Volatile Knowing: Parents, Teachers, and the Censored Story of Accountability in America's Public SchoolsVolatile Knowing refers to the potential for positive change that can result when parents and teachers talk with each other about the politics and policies of externally defined accountability mandates in education. This text tells the story of twelve teachers and parents who breached the unofficial but deeply inscribed home/school divide to discuss the current accountability-for-uniformity movement that has overtaken the nation's educational agenda at federal, state, and local levels. This kind of volatile knowing offers hope for progressively-minded citizens: that together, parents and teachers can ignite a new, child-centered movement for accountability and creativity in America's public schools. Volatile Knowing is based on a qualitative case study of a particular group of parents and teachers who studied and discussed information about the accountability movement that is typically censored in mainstream media coverage. The themes that emerged in this study are presented through the lens of Foucault's analysis of the workings of modern power. By making the exercise of hierarchical power visible to readers, it is hoped that Volatile Knowing will prompt an expanding conversation and ongoing study of the ways in which the people's definitional authority in their schools and society can be both lost and found. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Volatile Knowing: Parents, Teachers, and the Censored Story of ... Kaia Tollefson Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
accountability movement achievement Alex Alfie Kohn American amoral familism Berliner and Biddle Boyoyo cell child Children's Defense Fund classroom context critical define definitional authority democracy democratic described district educa effects Elena experience faith families feel Foucault Reader goal going grade grounded theory group discussions Henry Giroux hierarchical high school High Stakes Hispanic Howard Zinn idea instruments of discipline interview Johnson and Johnson Julia kids learning Manufactured Crisis Mariela market ideology means Merriam Michael Apple middle school Miller-Kahn and Smith Nation at Risk neighborhood Noam Chomsky osmosis panoptic parent involvement parents and teachers percent perspective Peyton political problem Project Censored Public Education public school panopticon Qualitative Research question Rachel reality responsible Robert McChesney Sarah School Choice Policies sense social standardized tests Struggle for Control Study Applications talk teachers and parents teaching things tier tion values visibility voice
Bibliographic information
| Title | Volatile Knowing: Parents, Teachers, and the Censored Story of Accountability in America's Public Schools G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series |
| Author | Kaia Tollefson |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Lexington Books, 2008 |
| ISBN | 0739115596, 9780739115596 |
| Length | 209 pages |
| Subjects | › › Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General Education / Finance Social Science / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |