Course Overview: The political and social environment of public education in the United States; analysis of the power structure and its influence on educational policy making at the district level; examination of the evolving roles of state and federal agencies, the courts, private organizations, and interest groups in school governance. Studies the tension between the ideal of a democratically controlled public school system and the growing power of educational experts.
Course Objectives:
- To engage in an on-going dialogue regarding the nature of the politics of education, what it is, how it is defined by different interest groups, and how it operates on macro and micro levels;
- Exposure to the key theoretical trends and positions that have originated in the politics of education field of scholarship and their application to the problems of practice;
- Awareness of the influence of political interest groups and their impact on state and the Federal government;
- Awareness of how a problem is defined and addressed in the legislative and media arenas and how the public responds.
- Teacher: Adrienne Dixson