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Shannon D. Moore (University of Manitoba) and Stephen Hurley explore how we can protect the idea that public education is, in fact, a public good. Great guests, multiple perspectives and...
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Shannon D. Moore (University of Manitoba) and Stephen Hurley explore how we can protect the idea that public education is, in fact, a public good. Great guests, multiple perspectives and tools that will help us mobilize the conversation in our own communities.
Click here for a full catalog for Season One of the podcast.
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Click here for a full catalog for Season One of the podcast.
Public Good
Public Good
2.4 "Parental Rights" Special Series: Parental Rights As A Smokescreen for Privatization with Heather Ganshorn
8 FEB 2024 · Episode Description
In the fourth and final episode of a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak with Heather Ganshorn from SOS Alberta.
Heather Ganshorn is the Research Director for Support Our Students Alberta, a volunteer organization that advocates for an equitable and accessible public education system. SOS believes that privatization threatens public education by diverting dollars from accountable systems that serve all children to unaccountable private providers who serve a customer niche rather than the public interest. Heather has written a number of media articles and op eds on current issues related to privatization and curriculum in Alberta. She is also an academic librarian at the University of Calgary, with experience in research support and knowledge synthesis.
Through this episode, Stephen and Shannon speak to Heather Ganshorn about the ways that the parental rights movement advance and legitimize privatization of/in public schools. Ganshorn describes the parental rights movement as a smokescreen for groups with a broader culture war agenda. In addition, Ganshorn elucidates the connection between groups stoking fear about parental rights and those calling for more school choice. Stephen and Shannon ask Heather about specific examples within Alberta and also what she has noted about the spread and alliances of parental rights groups across Canada. Ganshorn offers a clear answer about the problem of increased parental choice; these choices are not available to everyone and leave schools to make choices about students.
Episode Resources
Carter, M. (2008). “Debunking” Parents’ Rights In The Canadian Constitutional Context. The Canadian Bar Review, 86(3), Article 3.https://cbr.cba.org/index.php/cbr/article/view/4085
Cowen, J. (2022, July 20). After two decades of studying voucher programs, I’m now firmly opposed to them. The Hechinger Report.http://hechingerreport.org/opinion-after-two-decades-of-studying-voucher-programs-im-now-firmly-opposed-to-them/
Ganshorn, H. (2023, January 23). Populism, Polarization and Privatization in Alberta Education. The Monitor.https://monitormag.ca/articles/populism-polarization-and-privatization-in-alberta-education/
Ganshorn, H. (2022, November 8). Undermining public education. Education Forum.https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/
Ganshorn, H., & Moussa, M. (2022, September 1). Beware “privatization creep” in education system. Leaderpost.https://leaderpost.com/opinion/heather-ganshorn-medeana-moussa-beware-privatization-creep-in-education-system
LeBrun, L. (2024, January 8). Conservative MP Helped Draft Text of Conspiratorial United Nations Petition, Author of Petition Says. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/conservative-mp-helped-draft-text-of-conspiratorial-united-nations-petition-author-of-petition-says/
Magusiak, S. (2022, September 16). Danielle Smith Backs Plan to Spend More Public Dollars on Elite Private Schools and Homeschooling. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-backs-plan-to-spend-more-public-dollars-on-elite-private-schools-and-homeschooling/
Magusiak, S. (2023a, April 27). New Data Shows Danielle Smith’s Education Plan Benefits Wealthiest Socioeconomic Households. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/new-data-shows-danielle-smiths-education-plan-benefits-wealthiest-socioeconomic-households/https://pressprogress.ca/new-data-shows-danielle-smiths-education-plan-benefits-wealthiest-socioeconomic-households/
Magusiak, S. (2023b, April 30). Mapping Canada’s Right-Wing Networks. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/mapping-canadas-right-wing-networks/https://pressprogress.ca/mapping-canadas-right-wing-networks/
Magusiak, S. (2023c, October 26). Right-Wing ‘Take Back Alberta’ Group Purges Top Organizers As It Plans to Target School Boards Across Canada. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/right-wing-take-back-alberta-group-purges-top-organizers-as-it-plans-to-target-school-boards-across-canada/
Ravitch, D. (2023, January 8). Josh Cowen: The Extremism of the School Privatization Movement. Diane Ravitch’s Blog.https://dianeravitch.net/2023/01/08/josh-cowen-the-extremism-of-the-school-privatization-movement/
Additional Resources
SOS Alberta: https://www.supportourstudents.ca/Have You Heard Podcast: https://www.haveyouheardpodcast.com/
2.3 "Parental Rights" Special Series: Public Values in Public Schools with Dr. Wayne Journell
2 FEB 2024 · Episode Description
In the third episode of a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Wayne Journell.
Dr. Journell is Professor of Social Studies Education and Associate Chair of the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG).
