Public education, neoliberalism, and teachers : New York, Mexico City, Toronto
Paul Bocking (Author)
"From pressure to "teach to the test" and the use of quantitative metrics to define education "quality," to the rise of "school choice" and the shift of principals from colleagues to managers, teachers in New York, Mexico City, and Toronto have experienced strikingly similar challenges to their professional autonomy. By visiting schools and meeting teachers, government officials, and union leaders, Paul Bocking identifies commonalities that are shaping how teachers' work and public schools function. While arguing that neoliberal education policy is a dominant trend transcending the realities of school districts, states, or national governments, Bocking also demonstrates the importance of local context to explain variations in education governance, especially when understanding the role of resistance led by teachers' unions. Short Description (MAX. 250 characters incl. spaces!): In recent years, schools across North America, serving vastly distinct communities, have been subject to strikingly similar waves of neoliberal policies by governments that are reshaping the nature of teachers' work."-- Provided by publisher
xvi, 299 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9781487506605, 1487506600
1127123815
Preface 1. Introduction 1.1 What Is Teachers’ Professional Autonomy? Why Is It Important for Public Education?1.2 Key Dimensions for Assessing Challenges to Professional Autonomy1.3 A Geography of Teachers’ Professional Autonomy1.4 Challenging Professional Autonomy1.5 Methodology1.6 Book Overview 2. Geographies of Professional Autonomy and Neoliberalism in North America Preface: Dia Del Trabajo 2.1 The Emergence of Public Education, Teachers’ Unions, and Professionalism2.2 The Postwar Consolidation of Public Education Systems and Teachers’ Unions2.3 The Neoliberalization of Education: Teacher Unionism on the Defensive 2.4 Transnational Elite Policy2.5 Counter Hegemonic Continental Networks 3. New York City Preface: Visiting a Small High School on the Upper West Side 3.1 Structural Changes I: Centralizing Power to Facilitate Neoliberal Fast Policy3.2 Structural Changes II: Transforming Workplace Culture 3.3 Teacher Precariousness and the Weakening of the School Site Union and Professional Autonomy3.4 Scaling Up: Initiative in Neoliberal Policy Shifts from NYC to Albany3.5 Cuomo’s Expansion of Standardized Testing into Teacher Evaluation: Undermining Professional Autonomy3.6 State of Our Union, State of Our Schools 4. Mexico City Preface: Teachers’ Day 4.1 Transitions in State Power, Decentralization, and Emergence of Elba Esther Gordillo’s SNTE as a Key Neoliberal Actor4.2 Re-Centralized Governance through School-Based Competition4.3 From Clientelism to a Neoliberalized Teaching Profession4.4 Enrique Peña Nieto and Fast Policy4.5 What Makes a Teacher? Marginalizing the Normals and Teacher Education4.6 Testing Teachers4.7 Precarious Employment and Professional Autonomy4.8 Acquiescence, Resistance, and the Challenges of Scaling Up: The CNTE in the City and the Countryside 5. Toronto Preface: School Workroom Cultures 5.1 Centralizing Governance: Increasing Ontario Ministry of Education Control of the Toronto District School Board5.2 Quantifying Student Achievement: Policy from the Centre5.3 Quantifying Student Achievement: Impact on the Classroom and Professional Autonomy5.4 Quantifying Student Achievement: Intersection of Race, Class, and School Choice on Teachers’ Work5.5 Scaling Up: The Centralization of Bargaining and the Negotiation of Professional Autonomy 6. Conclusion Preface: Confronting the Neoliberalization of Education 6.1 The Centrality of Teachers’ Professional Autonomy in the Struggle Against the Neoliberalization of Education6.2 Teachers’ Unions as Champions of Professional Autonomy 6.3 A Multi Scalar Geography of Teachers’ Professional Autonomy Appendix: List of Interviews Bibliography