Reclaiming Education for Democracy; Thinking Beyond No Child Left Behind released on June 16, 2008.

Paul Shaker, Dean of Education, has co-authored a book on the analysis of education policy entitled Reclaiming Education for Democracy: Thinking Beyond No Child Left Behind. According to Paul, this book “is an extended case study in the last decade of federal education policy in the US as well as the media and think tank support that have shaped policy formation. In successive sections the book analyzes government intervention in educational research, the cost of high stakes testing, and other abuses of accountability while putting forward recommendations regarding preferred reforms. The analysis of [Reclaiming Education for Democracy] include comparisons between the US and Canada and a look at the cultural psychology that has led to an over-reliance in the US on certain narrow methods of evaluating schools and teaching.”

While Paul believes that BC is unlikely to adopt US education policies, the book serves as a “cautionary tale for Canadians” and an in-depth look for those who are interested in education reform since 2000. As Paul puts it, the main message of this book is that “Education is one of the key areas of American life that has been targeted for takeover by certain politicians and their financial supporters on the right. Liberals as well have been co-opted to a degree by a fascination with the pseudoscience of comprehensive educational evaluation through testing and accountability. Policymakers have formed alliances with various groups: corporations who target schools for profiteering, religious fundamentalists with cultural agendas, and media voices who share a deregulation and market fundamentalist preference.”

Paul began his career in 1970 as a teacher and subsequently has served as a teacher educator and dean in higher education. His co-author, Elizabeth Heilman, Associate Professor of Education at Michigan State University, engages in research that explores how social and political imaginations are shaped, as well as how various philosophies, educational polices, and pedagogies influence the practice of democratic citizenship, especially global citizenship.

About the book (by Routledge)

Reclaiming Education for Democracy subjects the prophets and doctrines of educational neoliberalism to scrutiny in order to provide a rationale and vision for public education beyond the limits of No Child Left Behind. The authors combine a history of recent education policy with an in- depth analysis of the origins of such policy and its impact on professional educators. The public face of these policies is separated from motives rooted in politics, profit, and ideology. The book also searches for new insights in understanding the neoliberal and managerialist assault on education by examining the psychology of advocates who demonstrate a special animus toward universal public education. The manipulation of public education by No Child Left Behind is a case study in the general approach to public institutions taken by the politicians and theorists in these camps. K-12 education has been subjected to deceptive descriptive analyses, marginalization of its professional leadership, manipulation of its goals, the imposition of illegitimate quality markers, a grab on its resources by corporate profiteers, and a demoralization of its rank and file. This book helps us think beyond this new commonsense of education.

To purchase a copy of this book online, please visit:

http://www.routledge.com/books/Reclaiming-Education-for-Democracy-isbn9780805858426
http://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Education-Democracy-Sociocultural-Historical/dp/0805858423

To learn more about Paul Shaker, please visit: http://www.educ.sfu.ca/research/shaker/