A former high school social studies teacher, Dr. Journell received his undergraduate degree and teacher licensure at James Madison University. He then received a master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in Secondary Social Studies Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since then, he has taught at UNCG, where he also coordinates the Secondary Teacher Education Program.
Dr. Journell's research focuses primarily on the teaching of politics and controversial issues in secondary education, with secondary interests in teaching social studies with technology and via inquiry. Dr. Journell has received numerous awards for his scholarship, including being a two-time recipient of the Exemplary Research in Social Studies Award from the National Council for the Social Studies. He is also the current editor of Theory & Research in Social Education, which is the premier empirical journal in the field of social studies education, and editor for the Research and Practice in Social Studies book series at Teachers College Press.
Bio source: https://www.waynejournell.com/
Through this episode, Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Journell about the distinction between public and private values--and the relevance of this distinction to the public school classroom. Specifically, we speak about issues that remain open and valid for discussion in public school classrooms, and those that should be approached as closed or settled. Dr. Journell introduces criterion that can help educators determine which issues are closed for debate in public school classrooms. In particular, we speak about the ethical responsibility of educators to approach issues as closed/settled when they impact the identity, rights, and well-being of students in the classroom. Dr. Journell’s writing, and responses through this interview, intersect with discussions of parental rights and the attempted enforcement of private values in public schools. As he says, people can hold private values, but in the public school classroom we must uphold decided public values.
Episode Resources
Journell, W. (2016). Teaching Social Studies in an Era of Divisiveness: The Challenges of Discussing Social Issues in a Non-partisan Way. Rowman & Littlefield.
Journell, W. (2017). Framing Controversial Identity Issues in Schools: The Case of HB2, Bathroom Equity, and Transgender Students. Equity & Excellence in Education, 50(4), 339–354.https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2017.1393640
Journell, W. (2018). Should Marriage Equality be Taught as Controversial Post-Obergefell v. Hodges? Teachers College Record, 120(8), 1–28.
Journell, W. (2022). Classroom Controversy in the Midst of Political Polarization: The Essential Role of School Administrators. NASSP Bulletin, 106(2), 133–153.https://doi.org/10.1177/01926365221100589
2.1 "Parental Rights" Special Series: "The status of the parent is almost like a moral alibi" with Dr. Jen Gilbert
9 JAN 2024 · Episode Description
In this first episode in a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Jen Gilbert.
Dr. Gilbert is Professor and Chair of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL). Dr. Gilbert’s scholarship and teaching explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and families in schools and the history of controversies over sex education in schools. Dr. Gilbert's work is international in scope and she has established a strong research partnership network in both the U.S. and Australia. She is an active public scholar and designs projects that explores the connections of social equity and education. Dr. Gilbert previously held Professorship and academic leadership roles at York University in the Faculty of Education. She has been formally recognized for her scholarship, mentorship and leadership by the American Educational Research Association, World Association of Sexual Health and Canadian Society for the Study of Education.
Bio Source: https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/54461-jen-gilbert
Dr. Gilbert begins the episode by explaining the ways that parental rights have been used throughout history to oppose more inclusive models of gender and sexuality in schools. While there are historical echoes, we also speak about the specific factors in the current context that have amplified and mobilized the parental rights movement. Dr. Gilbert challenges the misunderstanding that sexuality is brought into schools through teachers and curriculum, and provokes the construction of the innocent child that is often used to limit important conversations about gender and sexuality in schools. We also speak about the way the notion of parental rights privileges particular parents and erases parents and children. Dr. Gilbert shares two important cases in which youth have opposed regressive curricular moves. Rather than limiting and narrowing curriculum, we speak about the ways sex education, and discussions of gender and sexuality more broadly, need to move beyond the health curriculum. Dr. Gilbert ends our interview with an important, although reluctant, manifesto about how to foster educational hospitality.
Episode Resources
Gilbert, J. (2010). Ambivalence only? Sex education in the age of abstinence. Sex Education, 10(3), 233–237.https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2010.491631
Gilbert, J. (2014). Sexuality in School: The Limits of Education. University of Minnesota Press.https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt7zw6j4
Gilbert, J. (2016). The pleasure of protest: LGBTQ youth in school. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 13(1), 33–35.https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2016.1138260
Gilbert, J. (2018a). Contesting consent in sex education*. Sex Education, 18(3), 268–279.https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2017.1393407
Gilbert, J. (2021). Getting dirty and coming clean: Sex education and the problem of expertise. Curriculum Inquiry, 51(4), 455–472.https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2021.1947732
Gilbert, J. (2018b, November 29). Responding to sexual violence in schools: What can educators learn? The Conversation.http://theconversation.com/responding-to-sexual-violence-in-schools-what-can-educators-learn-107769
Gilbert, J., & Rawlings, V. (2022, June 21). “Parental rights” lobby puts trans and queer kids at risk. The Conversation.http://theconversation.com/parental-rights-lobby-puts-trans-and-queer-kids-at-risk-184804
2.2 "Parental Rights" Special Series: "Rights language is inherently divisive." with Dr. Lauren Bialystok
21 DEC 2023 · Episode Description
In this second episode in a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Lauren Bialystok.
