Critical Social Issues in American Education: Democracy and Meaning in a Globalizing World

by Shapiro; H. Svi

• ISBN13: 9780805844528
• ISBN10: 080584452X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-07-16
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This text-reader brings together powerful readings that critically situate issues of education in the context of the major cultural, moral, political, economic, ecological, and spiritual crises that confront us as a nation and a global community. It provides a focus and a conceptual framework for thinking about education in light of these issues. Readers are exposed to the thinking of some of the best and most insightful social and educational commentators. Critical Social Issues in American Education: Democracy and Meaning in a Globalizing World, Third Edition,is intended to work on two levels. First, it helps readers to develop an awareness of how education is connected to the wider social structures of cultural, political, and economic life. Second, it encourages not only a critical examination of our present social reality but also a serious discussion of alternatives--of what a transformed society and educational process might look like. The editors' goal is to deliberately engage readers in connecting the work of teachers to an ethically committed, politically charged pedagogy. The assumption on which they base the text is that educators must see their work as inextricably linked to the broader conflicts, stresses, and crises of the social world--it is not otherwise possible to make sense of what is happening educationally. What happens in school, or as part of the educational experience, reflects, expresses, and mediates profound questions about the direction and nature of the society we inhabit. The text is organized thematically into five sections, which address, respectively, social justice and democracy; consumerism, culture, and public education; marginality and difference; moral and spiritual perspectives on education; and globalization and education. Each section is preceded by a brief essay that introduces the readings. This Third Edition includes many new readings and addresses issues that have more recently emerged as especially significant--such as concerns about the implications of globalization and the post 9/11 world, commercialism, violence, and the ever-increasing influence of high stakes testing. This compelling text is relevant for a wide range of courses in educational foundations, educational policy, curriculum studies, and multicultural education that address the social context of education, cultural and political change, and public policy.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Social Justice and Democracy: Unmet Promises	p. 1
For Richer	p. 7
Funding Accountability: States, Courts, and Public Responsibility	p. 25
Democracy's High School? Social Change and American Secondary Education in the Post-Conant Era	p. 45
Creating New Inequalities: Contradictions of Reform	p. 77
Illusions of Progress: Business as Usual	p. 89
Higher Education as a Public Good	p. 109
Schools for Sale: Consumerism, Corporate Culture, and Public Education	p. 123
Profits Without People	p. 129
Kids for Sale: Corporate Culture and the Challenge of Public Schooling	p. 143
The Littleton Tragedy	p. 163
Commercial Culture and the Assault on Children's Character	p. 169
Goals 2000: The Triumph of Vulgarity and the Legitimation of Social Injustice	p. 179
Marginality and Difference: The Fractured Community	p. 191
Becoming Educated: A Journey of Alienation or Integration?	p. 197
English-Only Triumphs, but the Costs Are High	p. 211
What About the Boys?	p. 219
Race and the Achievement Gap	p. 227
What Matthew Shepard Would Tell Us: Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education	p. 237
A Parent's Dilemma: Public vs. Jewish Education	p. 251
Critique and Hope: Moral and Spiritual Perspectives on Education	p. 261
From Local Control to Government and Corporate Takeover of School Curriculum: The No Child Left Behind Act and the Reading First Program	p. 267
Public School Reform: The Mismeasure of Education	p. 287
Care and Moral Education	p. 297
Education and Spirituality	p. 309
The Spiritual Transformation of Education	p. 325
Social Justice, Curriculum, and Spirituality	p. 349
Globalization and Education: The 21st-Century Challenge	p. 367
Threats and Temps	p. 373
Education and the Dilemmas of Modernism: Towards an Ecozoic Vision	p. 399
Identity in the Globalizing World	p. 443
The Transformation of Political Community: Rethinking Democracy in the Context of Globalization	p. 455
Lessons of September 11: What Should Schools Teach?	p. 465
Author Index	p. 475
Subject Index	p. 485
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