Biting the hand that feeds you? Teachers engage with an ethnography of neoliberalism in education

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Amy Brown
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Convergence Theory ◽  
Public High School ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Interest Convergence ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Engaged Ethnography

Scholars who document neoliberal trends in education argue that privatization and corporatization in schools is dehumanizing and discourages democratic participation. These scholars assert that neoliberal education policies heighten social inequity by emphasizing individualism, marketability and colorblindness without interrogating social structures of power. Can qualitative documentation of the effects of neoliberal policy in education “talk back” to these trends? Can ethnographically mapping the complex effects of neoliberal trends on teaching and learning serve to heighten teachers' sense of agency and resistance? This paper documents the ways that teachers construct their identities in reaction to reading the author's critical ethnography of their school. Data were gathered for this paper in teacher interviews following two years of collaborative ethnographic fieldwork at the College Preparatory Academy, a small public high school in Brooklyn, New York that created its own in-house nonprofit organization in order to solicit funds from private donors. Using Derrick Bell's interest convergence theory, I critique competitive models of philanthropy in education and explore whether collaborative and critically engaged ethnography can serve to expose the tension between public and private interests in education, and can encourage teachers to challenge and critique these borders.

A History of Brooklyn Bridge Park

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Webster ◽  
David Shirley
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Programming ◽  
Planning And Construction ◽  
Brooklyn Bridge

By the 1970s, the Brooklyn piers had become a wasteland on the New York City waterfront. Today, they have been transformed into a stunning park that is enjoyed by countless Brooklynites and visitors from across New York City and around the world. A History of Brooklyn Bridge Park recounts the grassroots, multivoiced, and contentious effort, beginning in the 1980s, to transform Brooklyn’s defunct piers into a beautiful, urban oasis. The movement to resist commercial development on the piers reveals how concerned citizens came together to shape the future of their community. After winning a number of battles, park advocates, stakeholders, and government officials collaborated to create a thoroughly unique city park that takes advantage of the water and the ’Manhattan skyline, combining an innovative design with vibrant cultural programming. From start to finish, this history emphasizes the contributions, collaborations, and spirited disagreements that made the planning and construction of Brooklyn Bridge Park a model of natural urban development and public–private partnership. The book includes interviews with Brooklyn residents, politicians, activists, urban planners, landscape architects, and other key participants in the fight for the park. The story of Brooklyn Bridge Park also speaks to larger issues confronting all cities, including the development of postindustrial spaces and the ways to balance public and private interests without sacrificing creative vision or sustainable goals.

scholarly journals Teaching and Learning Democratically in a Public High School: Challenges Presented in a High-Stakes Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p63
Author(s):  
Diana L. Satterfield
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
New York State ◽  
Public High School ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Board Of Regents ◽  
Learning And Collaboration ◽  
Democratic Learning ◽  
Common Core Curriculum

The New York State Board of Regents adopted the Common Core Curriculum, the implementation increased testing requirements and rigidity in classrooms. However well-intentioned, standardization and increased testing conflict with theories and research that support authentic learning and collaboration. Implementing methods to empower and engage students can feel nearly impossible within a high stakes environment. This article discusses the findings of an action research study conducted to explore ways for teachers to engage students to become active participants in both teaching and learning. Students were encouraged to explore a democratic learning environment in which they worked collaboratively to develop lesson plans for social studies that adhered to state requirements. The findings showed a profound shift in perceptions of teaching and learning by students and teacher.

scholarly journals Water, Water Everywhere: Destiny, Politics and Commodification on New York’s Water Edge

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Ana Morcillo Pallares
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Water Edge ◽  
The City

<p>In 1973, in the midst of an economic downturn, New York City´s waterfront was envisioned as an enterprise for an urban renewal. This paper reflects on the interplay among a set of actors which was key in launching a more open, accessible, diverse and thrilling city´s edge. The intersecting condition among corporate capitalism, real estate, political interests and talented design illustrates the waterfront as particularly instrumental in the representation of a desire city to live in. However, the case study of two relevant built projects, Battery Park City and Gantry Plaza State Park, showcases different results in the challenge of the city´s waterfront strategy giving over its innovation, privileging instead the rapid commodification of the architecture and the unbalance between public and private interests.</p>

Could There Be Deleuzian Assessment in Music Education?

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Contemporary Education

Authors of contemporary education and arts education policies tend to emphasize the adoption of formal, summative assessment practices. Poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s emphasis on ongoing differing and imaginative possibilities may at first glance appear incompatible with these overarching, codified assessments. While Deleuze criticizes the increasing use of ongoing assessments as a form of control, he posits a more nuanced explanation of measurement. This philosophical inquiry examines four measurement-related themes from Deleuze’s writings and explores how they might inform concepts and practices of assessment in various music teaching and learning contexts. The first theme suggests that each group of connective relations, what Deleuze terms a “plane of immanence,” demands its own forms of measurement. Second, Deleuze emphasizes varieties of measurement. Third, those with power, what Deleuze terms the “majority,” always set the standard for measurement. Fourth, Deleuze derides continuous assessment. His writings suggest that music educators might consider that assessments created for one musical practice or style should not transcend their own “plane of immanence,” that a variety of nonstandardized assessments is desirable, that the effect of measurement on “minoritarian” musical practices must be examined carefully, and that it is essential to ponder the potentials of unmeasured music making.

The Role of the Business Sector in Global Health Politics

2018 ◽  
pp. 385-408
Author(s):  
Kelley Lee ◽  
Julia Smith
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Business Sector ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Health Politics ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Health Related

The influence of for-profit businesses in collective action across countries to protect and promote population health dates from the first International Sanitary Conferences of the nineteenth century. The restructuring of the world economy since the late twentieth century and the growth of large transnational corporations have led the business sector to become a key feature of global health politics. The business sector has subsequently moved from being a commercial producer of health-related goods and services, contractor, and charitable donor, to being a major shaper of, and even participant in, global health policymaking bodies. This chapter discusses three sites where this has occurred: collective action to regulate health-harming industries, activities to provide for public interest needs, and participation in decision-making within global health institutions. These changing forms of engagement by the business sector have elicited scholarly and policy debate regarding the appropriate relationship between public and private interests in global health.

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