Professor Lauren Bialystok is an Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in the Department of Social Justice Education. Her areas of expertise are ethics and education, identity, feminist philosophy, social and political philosophy, and women's health and sexuality. She is the co-author (with Lisa Andersen) of Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education (Chicago, 2022) and author of a forthcoming book on identity and education.
Bio Source: https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/11213-lauren-bialystok
Through this episode, Dr. Bialystok shares her perspective on what is motivating the parental rights movement. Drawing on her recently co-authored book, Touchy Subject, Dr. Bialystok explains how the history of sex education can shed light on the current context. Stephen and Shannon also ask Lauren about her writing on the conflicts surrounding comprehensive sex education in Ontario, specifically about the way political leaders have used the conflict to create division, undermine public education, and deprofessionalize teachers. Lauren offers a clear perspective as to why we cannot cater curriculum to particular parents. Importantly, she reminds listeners that children’s rights exist, while codified parents’ rights do not.
Episode Resources
Bialystok, L. (2017). My Child, My Choice? Mandatory Curriculum, Sex, and the Conscience of Parents.https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/78899
Bialystok, L. (2019). Ontario Teachers’ Perceptions of the Controversial Update to Sexual Health and Human Development. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, 42(1), 1–41.
Bialystok, L., & Andersen, L. M. F. (2022). Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education. University of Chicago Press.
Bialystok, L., & Wright, J. (2019). ‘Just Say No’: Public dissent over sexuality education and the Canadian national imaginary. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40(3), 343–357.https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2017.1333085
Bialystok, L., Wright, J., Berzins, T., Guy, C., & Osborne, E. (2020). The appropriation of sex education by conservative populism. Curriculum Inquiry, 50(4), 330–351.https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1809967
Special Series E4- Public Conversations About Privatization-Resistance
28 SEP 2023 · Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this fourth episode we speak to Sachin Maharaj (U of O), Stephanie Tuters (OISE), and Vidya Shah (York) about resistance. Specifically, the moves to resist the undermining and privatization of public education across Canada.
Bios
Sachin Maharaj, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Program Evaluation in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. His research, which focuses on school boards, teacher unions, and the equity implications of academic streaming and school choice, has been published in Education Policy Analysis Archives, Leadership and Policy in Schools, and the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, he was a secondary school teacher for 14 years at the Toronto District School Board. He is currently writing a book taking a critical look at Ontario educational policy, to be published by the University of Toronto Press.
Steph Tuters is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She researches how social justice pursuits are enacted through leadership, policy, and practice. She is currently investigating how actors within and outside of school districts are working towards racial and greater social justice. Steph has published 13 journal articles, 4 book chapters and numerous popular articles. She has done professional development for school boards, teacher and Principal organisations, and adult educators.
Dr. Vidya Shah is an educator, scholar and activist committed to equity and racial justice in the service of liberatory education. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, and her research explores anti-racist and decolonizing approaches to leadership in schools, communities, and school districts. She also explores educational barriers to the success and well-being of Black, Indigenous, and racialized students. Dr. Shah teaches in the Master of Leadership and Community Engagement, as well as undergraduate and graduate level courses in education. She has worked in the Model Schools for Inner Cities Program in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and was an elementary classroom teacher in the TDSB. Dr. Shah is committed to bridging the gaps between communities, classrooms, school districts and the academy, to re/imagine emancipatory possibilities for schooling.
