Neoliberal Education and the Redefinition of Democratic Practice in Chicago

174 Pages·2018·1.705 MB·English

by  Kendall A. Taylor

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New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics
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Kenneth J. Saltman
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
North Dartmouth, MA, USA
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Kendall A. Taylor
Neoliberal Education
and the Redefinition
of Democratic Practice
in Chicago
Kendall A. Taylor
Hubert Humphrey Elementary School
Albuquerque, NM, USA
New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics
ISBN 978-3-319-98949-5 ISBN 978-3-319-98950-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98950-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018952638
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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A
cknowledgements
This book owes a great deal to the support and generosity of many peo-
ple. I want to start by thanking Pauline Lipman. She has served as a con-
stant source of inspiration and encouragement throughout my education.
Her insights into academic and intellectual activism have been invalua-
ble and the support provided during her supervision of my Ph.D. cannot
be overstated. Ken Saltman also deserves my gratitude. He has been a
constant source of encouragement throughout this process and has pro-
vided me with sage advice. This project has been influenced greatly by
my discussions and interactions with many scholars. I would like to thank
Steve Tozer, Kevin Kumashiro, Michael Dumas, Alex Means, Rhoda Rae
Guiterrez, Diane Ui Thonnaigh, Bryan Hoekstra, Josh Shepard, and
Aisha El-Amin. Special thanks are also due to my parents and my in-laws
who have provided emotional support throughout the process. My son,
Oliver, was instrumental in ensuring that I did not take myself too seri-
ously by reminding me constantly of what is important in life. Last, but
most importantly, I want to thank my wife, Erika Robers. Her wisdom,
intelligence, patience, and encouragement have been instrumental and
her love and friendship mean everything.
v
c
ontents
1 Democracy and the Doubling-Down of Neoliberal
Reform Failure 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The Failure of Neoliberal Education Reform 3
1.3 The Rise of Bizzaro Democracy 7
1.4 Neoliberal Rationality 12
1.5 Methodology 14
1.6 Book Preview 18
Bibliography 21
2 Shifting Rationalities and Multiple Democracies:
The New Meanings of Neoliberal Democracy 27
2.1 Introduction 27
2.2 Parsing Democracy 29
2.3 Shifting Rationalities, Shifting Democracies 31
2.4 Closing Down Schools, Closing Down Democracy 35
2.5 The Future of Democratic Education 41
Bibliography 43
3 Differential Citizenship in Neoliberal Chicago: School
Reform and the Production of Antidemocratic Space 47
3.1 Introduction 47
3.2 Defining Neoliberal Citizenship 51
vii
viii CONTENTS
3.3 Urban Spatiality and Neoliberal Citizenship in Chicago 54
3.4 School Reform as a Million Tiny Cuts 59
Bibliography 64
4 A Strike by Any Other Name…: Democratic Education
and the Language of Hegemony 69
4.1 Introduction 69
4.2 Critical Discourse Analysis and Strike as Discourse 73
4.3 The Discourses of the Strike 75
4.4 Floating Signifiers and the Language of Hegemony 81
4.5 Bilingual Hegemony 84
Bibliography 86
5 The Dissolution of Trust: Coercion and Chicago’s
Integral State 89
5.1 Introduction 89
5.2 Coercion and the Integral State 94
5.3 Chicago’s Integral State 97
5.4 The Dissolution of Trust and Coercion’s Feedback Loop 99
5.5 Coercion’s Vulnerability and the Way Forward 102
Bibliography 104
6 The Antidemocratic Dialectic: Democratic Practices
Within Antagonistic Space and the Never-Ending Way
Forward 107
6.1 Introduction 107
6.2 Democracy as Technology of Control and Consent 112
6.3 Democracy, the Public, and Path Dependency 114
6.4 The Chicago Public Sphere and Demands on Education 118
6.5 Democratic Action and the Never-Ending Way Forward 123
Bibliography 127
7 Coda: DeVos and the Future of Neoliberal Education
Reform and Resistance in Chicago 131
7.1 Introduction 131
7.2 The Show Must Go On-The Continuation of Neoliberal
Reform in Chicago 133
CONTENTS ix
7.3 The Emancipatory Rhetoric of DeVos 140
7.4 The Metaphysics of School Reform 144
7.5 The Very Short Road from Tragedy to Farce 151
7.6 Reclaiming the Concept-Education Reform
and Democracy 153
Bibliography 160
Index 165
CHAPTER 1
Democracy and the Doubling-Down
of Neoliberal Reform Failure
1.1 IntroductIon
In 2012, the movie “Won’t Back Down” arrived in theaters. It told the
story of a Pittsburg working-class mother, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal,
willing to buck the leviathan of the public school system to ensure a bet-
ter education for her children. She teams up with the only teacher at her
children’s school, played by Viola Davis, willing to give up her cushy
union protection and do what is right for the community and its stu-
dents. Together they wage a grassroots fight against intractable unions,
uncaring administration, and lazy teachers to take advantage of a “par-
ent trigger” law. In the end, they encourage the community to vote for
a charter organization to run their school and, hopefully, improve the
educational opportunity for everyone in the school. Of course, the pro-
tagonists are successful in their endeavor and the movie ends with a shot
of the school halls, bathed in sunlight and adorned with student artwork.
The filmmaker and its actors presented the movie as a classic David
and Goliath story. Daniel Barnz, the film’s director, claimed “The movie
is about how parents come together with teachers to transform a school
for the sake of the kids” (Sperling 2012). In a likewise fashion, Maggie
Gyllenhaal focuses on the growth of her character from a single mother,
alone and afraid, into a political activist. She states, “Jamie [her character
in the film] begins really not thinking of herself as a political person at
© The Author(s) 2018 1
K. A. Taylor, Neoliberal Education and the Redefinition
of Democratic Practice in Chicago, New Frontiers
in Education, Culture, and Politics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98950-1_1