Employing a social justice framework, this book provides educational leaders and practitioners with tools and strategies for grappling with the political fray of education politics. The framework offers ways to critique, challenge, and alter social, cultural, and political patterns in organizations and systems that perpetuate inequities. The authors focus on the processes through which educational politics is enacted, illustrating how inequitable power relations are embedded in our democratic systems. Readers will explore education politics at five focal points of power (micro, local/district, state, federal, and global). The text provides examples of how to "work the system" in ways that move toward greater justice and equity in schools. Book Features:Conceptualizes educational politics within a pragmatic social justice framework.Examines the various layers of politics and how they interact. Explains governance structures and policymaking processes, such as policy formulation and implementation.Offers insights into how power operates and how it can be invoked to support the needs of struggling students.Explores why certain values, needs, and ideas are heard while others are not.
Catherine Marshall is the R. Wendell Eaves Distinguished Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin is professor and dean of the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Mark Johnson has been a classroom teacher, school administrator, and policy analyst and is currently a researcher at The Learning Partnership in Chicago.
Contents (Tentative)Foreword Enrique AlemanPrefacepart I: Centering Justice in Educational Politics1. Power, Democracy, and Social Justice ValuesIntroductionCentering Justice: A Framework for ActionPower Dynamics and Control in Framing PolicyWho Defines Policy Problems?Centering Justice: Valuing Democracy and JusticeStrategic Democratic PossibilitiesDemocratizing Politics and Centering JusticeA Centering Justice Oriented Analysis: An ExampleSummarypart ii: Multiple Arenas of Educational Politics2. Micropolitics: "Hidden" Conflicts and PowerIntroductionStructural Power DynamicsSociocultural Power DynamicsThe Power of Micropolitics for Centering JusticeCentering Justice: A Curriculum with Two KingsSummary3. Democracy and Community in Districts?IntroductionThe Players on School Boards and in the Central OfficeWays to Look at District Politics and PolicyExpanding Agendas to Center JusticeSummary4. State Policy Shifts and Cultural IdiosyncrasiesIntroductionShifts in the Role of State Education PolicyKey State Policymakers, Arenas of Power, and Concepts of AnalysisSummary5. Federal Policy Communities and Interest GroupsIntroductionCentering Justice: The Opt-Out MovementSummary6. Global Education PoliticsIntroductionActors, Arenas, and Structures for International PoliticsCross-National Comparisons of EducationSocial Justice Approaches to the Comparative Education PolicyRelevant Questions for International ComparisonsDiffering Contexts and Values Across CountriesInternational Sharing and BorrowingContinuing Challenges and ControversiesQuestions from Centering Justice FramingGlobal Framing of Policy DiscoursePolitics for Social Justice: Thinking GlocallyCentering Justice: Greta Thunberg and "School Strikes for the Climate"Summarypart iii: Making Connections for Policy Action7. Policy Webs, Pendulum Shifts, and InterconnectionsIntroductionThe Policy Web of LeadershipPendulum Swings of Webs of Control, Values, and PrioritiesThe Paradox of Policy Intent and Unintended ConsequencesThe Paradox of Ignoring Race and Culture: The Immigrant ExperienceInterweaving of National and International PoliticsUnanticipated Consequences and Hidden GoalsCross-Purposes, Stupidity, and ContradictionsInterrelationship Among Organizations and Interest GroupsMaking Connections: Family-Centered Integrated Service Systems and SchoolsCentering Justice: Designing a School Around Caring RelationshipsSummary8. Leading for Justice and EquityIntroductionExposing Inequitable Power and InjusticeEngaging Political ArenasCentering Justice: Can a Superintendent Take a Stand?Alternative Approaches for LeadershipCentering Justice in Educational PoliticsSpecific Tools for Centering Social Justice LeadershipExamine Advocacy StrategiesSummaryReferencesIndexAbout the Authors
“A timely, thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution for educators wanting to prepare their students for participation in the politically intense and complicated American system of governance from the local level to international relations world-wide, Educational Politics for Social Justice is ideal as a classroom curriculum textbook and is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary Education Issues collections.”—Midwest Book Review