally relevant mathematics 198 Mesoamerican number system 200 Ortiz, Franco-Luis 200 philosophy of mathematics 203, 206 Merton, Robert 82, 282 Mexico 177 Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey 49, 61–6 Mulcahy D. E. ix, 1–20, 299–318 Mulcahy D. G. ix, 1–20, 299–318 multiculturalism 6, 7, 75, 79, 80, 81, 92 Multicultural Act (1988) 6, 75, 92 multilingualism 85, 229 Policy of Multiculturalism (1971) 92 Nation at Risk, A 169, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 308, 310, 311, 314, 316 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 309

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 321

National Association of International Educators (NAFSA) 260, 265, 270, 271–5. National Center for Educational Statistics (2012) 137, 142, 146, 148 National Commission of Excellence in Education (1983) 301 National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) 12, 13, 15 National Education Association (NEA) 289, 290, 291 Research Division 290 national goals for education 304, 306, 307, 308, 310, 311, 312 New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) 308 New Mexico 178 New York 31, 177 New Zealand 33, 268 Newfoundland 53 Nicholls, Naomi ix–x, 5, 6, 7, 8, 95–115 Northwest Territories 25, 53 Nova Scotia 38, 42, 49, 61, 62, 63 Nunatsiqvut 57 Nunavick 57 Nunavut 7, 8, 25, 49, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64 Teacher Education (NTEP) Programme 59 Ogden, Anthony C. vi, x, 17, 251, 256, 262, 277 Ontario 28, 29, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 75 Education Association 41 Open Doors (2012) 252, 257, 262, 265, 271, 273 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2, 3, 76, 231 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2 pedagogy 8, 23, 35, 44, 45, 79, 82, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 91, 98, 105, 106, 108, 113, 125, 130, 144, 149, 150, 161, 162, 188, 196, 197, 200, 201, 202, 309 philosophy 144, 145, 195, 205, 206 poverty 6, 12, 27, 30, 31, 51, 103, 138, 147, 148, 149, 157, 158, 166, 167, 175, 176, 177, 179, 181, 182, 183, 184, 187, 314

17/12/2013 09:38

322 Index Presidents (USA) Bush, G. H. W. 299, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308. 309, 310, 311, 312 Bush, G. W. 313, 314 Clinton, W. J. 299, 305, 310, 311, 312, 313 Obama, B. H. 313, 315 Reagan, R. 299, 300, 303, 304 Prince Edward Island 42, 59, 60 Qatar 258 Quebec 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 38 race 5, 6, 27, 51, 88, 91, 106, 112, 137, 138, 146, 164, 165, 169, 177, 180, 181, 183, 183, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 212, 272 Race to the Top 12, 143, 315 racial profiling 202 Rawls, John 88, 89 Rawlsian justice 88, 89, reading 28, 144, 213, 302, 313, 314 Redmond, Mary Lynn vi, x, 17, 259 refugees 84, 86, 92 religions 6, 11, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 138, 141, 145, 148, 156 Anglican 25, 28 Christianity 5, 29, 36 Church of England 31, 32, 33 Jewish Day Schools 138 Mennonite Schools 138 Methodist 25, 32, 33 Presbyterian 25, 28 Protestant 24, 29, 34 Roman Catholic 24, 25, 29, 34, 138, 141, 144 residential school movement 5, 25–7, 51, 52, 59 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) 51, 52 Royal Commission on Individual Training and Technical Education (1910) 38 Rury, John L. x, 10, 155–73 Russia 66 Ryerson, Egerton (1803–82) 32 Saudi Arabia 253 Saul, Roger x, 1–20, 95–115 schooling 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 15, 25–7, 28, 29, 31, 112, 137, 138, 155, 156

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 322



charity schools 157, 158, 160 charter schools 141, 251, 292 comprehensive high schools 163, 292 high schools 140, 158, 163, 164, 167 kindergarten 142, 148, 149 normal schools 149, 150 primary schools 158, 161, 164 private schools 137, 141, 147, 148, 190, 304 public schools 38, 44, 112, 138, 139, 140, 141, 146, 147, 148, 157, 158, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 180, 189, 190, 304 rural district schools 159, 162, 180 secondary schools 158, 163, 164, 292 segregated schooling 146, 164, 165, 166, 180, 181 desegregation of schooling 181, 182, 190 suburban schooling 166, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179–85, 186, 187, 190, 191 exurban schooling 176, 180, 185, 186 science 10, 11, 25, 33, 129, 229, 295, 302, 310 Scotland 32, 33 Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) 306, 307 Singapore 185 social justice 75, 77, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 96, 164, 165, 166, 176, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 186, 196 in education 87–8, 89, 90, 91 195–209 in science 11, 12, 25, 88, 142, 157, 195–209, 213, 229, 231, 235, 238, 241, 302, 310, 313 South Africa 268 South Korea 76, 185, 253, 258 Spain 254 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Subjects 11, 245, 253, 257, 264, 272 Stemhagen, Kurt x–xi, 11, 195–209 Switzerland 264 Taylor, Charles 85 Technical Education Act 43 technology 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 25, 38, 44, 45, 92, 117, 118, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 138, 164, 178, 211, 218,

17/12/2013 09:38

Index 323 220, 221, 223, 224, 225, 231, 233, 238, 240, 246, 248, 288, 294, 295, 301, 307 Toronto 5, 6, 8, 15, 20, 31, 32, 36, 40, 41, 96, 97, 102, 103 community-based education 103 Community Practicum Programme (CPP) 96, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 108, 109, 112, 113 Toronto District School Board 104, 105 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2013) 25, 51, 52 United Kingdom 253, 254, 259, 274 United States of America 1, 3, 9–20, 33, 40, 66, 76, 137–53, 155–73, 251–78, 279–98. higher education 251–78 Institute of International Education (IIE) 252, 253, 256 National Center for Educational Statistics (2012) 137, 142, 146, 148 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 263 United States Supreme Court 145, 146, 164, 168, 181, 182, 190 urban crisis 165, 166 see also presidents Universities 4, 11, 103, 239, 252, 288, 290, 294, 295, 200, 300 Alabama 280, 281, 292, 293 Alberta 79, 293 Brown 280 California 258

9781472505521_txt_print.indd 323

Columbia, 258 Delaware 265 George Washington 290 Georgia State 284, 290, 293 Harvard 13, 258, 280, 281, 292, 294 John Carroll, Cleveland 279 Ohio State 279, 284, 285, 288 Oxford 300 Pennsylvania 258, 260, 261 Phoenix 294 Prince Edward Island 59, 60 Princeton 258 Regina 59 Ryerson 31, 32 Saskatchewan 57 Shanghai Jiao Tong 258 South Florida 283, 284, 293 St Francis Xavier 63 Stanford 258 West Florida 281 West Georgia 282 Wisconsin 281 Yale 86, 258 York (Toronto) 113 Urban, Wayne J. xi, 10, 13, 279–98 vocational education 38, 43, 163 Waks, Leonard J. xi, 9, 13 Walton, Fiona xi, 8, 49–73 Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) 273 Yukon 25, 53

17/12/2013 09:38