Showing papers by "Thomas S. Popkewitz published in 1975"

Reform as Political Discourse: A Case Study

Abstract: Nowhere have the ethical contradictions of school been as strongly expressed as in poor communities. We have a stated commitment to provide equal social and economic opportunities, yet descriptions of inner-city and reservation schools portray educational contexts that fail large segments of its population. The significance of these failures is only partially revealed in low reading achievement and high dropout rates. Studies of classroom interaction suggest that schools operationally define the poor or nonwhite as intellectually and socially inferior.' Definitions of school deviance tend to discriminate against the poor.2 Diagnosis procedures that label children "disadvantaged," "learning disabilities," or "discipline problems" maintain a peculiar ethnocentricity. The life-styles, languages, values, and normative structures of educators serve as guidelines by which other people's activities are judged. The function of school often seems more to maintain the status and privilege of its professionals than to respond to the aspirations and heritage of those it is to serve. One strategy for altering these failing institutional structures is Teacher Corps. Created by a 1965 act of Congress, Teacher Corps is a nationwide effort to provide comprehensive change in schools of low-income communities. Field-based teacher education programs in local areas are designed to assist in changing school organizational patterns, curriculum, and pol