Bookshelf: Kappan authors on their favorite reads

In this monthly column, Kappan authors discuss books and articles that have informed their views on education. Robert Kim recommends Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong, Sarah Pazer recommends the multi-author Manifesto for Teaching Online, and Thomas Hatch recommends Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform by David Tyack and Larry Cuban.

Barriers to Implementation of Physical Activity in Danish Public Schools

Purpose: In 2014, the Danish Government introduced a new public school reform, which included implementation of 45 min of daily physical activity (PA) within the academic classroom curriculum. The purpose of the present study was to explore school staff’s perceived barriers to implementation of a national PA policy. Method: A mixed-methods approach using a questionnaire and semistructured interviews was conducted. A total of 198 teachers and 26 school management team members (principals, deputy principals, and leading teachers) from 31 schools completed a questionnaire, and 11 school management team members were interviewed. The socioecological model was used as a theoretical framework to examine the results. Results: A total of 15 different barriers were identified and reflected within all levels of the socioecological model. Facilities, motivation, and time were the most prominent barriers identified. Conclusion: Development and deployment of a national PA policy needs to be done in cooperation with consumers from all levels within the socioecological model to ensure successful implementation.

QUESTIONING THE RHETORIC OF BRITISH BORSTAL REFORM IN THE 1930s

In 1938, the Reverend Digby Bliss Kittermaster, who became chaplain at Rochester Borstal after retiring as a housemaster at Harrow public school, started a diary in which he recorded everyday interactions with inmates and staff. The reputation of the borstal system was at its height in the 1930s owing to Alexander Paterson's reforms, based on the structures and character-building ethos of British public schools. Young people's voices were rarely heard in this progressive discourse of borstal reform and Kittermaster is unusual for articulating them, recording what he heard, teasing out the contradictions of Paterson's reforming aspirations and the reality of humiliation and intimidation that borstal boys often experienced. Kittermaster's public school background made him well placed to question the rhetoric of the public school reform model. His complex personal perspective suggests how humane emphasis on individual potential was subverted at Rochester by coercive structures of traditional prison improvement. Kittermaster's growing frustration at his own powerlessness supports a more nuanced interpretation of how the borstal system has usually been depicted in the Paterson era of reform, especially in relation to damaging mental and emotional costs to inmates and staff, which have been largely neglected in the scholarship of borstal in the 1930s.

The relationship between professional learning community implementation and teacher decision-making

Educational reform has been a topic of intense interest since the 1950's (Brost, 2000; Lambert, 2003; Servage 2009; Watson, 2014). Researchers have routinely proposed that schools must evolve to be much more adaptable and much more responsive to students' needs (Brost, 2000; Servage, 2009). A great deal of educational research exists that indicates that, in order to accomplish educational reform, teachers must be more involved in decision-making processes (Brost, 2000; Conley, 1991; DuFour and Eaker, 1998; Odden and Wohlstetter, 1995; Liontos, 1993; Smylie, Lazarus and Brownlee-Conyers, 1996; York-Barr and Duke, 2004); and empowering teachers to reflect, collaborate, and act collectively as a means to enhance student achievement figures prominently in many current public school reform initiatives (Duffy, Mattingly, and Randolph, 2006; DuFour and Eaker, 1998; Gates and Watkins, 2010). According to Howey (1988), teacher leadership is both natural and necessary in today's climate of increasing demands for excellence being placed on schools. His assertion that reform can only be effective if addressed by those who reside where the problems are is a common theme in educational research (Brost, 2000; Clark and Clark, 2002; Liontos, 1993; Odden and Wohlstetter, 1995; Smylie et al., 1996; York-Barr and Duke, 2004).

The Respectable Brotherhood: Young Black Men in an All-boys Charter High School

Neoliberal public school reform has revitalized efforts to open unique all-male schools for black boys. Existing research stresses how these black male academies nurture resilience but has failed to examine what makes these schools distinctive. Drawing on one year of ethnographic research, this article demonstrates how Northside Academy, an all-male charter high school, built a respectable brotherhood. Modeled after elite all-male institutions, Northside’s classics curriculum and professional uniform marked its young men as having disciplined minds and bodies, destined for college and a middle-class future. Yet to maintain legitimacy within a competitive environment, the school community drew moral boundaries between its exceptional young men and those delinquent boys most in crisis. This engaged a respectability politics where upwardly mobile black men reject their more marginalized peers for failing to reform their character. This study’s findings extend knowledge of single-sex public schools and of the impact of increased competition under neoliberalism.

Who Is Behind the Assault on Public Schools?

While the political conflicts and social ramifications of public school reform are well known, basic questions about the movement remain underexamined. Who really leads it? What are their motives? We need a deeper understanding of this movement, its drivers, and its underlying aims.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.