Teachers College Press Educational Politics for Social Justice

Product Description Employing a social justice framework, this book provides educational leaders and practitioners with tools and strategies for grappling with the political fray of education politics. The framework offers ways to critique, challenge, and alter social, cultural, and political patterns in organizations and systems that perpetuate inequities. The authors focus on the processes through which educational politics is enacted, illustrating how inequitable power relations are embedded in our democratic systems. Readers will explore education politics at five focal points of power (micro, local/district, state, federal, and global). The text provides examples of how to "work the system" in ways that move toward greater justice and equity in schools. Book Features:Conceptualizes educational politics within a pragmatic social justice framework.Examines the various layers of politics and how they interact. Explains governance structures and policymaking processes, such as policy formulation and implementation.Offers insights into how power operates and how it can be invoked to support the needs of struggling students.Explores why certain values, needs, and ideas are heard while others are not. Review "This call to action for educators posits the goal of education policy and practice as a means to provide social justice and equality for marginalized populations."--CHOICE"A timely, thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution for educators wanting to prepare their students for participation in the politically intense and complicated American system of governance from the local level to international relations world-wide, Educational Politics for Social Justice is ideal as a classroom curriculum textbook and is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary Education Issues collections."--Midwest Book Review About the Author Catherine Marshall is the R. Wendell Eaves Distinguished Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin is professor and dean of the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Mark Johnson has been a classroom teacher, school administrator, and policy analyst and is currently a researcher at The Learning Partnership in Chicago.