References
Maharaj, S. (2019a). From Oversight to Advocacy: An Examination of School-Board Leadership.Leadership and Policy in Schools, 19(3), 421-443.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331948433_From_Oversight_to_Advocachttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/331948433_From_Oversight_to_Advocac
Maharaj, S. (2019b). Teacher Unions in the Public Sphere: Strategies Intended to Influence Public Opinion - ProQuest.https://www.proquest.com/openview/87d4bcce8439f1d7464dbe1f950d4989/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=51922&diss=y
Maharaj, S., & Bascia, N. (2021). Teachers’ Organizations and Educational Reform: Resistance and Beyond. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy / Revue Canadienne En Administration et Politique de l’éducation, 196, 34–48.https://doi.org/10.7202/1078516ar
Ryan, J., & Tuters, S. (2017). Picking a hill to die on: Discreet activism, leadership and social justice in education. Journal of Educational Administration, 55(5), 569–588. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1148292
Shah, V. (2018). Leadership for social justice through the lens of self-identified, racially and other-privileged leaders. Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education, 6(1).https://journals.sfu.ca/jgcee/index.php/jgcee/article/view/168/399
Shah, V. (2021). The Colour of Wellbeing: How Do We Ensure the Wellbeing and Success of BIPOC Students and K-12 Staff. EdCan Research. https://www.edcan.ca/articles/colour-of-wellbeing/
Shah, V., Aoudeh, N., Cuglievan-Mindreau, G., & Flessa, J. (2022). Subverting whiteness and amplifying anti-racisms: Mid-level district leadership for racial justice. Journal of School Leadership, 32(5), 456–487.https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1347567
Shah, V., Cuglievan-Mindreau, G., & Flessa, J. (2022). Reforming for racial justice: A narrative synthesis and critique of the literature on district reform in Ontario over 25 years. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 198, 35–54.https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/73144
Shah, V., & Grimaldos, D. (2022). Lies, denials, and cover-ups: The pervasiveness of whiteness in school districts relations with black and racialized parents. Urban Education. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420859221095004
Shah, V., & Grimaldos, D. K. (2023). Rising up: Collectivizing, strategizing, and forging solidarities among parents and caregivers leading for racial justice. VUE (Voices in Urban Education), 51(1).https://vue.metrocenter.steinhardt.nyu.edu/article/id/20/
Tuters, S. (2017). What informs and inspires the work of equity minded teachers. Brock Education Journal, 26(2).https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked/index.php/home/article/view/605
Tuters, S., & Portelli, J. (2017). Ontario school principals and diversity: Are they prepared to lead for equity? International Journal of Educational Management, 31(5), 598–611.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315501499_Ontario_school_principals_and_dhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/315501499_Ontario_school_principals_and_d
Tuters, S., Portelli, J. P., & MacDonald-Vemic, A. (2018). Navigating neoliberalism: Challenges faced by social justice educators. In M. J. Harkins & S.E. Singer (Eds.), Educators on Diversity, Social Justice, and Schooling: A Reader. Canadian Scholars.https://canadianscholars.ca/book/educators-on-diversity-social-justice-and-schooling/
Special Series E2: Public Conversations About Privatization-Provincial Privatization
15 SEP 2023 · Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this second episode of the special series we speak to Adamo di Giovanni (U of Windsor, PhD student), Heather Ganshorn (SOS Alberta) and Ellen Bees (P4PE) about the provincial privatization. This theme was intended to demonstrate how privatization is manifesting “uniquely” across the provinces, but also to demonstrate how these supposed distinctions between provinces reveal similar motivations and tactics.
Guest Bios
Adamo Di Giovanni is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. His dissertation research investigates how neoliberalism and capitalism shape contemporary education discourse and policy. He explores how education policy might evolve toward collectivism and community as a way to address inequality and more effectively deal with 21st century social, environmental, and economic issues. Adamo is currently a Research Assistant on a SSHRC Insight Grant examining the educational impact of mis/dis/information. Adamo is also an Ontario elementary school Vice-Principal within the Greater Toronto Area with over 15 years of experience in elementary schools.
Heather Ganshorn is the Research Director for Support Our Students Alberta, a volunteer organization that advocates for an equitable and accessible public education system. SOS believes that privatization threatens public education by diverting dollars from accountable systems that serve all children to unaccountable private providers who serve a customer niche rather than the public interest. Heather has written a number of media articles and op eds on current issues related to privatization and curriculum in Alberta. She is also an academic librarian at the University of Calgary, with experience in research support and knowledge synthesis.
Ellen Bees is a grade seven educator in Manitoba. She is a community organizer with People for Public Ed, working with the aim to promote consistent and substantive funding of public schools in Manitoba. She recently published her Master's thesis Manitoba Education Reforms, White Settler Discourses, and the Marginalization of Indigenous Perspectives (2022) at the University of Manitoba, which examines how neoliberal discourses of learning and achievement work to marginalize Indigenous perspectives within Manitoba education reform documents. Her research has focused on the education reform movement in Manitoba, including "Cultural Capital and Cultural Community Wealth: A Critique of the BEST Report" (2021) and "Culturally Unresponsive: The Manitoba Education Review and Colonial Perspectives" (2021), which was co written with Shannon D. M. Moore.
