Troubling the discourse of both/and: Technologies of neoliberal governance in community-based educational spaces

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kysa Nygreen
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Test ◽  
Test Preparation ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
After School ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Organizational Mission ◽  
Neoliberal Reform ◽  
Neoliberal Governance

This article traces the work of community-based popular educators with an explicit commitment to “Freirean” popular education as they shifted from teaching in a community-based setting to an after-school program focused on standardized test-preparation. Drawing from ethnographic observation and interviews, it examines educators’ pedagogical practice and the narratives they employed to explain, interpret, and justify their practice. It shows that they adopted a “discourse of both/and,” asserting the possibility and virtues of doing Freirean popular education and high-stakes test preparation simultaneously, without sacrificing the integrity of either. It argues that this discourse was a pragmatic adaptation to structural imperatives but also a limiting one that facilitated the intensification of workload, individual responsibilization, and a shifting of organizational mission in ways that align with neoliberal reform. Drawing from Foucauldian analyses of audit culture, this article troubles the discourse of both/and by exposing how it operates as a technology of neoliberal governance even when cloaked in the language of social justice.

They #Woke: How Black Students in an After-School Community-Based Program Manifest Critical Consciousness

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
V. Thandi Sulé ◽  
Michelle Nelson ◽  
Tiffany Williams
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Black Students ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Black People ◽  
Black Youth ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
After School ◽  
Community Based

Background/Context Though Black Americans have long suffered under racial tyranny, they have made valiant efforts to subvert policies and practices that encroach on their humanity. Nevertheless, systemic racism has been virtually unyielding—creating both racial hierarchies and disparities in access to resources and wellness. Programs designed to address the condition of Black people, particularly Black youth, often employ deficit or dysfunctional logic, thereby ignoring the sociohistorical context in which Black youth navigate. Furthermore, not enough attention is given to the ways that culturally centered approaches ignite critical consciousness among Black youth in ways that are aligned with the tradition of the Black American abolitionist mindset. Purpose We build on the discourse on community-based youth programs and critical consciousness development by using frameworks that elevate race and culture in analyzing how Black youth make sense of their racialized experiences. Additionally, our explication challenges the overriding deficit focus of Black youth experiences within and outside school contexts by providing a nuanced view of Black youth agency. Research Design With critical race theory as the epistemic foundation, this study sought to foreground counternarratives among youth participants of a culturally centered, community-based program. Thus, we used semistructured interviews as our primary data source. Using a three-stage analytical process, we sought to understand if and how critical consciousness manifests within this youth community. Conclusions/Recommendations The study demonstrates the value of foregrounding African American culture and history to fortify the values of collectivism, self-determination, purpose, responsibility, empowerment, creativity, and faith among Black youth. The authors propose that educators collaborate with community-based Black culture and youth development experts to support dialogical, student-centered spaces that impart culturally centered knowledge about Black Americans. Furthermore, the authors advocate for professional development in asset-based pedagogies as a means to enhance belongingness among Black students.

Choices and constraints

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Sustainable Livelihoods ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
Maximum Effect ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Women In India ◽  
At Home

This chapter focuses upon the extent to which people – and communities - have agency. How far can people make choices freely and/ or how far are people affected by wider structural constraints, when it comes to deciding to move, whether to flee from unbearable situations at home and/ or in search of better, more sustainable livelihoods elsewhere. And how can people and communities respond to being ‘kept in their place’, by the fear of violence outside, for instance. Strategies to tackle violence against women in India provide illustrations, for example. The chapter concludes by focussing upon some of the ways in which people and communities can be supported to enable them to exercise their agency to maximum effect, including via community-based popular education.

Youth-Led REP: Building Critical Consciousness for Social Change

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Jonathan London ◽  
Melissa Chabrán
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Research Evaluation ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Empowerment Evaluation ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
The Social

If knowledge is a form of power, then to lack knowledge is to lack power, and to build knowledge is to build power. This seemingly basic notion is at the source of diverse streams of theory and practice entitled participatory action research, community-based research, counter mapping, popular education and empowerment evaluation. It is from these historical, political and methodological headwaters that a relatively new stream of work, called youth-led action research, evaluation and planning, arises. These practices, while distinct, all represent attempts to build the power and capacity of those at the margins of society to examine, define, and ultimately shape their worlds according to their needs, visions and values. Youth-led action research, evaluation and planning expands the social critique and progressive stance towards breaking the monopolies of power/knowledge to include age-based inequities, along with (and in relationship to) inequities based on race, ethnicity, class gender, sexuality and other markers of difference.

Spaces and places for popular education and participatory action research

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Marjorie Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Education ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Informal Settings

Governments have supported popular education initiatives in the past. And so have community organisations and social movements. But the spaces for popular education have been shrinking in recent times, as part of the impact of neo-liberal globalisation. Public services have been increasingly subjected to pressures from market forces, pressures that have impacted on community-based education and lifelong learning. Despite these wider pressures, educators have continued to find spaces and places for popular education and participatory action research, however, working across sectors in a variety of contexts. The chapter includes examples of innovatory approaches in both formal settings and informal settings (such as libraries and community centres) including examples from both Northern and Southern American contexts.

Popular Education for the Environment: Building Interest in the Educational Dimension of Social Action

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 117-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Whelan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Popular Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Communication ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Starting Point

AbstractCommunity-based environmental education is an important part of the sustainability project. Along with regulation and market-based instruments, adult learning and education in non-formal settings consistently features in the sustainability strategies advocated and implemented by government, community and industry entities.Community-situated environmental education programs often feature didactic “messaging”™, public awareness and community-based social marketing approaches. Clearly, these approaches have limited capacity to stimulate the social learning necessary to reorient toward sustainability. Popular education provides a framework to break from these dominant modes of environmental communication and education and achieve outcomes of a different order. Popular educators build curriculum from the daily lives of community members, address their social, political and structural change priorities, and emphasise collective rather than individual learning. Their work creates opportunities for education as social action, education for social action, and learning through social action.Case studies from Australia and the United States highlight opportunities for community educators to draw on the traditions and practices of popular education. Residents of contaminated communities organise “toxic tours”™ to bolster their campaigns for remediation. Residents and conservationists concerned about freeway construction incorporate learning strategies in their campaign plan to enhance peer learning, mentoring and prospects of long-term success. Advocacy organisations and research institutions work together to create formal and informal educational programs to strengthen and learn from social action. The principles derived from these case studies offer a starting point for collaboration and action research.

scholarly journals Teaching to the Student: Charter School Effectiveness in Spite of Perverse Incentives

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah R. Cohodes
Keyword(s):  
Charter Schools ◽  
Charter School ◽  
School Effectiveness ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Item Type ◽  
Test Preparation ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Type I ◽  
The Impact

Recent work has shown that Boston charter schools raise standardized test scores more than their traditional school counterparts. Critics of charter schools argue that charter schools create those achievement gains by focusing exclusively on test preparation, at the expense of deeper learning. In this paper, I test that critique by estimating the impact of charter school attendance on subscales of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System and examining them for evidence of score inflation. If charter schools are teaching to the test to a greater extent than their counterparts, one would expect to see higher scores on commonly tested standards, higher-stakes subjects, and frequently tested topics. Despite incentives to reallocate effort away from less frequently tested content to highly tested content, and to coach to item type, I find no evidence of this type of test preparation. Boston charter middle schools perform consistently across all standardized test subscales.

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