RECONSTRUCTING THE COMMON GOOD IN EDUCATION by Larry Cuban (Editor), Dorothy Shipps (Editor) ( 9780804738620 )

Item Details

Title:

RECONSTRUCTING THE COMMON GOOD IN EDUCATION
COPING WITH INTRACTABLE AMERICAN DILEMMAS

By:

Larry Cuban (Editor), Dorothy Shipps (Editor)

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£116.00
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10:

0804738629

ISBN 13:

9780804738620

Publisher:

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

1 May, 2000

Pages:

304

Description:

What constitutes the common good in American public education? This volume explores the ongoing debate between those who expect schools to cultivate citizens through personal, moral, and social development, as well as to bind diverse groups into one nation, and a new generation of school reformers intent on using schools to solve the nation's economic problems by equipping students with marketable skills.

Synopsis:

For almost two centuries, Americans expected that their public schools would cultivate the personal, moral, and social development of individual students, create citizens, and bind diverse groups into one nation. Since the 1980s, however, a new generation of school reformers has been intent on using schools to solve the nation's economic problems. An economic justification for public schools-equipping students with marketable skills to help the nation compete in a global, information-based workplace-overwhelmed other historically accepted purposes for tax-supported public schools.Private sector management has become the model for public school systems as schools and districts are "downsized," "restructured," and "outsourced." Recent reform proposals have called for government-funded vouchers to send children to private schools, the creation of self-governing charter schools, the contracting of schools to private entrepreneurs, and the partnerships with the business community in promoting new information technologies. But if there is a shared national purpose for education, should it be oriented only toward enhancing the country's economic success? Is everything public for sale? Are the interests of individuals or selected groups overwhelming the common good that the founders of tax-supported public schools so fervently sought?This volume explores the ongoing debates about what constitutes the common good in American public education, assessing the long-standing tensions between shared purposes and individual interests in schooling. It shows how recent school reform efforts, driven by economic concerns, have worsened the conflict between the legitimate interests of individuals and society as a whole, and demonstrates that reconstructing the common good envisioned by the founders of public education in the United States remains essential and unfinished work.

Publication:

Imprint:

Stanford University Press

Returns:

Non-returnable

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