References:
Bees, E. (2022). Manitoba education reforms, white settler discourses, and the marginalization of Indigenous perspectives.http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36814
Bees, E., & Moore, S. D. M. (2021). Culturally Unresponsive: The Manitoba Education Review and Colonial Perspectives. Inform-Ed.https://inform-ed.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Culturally-Unresponsive-The-Manitoba-Education-Review-and-Colonial-Perspectives.pdf
Ganshorn, H. (2023, January 23). Populism, Polarization and Privatization in Alberta Education. The Monitor.https://monitormag.ca/articles/populism-polarization-and-privatization-in-alberta-education/
Ganshorn, H. (2022, November 8). Undermining public education. Education Forum.https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/
Ganshorn, H., & Moussa, M. (2022, September 1). Beware “privatization creep” in education system. Leaderpost.https://leaderpost.com/opinion/heather-ganshorn-medeana-moussa-beware-privatization-creep-in-education-system
Parker, L. (2017). Creating a Crisis: Selling Neoliberal Policy Through the Rebranding of Education. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 183, Article 183.https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/31168
Parker, L. (2021, April 5). Ontario’s ‘choice’ of fully online school would gamble on children for profit. The Conversation.http://theconversation.com/ontarios-choice-of-fully-online-school-would-gamble-on-children-for-profit-158292
Resources:
- People for Public Ed: https://peopleforpubliced.com/
- SOS Alberta: https://www.supportourstudents.ca/
- Critical Education: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/
- Graphic Recordings of the Symposium: https://peopleforpubliced.com/graphics
Special Series E1: Public Conversations About Privatization-Ideological Motivations
8 SEP 2023 · Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this first episode of the special series we speak to Ee-Seul Yoon (U of M), Erika Shaker (CCPA), Pamela Rogers (CTF/FCE) and Nichole Grant (CTF/FCE) about the ideological motivations of this reform.
Bios:
Dr. Ee-Seul Yoon's scholarship focuses on how market-based educational reforms -- including choice, competition, entrepreneurship, and deregulation -- reproduce existing power structures based on social class, race, and community wealth, which are entrenched in residential segregation because of colonial racism and neoliberalism. Dr. Yoon has published in the top journals in the field, and their research highlights how the current reforms of school marketization (re)produce inequitable ideologies, structures, and practices. Dr. Yoon's ground-breaking critical spatial research is known for illuminating the impact of educational marketization on the differentiated and unequal educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of diverse learners and families. In a recent collaboration with Dr. Lyn Daniels, Director of Instruction, Aboriginal Learning (BC), they show that Indigenous families' school choice is economically and spatially constrained in the face of colonial racism; therefore, school choice policy needs to change in order to reduce this type of systematic and racial inequity. https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=xDUaNrcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Since 1997, Erika Shaker has directed the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' (CCPA) Education Project, established to monitor corporate intrusion in public education. In 2000 she became co-editor of the popular education journal Our Schools / Our Selves, established in 1987, and in 2020 Erika became director of the CCPA's National Office. She writes, researches and speaks on a wide variety of education issues including privatization and commercialism, inequality, standardization and social justice. Erika has a BA in History from McGill, and an MA from the University of Guelph in English with a focus on critical literary theory. Her dissertation, completed in 1995/96, was on the commercialization of curriculum in Ontario. https://policyalternatives.ca/authors/erika-shaker
Pamela Rogers is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, and CTF/FCE Principal Investigator on educator mental health research funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Her research focuses on discursive policy formations and teachers' lived experiences in neoliberal educational governance structures. She has publications in the Canadian Journal of Education, Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, and Historical Encounters, focusing on anti-oppressive education, critical historical consciousness, and understanding cultural productions of history in public spaces. Pamela is an independent consultant and public academic who has written articles for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives journal, Our Schools/Our Selves, the New Brunswick Media Co-op, and CTF/FCE's online blog, Perspectives. As a former high school social studies teacher from Nova Scotia, Pamela is interested in improving workplace conditions and building community alliances to support public school educators. https://www.ctf-fce.ca/authors/pamela-rogers-2/
Nichole Grant currently resides with her family in Ottawa, Ontario, the traditional unceded territories of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Peoples. She is Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and Part-time Professor with the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Education. Having published in several edited collections, the Canadian Journal of Education, Historical Encounters, and co-edited a collection on radical youth pedagogy (2020, DIO Press), Nichole’s research focuses on anti-oppressive practices and educational policies in Canada, as well as methods of knowledge formation and neoliberalism in everyday spaces. In this work, Nichole looks to understand the interactions of people, places, and histories in these areas through feminist posthumanism, decolonizing, and new materialist approaches. https://www.ctf-fce.ca/authors/nichole-grant/
Episode Resources:
Apple, M. W. (2013). Educating the Right Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality. Routledge.
Courtney, S. J., & Lee-Piggott, R. (2022).Time to turn the tide: Privatization trends in education in the Caribbean. Education International. https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/26266:time-to-turn-the-tide-privatisation-trends-in-education-in-the-caribbean
Our Schools/Our Selves. (2023, Summer/Fall). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.https://policyalternatives.ca/our-schoolsour-selves-summerfall-2023
Rogers, P. & Grant, N. (2022, April 23). Policy influencers and privatizing pathways: A tale of organizing to endure [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association, SanDiego,
CA.
Shaker, E. (2023, June 23). “Parental choice” is a dog-whistle—Let’s recognize it as such. The Monitor.https://monitormag.ca/articles/parental-choice-is-a-dog-whistle-lets-recognize-it-as-such/The Monitor. (2023, August). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
https://policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/monitor-julyaugust-2023
Yoon, E., & Gulson, K. N. (2010). School choice in the stratilingual city of Vancouver. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(6), 703–718.https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2010.528871
Yoon, E.-S. (2016). Neoliberal imaginary, school choice, and “new elites” in public secondary schools. Curriculum Inquiry, 46(4), 369–387.
