Vicious Circles in Education Reform: Assimilation, Americanization, and Fulfilling the Middle Class Ethic

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Vicious Circles traces the history of development of public education and the near simultaneous advent of educational reform from its very beginning. Drawing on history, politics, law, sociology, and educational research, all aspects of public schooling are brought to light using a non-partisan analytical approach. Critically examining areas such as institutional racism, sexism, ableism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia, as well as the corporatization and privatization of public schooling, Shyman extracts the fundamental problems that have ever plagued, and continue to plague, successful education reform. Essentially, Shyman demonstrates that little progress in the area of education reform has ever been made. Rather, the same misinformed, repackaged efforts by a disconnected and insularly private political elite have continued to be applied, perpetuating a vicious circle of failed and misguided attempts at education reform.

Reviews

Shyman takes on the most complicated and critical issue that we have spent a lot of energy avoiding: what are schools for He covers a lot of terrain and skillfully helps us see ways in which we could move forward to make schools serve democratic ends. But will we He doesnt shy away from how difficult it will be and why it requires very different alliances and trade-offs than education policy has relied on in the past period of history. -- Deborah Meier, founder of the Small Schools Movement and author of In Schools We Trust
Professor Shymans Vicious Circles is a must read for all concerned with the state of Americas educational system. This is a real story, exhaustively researched and told in an intelligent and compassionate voice. By looking back in time, Shyman has successfully propelled Kozols landmark work, Savage Inequalities, into the 21st Century. Regardless of ones politics, the authors perspective is compelling and highly relevant to any solution. -- Jay Silverstein, PhD, SDA, SAS
Eric Shyman delivers a powerful critique of educational reform in the United States, through exposing debilitating political, economic, and cultural values that historically have perpetuated a brutal racializing cycle of social and material oppression. By so doing, stagnating contradictions of American democracy that hinder emancipatory imperatives of citizenship and civic life are unveiled in ways that propel us to rethink strategies for educational transformation in the future. In an era when democratic rights hang in the balance, this brilliantly complex and indispensable treatise urges us to recall the vital significance of public education in the forging of a genuinely democratic societywhere critical thought, dialogue, and public dissent are essential to an ethics of freedom and a praxis of genuine democracy. -- Antonia Darder, Leavey Endowed Chair of Ethics and Moral Leadership, Loyola Marymount University, author of Culture and Power in the Classroom
Eric Shyman provides a wide-ranging portrait of the state of education, integrating contemporary issues with historical and political analysis. His account prioritizes the ongoing struggles over assimilation, equality, and control of educational decision making. This book offers an incisive guide to ongoing school reform debates and the structures that keep meaningful change from succeeding. -- Nancy Lesko, Maxine Greene Professor, Chair, Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Teachers College, Columbia University

Author Bio

Eric Shyman is an assistant professor of Child Study at St. Josephs College on Long Island, New York. He received his doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University.