Toward a Theory of the Political Construction of Empty Spaces in Public Education

Walters, Pamela Barnhouse

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1576-9_4

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Scholars have relatively recently begun to explore the importance of ideas and policy discourse in education policy development (Binder 2000(Binder , 2002Davies 1999Davies , 2002Irvine 2002; Mehta 2013; Paris 2010; Stevens 2001; Tyack and Cuban 1995;Zimmerman 2002). This work counters a long-standing lack of attention on the part of sociologists to education policy development and politics (Walters 2011) and at the same time contributes to work in political and cultural sociology on the role of ideas in other policy domains (Brown 2013;Skrentny 2006;Steensland 2008). Below, I outline the state of this scholarship and detail three ways that my analysis of state resistance of charter schools furthers our understanding of the role of ideas in educational policy development.…”

Section: Ideas Politics and Educa-tional Policy Developmentmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…This work counters a long-standing lack of attention on the part of sociologists to education policy development and politics (Walters 2011) and at the same time contributes to work in political and cultural sociology on the role of ideas in other policy domains (Brown 2013;Skrentny 2006;Steensland 2008). Below, I outline the state of this scholarship and detail three ways that my analysis of state resistance of charter schools furthers our understanding of the role of ideas in educational policy development.…”

Section: Ideas Politics and Educa-tional Policy Developmentmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Resisting Charters

Johnston

2014

Sociol Educ

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Over the past two decades, most states have adopted laws enabling charter schools, as charter advocates successfully presented charters as the solution to core problems in urban public education. Yet some states with large urban centers, notably Washington and Kentucky, resisted this seemingly inexorable trend for years. What explains their resistance? Furthermore, why did Washington-a state with a strong teachers' union and long-standing Democratic political control (resources for charter resistance identified in prior research)-ultimately adopt charters in 2012 while Kentucky has not? I use comparative-historical narrative analysis to trace differences in charter battles in the urban centers of the two states. I find that supporters framed charters as the solution in both cases but varied in their ability to name public schools as the problem in the first place. I identify the source of the discursive resources used by opponents of charter schools in state-level ''educational ecosystems'': the cultural and institutional legacies of a range of state educational policies.

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Section: Ideas Politics and Educa-tional Policy Developmentmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Ideas Politics and Educa-tional Policy Developmentmentioning

confidence: 95%

Resisting Charters

Johnston

2014

Sociol Educ

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“…District boundaries matter most distinctly because districts are fundamentally segregated by race and class, to an even greater degree than the stark segregation of U.S. neighborhoods (Saporito and Sohoni 2006, 2007). 2 Citizens are particularly attentive to changes in the racial and class-based composition of schools as a key indication of the quality of the schools (Billingham and Hunt 2016; Ispa-Landa and Conwell 2015; Walters 2007, 2011; Walters, James, and McCammon 1997).…”

Section: Educational Ecosystem Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Ecosystems and Charter Policy Development in the United States

Johnston

2016

Sociological Perspectives

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Why have charter schools been embraced as an urban educational solution in many metropolitan areas, but not in others? I develop a theoretical framework whereby the "educational ecosystem" of metropolitan areas-formed through the social geography of school district boundaries and school integration plans-supplement existing perspectives, thereby aiding in the understanding of policy adoption variability. I provide an initial test to the theoretical framework through a case study of a metropolitan hub that continues to have no charter schools: Louisville, Kentucky. I demonstrate how Louisville's particular urban educational ecosystem, which diverges from the overall national pattern of racially and socioeconomically isolated urban systems, transformed the perceptions of the urban district and shaped the battles over an otherwise nationally popular school reform.

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“…I demonstrate how educational policy is shaped by actions of a bureaucratic-professional group vying for legitimacy over a policy domain, 1 focusing on their constant struggles to claim, gain, and maintain their position. The analysis contributes to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying educational policy formation, an area that is underexplored in the sociological study of educational systems (see Johnston 2014; Walters 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Understanding Educational Policy Formation

Fast

2015

Sociol Educ

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This study explores mechanisms underlying processes of educational policy formation. Previous studies have given much attention to processes of diffusion when accounting for educational policy formation. Less account has been given to the day-to-day institutional dynamics through which educational policies develop and change. Building on extensive governmental archival data, complemented with interviews and media analysis, I study the development and transformation of school violence policies in Israel. I argue that diffusion of global policy ideas and practices provides the menu of possible policies, while within-country struggles over legitimacy in the policy domain serve as a mechanism shaping which items on the menu becomes actual policy. Specifically, in the Israeli case, the interest in and action toward school violence were influenced by a global trend, but the actions of Psychological-Counseling Services (PCS) who struggled to assert their legitimacy as the authority on school violence in the Israeli Ministry of Education (MOE) shaped the adoption, rejection, and institutionalization of the specific school violence policy ideas and practices.

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Toward a Theory of the Political Construction of Empty Spaces in Public Education

Cited by 5 publications

References 56 publications

Resisting Charters

Resisting Charters

Educational Ecosystems and Charter Policy Development in the United States

Understanding Educational Policy Formation

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