Yoon, E.-S. (2020). School choice research and politics with Pierre Bourdieu: New possibilities. Educational Policy, 34(1), 193–210.
Yoon, E.-S., & Daniels, L. D. (2021). At the margins of Canada: School choice practices of Aboriginal families in a settler-colonial city. Educational policy, 35(7), 1288-1310.https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819864442
Yoon, E.-S., Lubienski, C., & Lee, J. (2018). The geography of school choice in a city with growing inequality: The case of Vancouver. Journal of Education Policy, 33(2), 279–298.
Yoon, E.-S., & Winton, S. (2020). Multiple privatisations in public education: Issues, theories, and conversations. In Journal of Educational Administration and History (Vol. 52, Issue 1, pp. 1–8). Taylor & Francis.
Zhu X., & Meng, T. (2020). Geographical leadership mobility and policy isomorphism: narrowing the regional inequality of social spending in China. Policy Studies Journal, 48, 806-832.
Resources:
- Critical Education: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/
- Graphic Recordings of the Symposium: https://peopleforpubliced.com/graphics
Special Series E3: Public Conversations About Privatization-Resistance
4 SEP 2023 · Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this third episode of the special series we speak to Beyhan Farhadi (OISE), Justin Fraser (P4PE), and E. Wayne Ross (UBC) about resistance. That is, the moves to resist the undermining and privatization of public education across Canada.
Bios
Dr. Beyhan Farhadi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher, and Adult Education at OISE, U of T. Prior to joining the faculty at OISE, Dr. Farhadi was the Research Cluster Lead for Community Engagement and Public Scholarship at the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies at York University and a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ontario. She was also a secondary teacher with the Toronto District School Board and a community organizer with Scarborough Families for Public Education. Her research focuses on the impact of online learning on educational equity in Ontario and, more recently, Alberta. Dr. Farhadi's lead-authored publications in The Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy (2022) and The Journal for Teaching and Learning (2021) reflect a commitment to open access scholarship and meaningful engagement with education stakeholders. She also mobilizes knowledge for the public in sole-authored publications for the Broadbent Centre and The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, as well as The Conversation, Canada, and First Policy Response at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Justin D. Fraser (he/him) is an educator, activist, musician, and graduate student from Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a public school teacher specializing in popular music education, he has firsthand experience with neoliberal education reforms such as funding cuts, "back-to-basics" curricular emphases, and the marketization of arts education. Fraser is a founding member of People for Public Ed, a Manitoba-based community group dedicated to promoting consistent and substantive public funding for public education, and is committed to ensuring that all students in Manitoba have equitable access to high quality public education. Specifically, his work with PfPE includes community organizing, outreach, writing, and popular education. Finally, as a graduate student at the University of Manitoba, Fraser's research interests include the impacts of neoliberal education reforms on public education as well as designing and facilitating more equitable and just models of popular music education within a critical education paradigm.
E. Wayne Ross, PhD is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at The University of British Columbia. His research and teaching focus on the role of curriculum and teaching in building democratic communities that are positioned to challenge the priorities and interests of neoliberal capitalism as manifest in educational and social policies that shape both formal and informal education experiences. His work includes books such as Neoliberalism and Education, Battleground Schools, Working for Social Justice Inside and Outside the Classroom, Defending Public Schools (4 Vols.) as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular media on the global education reform movement in North America. He is a scholar-activist and organizer having co-founded the Rouge Forum, Institute for Public Education/British Columbia and Institute for Critical Education Studies, the latter publishes the academic journals Critical Education and Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor.
