The Roots of Unjust Education Policy with Sonya Douglass | The LP: EP 12
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At UnboundEd, we pride ourselves on working to find justice in the details of teaching and learning. Instructional choices made in classrooms are included in those details, and it's important to see how policy choices impact those choices in instruction. Policy choices take place at our local level, our state level, and our national level. Depending on the equity value of these choices, this multi-filtered choice system can lead to compounded success or failure for the students the systems, schools, and staff are supposed to serve. It helps to understand the background of the politics that inform the domino effect. Sonya Douglass, Janelle T. Scott, and Gary L. Anderson help us do that with their book The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of Inequality. Sonya Douglass and I discuss the book and its ability to reveal the mechanics behind the madness and the engineering that can occur so our kids can experience democratic schooling.
Key Takeaways
- From the federal to the classroom level, everybody in the education system is a policy implementer and a policy maker (instructional choices are policy). We make and deliver them within our own circles of influence and control. Knowing this can set us up to create policies that counteract inequitable policies or amplify equitable policies.
- Our education system is a house. Policy is the foundation and framing of this house, informing students' instructional experiences. If a new house is needed, what belongs in the foundation? And how do we adjust the framing for the house to lend to grade-level, engaging, affirming, and meaningful instruction?
- I'm also wrestling with the fact that values inform policy. Dr. Douglass offers us the following values:
“Education is a civil and human right.”
“Education is a social, cultural, and political process.”
“Education is a calling and a valued profession.”
“Education is a collective responsibility.”
“Education is the practice of freedom.”
What would our instructional and institutional policies look like if we embraced these values? Thanks to the work of folks like Dr. Douglass, we can imagine and expand
opportunities to make these values a reality within our own circles of influence and
control.
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Sonya Douglass, Ed.D.
Associate Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University and Co-Author of The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of InequalitySonya Douglass, Ed.D., is Associate Professor of Education Leadership in the Department of Organization and Leadership and Founding Director of the Black Education Research Collective (BERC) at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, New York, USA.
Professor Douglass's research examines the politics of race and inequality in education leadership, policy, and reform. She has authored/edited five books and published numerous book chapters and articles exploring the complex legacy of school desegregation and the politics and paradox of race in U.S. schools and society. Her book, Learning in a Burning House: Educational Inequality, Ideology, and (Dis)Integration (Teachers College Press, 2011) received the 2013 AESA Critics Choice Award.
Her latest book, The Politics of Education Policy in an Era of Inequality: Possibilities for Democratic Schooling (Routledge, 2019) with Janelle T. Scott (University of California, Berkeley) and Gary L. Anderson (New York University) is a great text for education leadership and policy faculty and students interested in analyzing education policy issues at the nexus of race, class, inequality, politics, and power.
About Sonya Douglass, Ed.D.
Sonya Douglass, Ed.D., is Associate Professor of Education Leadership in the Department of Organization and Leadership and Founding Director of the Black Education Research Collective (BERC) at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, New York, USA. Her research examines the politics of race and inequality in education leadership, policy, and reform. She has authored/edited five books and published numerous book chapters and articles exploring the complex legacy of school desegregation and the politics and paradox of race in U.S. schools and society.
About The LP: Literature in Practice
UnboundEd's goal is to instill the GLEAM™ (Grade-Level, Engaging, Affirming, and Meaningful) instructional framework into classrooms across the nation with professional development, curated programs, and now with a brand new podcast series, The LP: Literature in Practice. Host Brandon White interviews the authors of today’s thought-provoking educational literature and connects the text to GLEAM.
About Brandon White
Brandon White is a former middle school ELA teacher and Restorative Practices educator for the Rochester City School District. He has worked for seven years as a servant leader intern and site coordinator for Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools Summer Literacy Programs in Rochester. He has also advocated for these practices through his participation in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Teacher Advisory Council and through providing professional development at BMGF-sponsored Elevate and Celebrate Effective Teaching and Teachers (ECET2) Conferences.
Episode Extras
Resources:
- Book: So Much Reform, So Little Change by Charles M. Payne
- Database: Democratic Schools – Education Revolution by Alternative Education Resource Organization
- Toolkit: Quality Criteria for Systems of Performance Assessment for School, District, and Network Leaders by the Learning Policy Institute
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Organization: Black Education Research Collective