References
Farhadi, B. (2019). “ The Sky’s the Limit”: On the Impossible Promise of e-Learning in the Toronto District School Board. University of Toronto (Canada).https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/97442/1/Farhadi_Beyhan_%20_201911_PhD_thesis.pdf
Farhadi, B., & Winton, S. (2021). Building a Plane While Flying: Crisis Policy Enactment during COVID-19 in Alberta Secondary Schools. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 15(2), 117–132.https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/6725
Fraser, J.D. (2023,June 13).Toward criticality: Popular music education for social justice. Association for Popular Music Education. https://www.popularmusiceducation.org/blog/toward-criticality-popular-music-ed
Moore, S.D.M., & Fraser, J.D. (2022, September 17).Playing politics with public education. People for Public Education.https://bit.ly/3DWgPq4
Moore, S.D.M., Fraser, J.D.,& Janzen, M. (2022, December 6). Crowdfunding For Public education? Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. http://policyx.ca/2022/12/06/crowd-funding-for-public-education/
Gibson, R., Queen, G., Ross, E.W., & Vinson, K. (2008). The Rouge Forum. In D. Hill (Ed.), Contesting neoliberal education: Public resistance and collective advance (pp. 110-135). Routledge.https://www.routledge.com/Contesting-Neoliberal-Education-Public-Resistance-and-Collective-Advance/Hill/p/book/9780415507103
Ross, E. W. (2015). Teaching for Change: Social Education and Critical Knowledge of Everyday Life. In S. Totten (Ed.), The importance of teaching social issues: Our pedagogical creeds (pp. 141-146). Routledge.https://www.routledge.com/The-Importance-of-Teaching-Social-Issues-Our-Pedagogical-Creeds/Totten/p/book/9781138788534
Ross, E. W. (2020). Why Are Things As They Are? Action Research and the Transformation of Work and Education in the Neoliberal Age. The Canadian Journal of Action Research, 21(1), Article 1.https://doi.org/10.33524/cjar.v21i1.515
Ross, E. W., & Gibson, R. J. (2007). Neoliberalism and education reform. Hampton Press Cresskill, NJ.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265050471_Neoliberalism_and_Education_Reform
Ross, E. W., & Vinson, K. D. (2013). Resisting neoliberal education reform: Insurrectionist pedagogies and the pursuit of dangerous citizenship. Cultural Logic: A Journal of Marxist Theory & Practice, 20, 17-45.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265384800_Resisting_Neoliberal_Education_Reform_Insurrectionist_Pedagogies_and_the_Pursuit_of_Dangerous_Citizenship
Resources
- Critical Education: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/
- People for Public Education: https://peopleforpubliced.com/
- Graphic Recordings of the Symposium: https://peopleforpubliced.com/graphics
1.18 "You only critique what you love" with Dr. Gillian Parekh
21 JUL 2023 · In our eighteenth episode, Stephen and Shannon are joined by Dr. Gillian Parekh.
Dr. Parekh is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies in Education (Tier 2) within the Faculty of Education at York. Gillian is cross-appointed with York's graduate program in Critical Disability studies. As a previous teacher in special education and research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Gillian has conducted extensive system and school-based research in Toronto in the areas of structural equity, special education, and academic streaming. In particular, her work explores how schools construct and respond to disability as well as how students are organized across programs and systems.Source: https://edu.yorku.ca/edu-profiles/index.php?mid=732857
In this episode we speak to Dr. Parekh about her new book,https://books.google.ca/books/about/Ableism_in_Education_Rethinking_School_P.html?id=mFBjEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y. Through the conversation, Dr. Parekh discusses the “unbreakable relationship” between ability and schooling. Ability is used to organize students, and this results in hierarchies and ranking of students; this is reinforced by assessment and grading. Dr. Parekh speaks to the way notions of ability re/produce deficit narratives. We speak about the impact of academic streaming, special education, and gifted programs. Through this conversation, we also talk about the ways that race, gender and parental education level intersects with constructions of students’ ability. At the end of the conversation, we speak about the rationale for inviting and involving students in decisions surrounding policies and practices. We also speak about a resource that Dr. Parekh helped co-create, https://www.criticalreflectivepractice.com/
Relevant Publications:
Archer, L., Francis, B., Miller, S., Taylor, B., Tereshchenko, A., Mazenod, A., Pepper, D., & Travers, M.-C. (2018). The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting. British Educational Research Journal, 44(1), 119–140
Annamma, S., & Morrison, D. (2018). Identifying dysfunctional education ecologies: A DisCrit analysis of bias in the classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education, 51(2), 114–131.https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2018.1496047
Brantlinger, E. A. (2006). Who Benefits From Special Education?: Remediating (Fixing) Other People’s Children. Routledge.
Connor, D. J. (2017). Who is responsible for the racialized practices evident within (special) education and what can be done to change them? Theory into Practice, 56(3), 226–233.https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1336034
Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R., & Morrell, E. (2008). The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools. Peter Lang.
Gallagher-Mackay, K., Brown, R.S., Parekh, G., James C.E. & Corso, C. (2023). “I have all my credits – now what?”: Disparities in postsecondary transitions, invisible gatekeeping and inequitable access to rigorous upper year curriculum in Toronto, Ontario. Toronto: Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and the Diaspora at York University. https://www.yorku.ca/edu/jean-augustine-chair/publications/pse-access-report/
Gaztambide-Fernández, R., Saifer, A., & Desai, C. (2013). “Talent” and the misrecognition of social advantage in specialized arts education. Roeper Review, 35(2), 124–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2013.766964
Gaztambide-Fernández, R., & Parekh, G. (2017). Market "Choices" or Structured Pathways? How Specialized Arts Education Contributes to the Reproduction of Inequality. Education policy analysis archives, 25(41), n41.
James, C. E. & Parekh, G. (2021). Fixed Trajectories: Race, schooling and graduation from a Southern Ontario university. Canadian Journal of Higher Education.
James, C. E., & Turner, T. (2017). Towards race equity in education: The schooling of Black students in the Greater Toronto Area. York University.https://edu.yorku.ca/files/2017/04/Towards-Race-Equity-in-EducationApril2017.pdf
Ineese-Nash, N. (2020). Disability as a colonial construct: The missing discourse of culture in conceptualizations of disabled Indigenous children. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(3), 28–51.https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v9i3.645
Parekh, G. (2022). Ableism in Education: Rethinking School Practices and Policies (Equity and Social Justice in Education). W. W. Norton & Company.
Parekh, G. (2017). The tyranny of “ability”. Curriculum Inquiry, 47(4), 337-343.
Parekh, G. & Brown, R. S. (2020). The tension between institutional and self-identification of disability. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(5), 347-379.
Parekh, G., & Brown, R. S. (2019). Changing lanes: The relationship between special education placement and students’ academic futures. Educational Policy, 33(1), 111-135.
Parekh, G., Brown, R. S., & Robson, K. (2018). The social construction of giftedness: The intersectional relationship between whiteness, economic privilege, and the identification of gifted. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 7(2), 1-33.
Parekh, G. Brown, R.S., & Zheng, S. (2018). Learning skills, system equity and implicit bias within Ontario, Canada. Educational Policy, 35(3), 395-321.
Reid, D. K., & Knight, M. G. (2006) Disability justifies exclusion of minority students: A critical history grounded in disability studies, educational researcher, 35(6), 18–23.
Sloan, K. (2013, May 9). The fallacy of intelligence and genetic determinism. The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network.https://www.cbc-network.org/2013/05/the-fallacy-of-intelligence-and-genetic-determinism/
Relevant Resources Guide:
Equity and Human Rights in Special Educationhttps://www.criticalreflectivepractice.com/
1.17 "They get tired of trying to exist in a place that really wasn’t created for them to thrive" with Dr. Tiffany Prete
14 JUL 2023 · In our seventeenth episode, Stephen and Shannon are joined by Dr. Tiffany Prete.
Dr. Apooyak’ii, Tiffany Prete (nee Hind Bull) is a member of the Kainai (Blood Tribe) of the Siksikasitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy), located in the Treaty 7 area. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge. Her program of work is comprised of implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action on the Blood Reserve. Dr. Prete’s background is in educational policy studies, specializing in Indigenous Peoples education. Her area of expertise includes: Indigenous secondary retention rates within the public school system, Blackfoot historical research, impacts of colonization, intergenerational trauma, and Indigenous research methodologies. Source: https://www.ulethbridge.ca/artsci/dr-apooyak%E2%80%99ii-tiffany-prete
In this episode we speak to Dr. Prete about what compels her work. Dr. Prete speaks about the 8 school models, and how each attempted to assimilate Indigenous peoples until they no longer existed. This included public schools. Dr. Prete also shares the way that schools were designed to give Indigenous students “just enough” education; this practice still exists in the current context. We also speak to Dr. Prete about her research on Indigenous secondary retention rates, and the positive impact of including Indigenous ways of knowing in schools. Dr. Prete also speaks about the impact of all students in public schools taking a specific course dedicated to Indigenous studies, and makes some recommendations for incorporating Indigenous epistemologies into curriculum and practice more broadly.
Episode Resources:
Prete, T. (2021). How Alberta Education's First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Policy Framework influence students' attitudes towards the Indigenous Peoples of Can-ada. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 14(2), 96-113. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcis.1840
Prete, T. (2021). Integrating traditional educational practices of the Siksikaitsita-pi (Blackfoot Confederacy) into a post-secondary context. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 40(4), 372-381. DOI: 10.1080/02601370.2021.1958940
Prete, T. (2020). How integrating Indigenous perspectives into the classroom affects students' attitudes towards Indigenous People. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 15(2), 120-134. https://about
Prete, T. (2018). 'Effects of Indigenous Epistemology on Indigenous Secondary Retention Rates.' Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 13(1), 23-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.20355/jcie29341
PUBlic Professor Series | Apooyak’ii, Dr. Tiffany Prete | University of Lethbridge. https://www.ulethbridge.ca/artsci/public-professor-series-apooyakii-dr-tiffany-prete
https://directory.uleth.ca/users/tiffany.prete
Shannon D. Moore (University of Manitoba) and Stephen Hurley explore how we can protect the idea that public education is, in fact, a public good. Great guests, multiple perspectives and...
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Shannon D. Moore (University of Manitoba) and Stephen Hurley explore how we can protect the idea that public education is, in fact, a public good. Great guests, multiple perspectives and tools that will help us mobilize the conversation in our own communities.
Click here for a full catalog for Season One of the podcast.
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Click here for a full catalog for Season One of the podcast.
Information
| Author | voicEd Radio |
| Organization | voicEd Radio |
| Categories | Education , Politics |
| Website | www.spreaker.com |
| shannon.moore@umanitoba.ca |
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