Unsettling Education: Searching for Ethical Footing in a Time of Reform

252 Pages·2019·1.759 MB·English

by  Kate Sjostrom (editor), Brian Charest (editor)

11
& C
Unsettling Education: Searching for Ethical Footing in a Time of Reform offers a counter- S ha
narrative to the prevailing orthodoxies of schooling and school reform that conflate jo re
s s
education and learning with that which can be measured on state-mandated examina- t t
r
o
tions. Despite the push to “settle” the purposes of teaching and schooling in ways that m
see education as the teaching of a discrete set of skills that align with standardized , e
d
exams, there are teachers and students who continue to resist standardization and s
.
whose stories suggest there are many ways to organize schools, design curriculum,
SEARCHING FOR ETHICAL FOOTING
and understand the purposes of education. Unsettling Education shares stories of how
IN A TIME OF REFORM
teachers have resisted state and local mandates to teach to the test in dehumanizing
ways, how such teachers have sought to de-commodify educational spaces, how they
have enacted their ethical commitments to students and communities, and how they
have theorized such practices, sometimes even reconsidering their roles as teachers
and the very purposes of schooling. Volume contributors offer concrete ways in which
teachers might challenge the structures of schooling to reveal the full humanity and
potential of students through different forms of resistance pedagogy, institutional
critiques, and critical self-reflection. Featuring a wide range of voices and contexts,
the collections’ chapters blend story and theory, resulting in a volume both accessible
and thought-provoking to varied audiences—from undergraduate students of education
and concerned citizens to veteran educators, teacher educators, administrators, and
policymakers.
Brian Charest, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of
Teaching and Learning at the University of Redlands. He has presented
locally and nationally and published articles on teaching, equity, civic
engagement, community organizing, social justice, ethics, and radical
pragmatism.
Kate Sjostrom, PhD, is a lecturer and assistant director of English
education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research and
teaching focus on writing teacher identity development in the context
of education reforms, as well as on the potential for teacher-writing to
build teachers’ advocacy.
P
E
T
E
R
L EDITED BY BRIAN CHAREST
A
N
G
& KATE SJOSTROM
www.peterlang.com
Original Cover Artwork by Josh Staub
11
& C
Unsettling Education: Searching for Ethical Footing in a Time of Reform offers a counter- S ha
narrative to the prevailing orthodoxies of schooling and school reform that conflate jo re
s s
education and learning with that which can be measured on state-mandated examina- t t
r
o
tions. Despite the push to “settle” the purposes of teaching and schooling in ways that m
see education as the teaching of a discrete set of skills that align with standardized , e
d
exams, there are teachers and students who continue to resist standardization and s
.
whose stories suggest there are many ways to organize schools, design curriculum,
SEARCHING FOR ETHICAL FOOTING
and understand the purposes of education. Unsettling Education shares stories of how
IN A TIME OF REFORM
teachers have resisted state and local mandates to teach to the test in dehumanizing
ways, how such teachers have sought to de-commodify educational spaces, how they
have enacted their ethical commitments to students and communities, and how they
have theorized such practices, sometimes even reconsidering their roles as teachers
and the very purposes of schooling. Volume contributors offer concrete ways in which
teachers might challenge the structures of schooling to reveal the full humanity and
potential of students through different forms of resistance pedagogy, institutional
critiques, and critical self-reflection. Featuring a wide range of voices and contexts,
the collections’ chapters blend story and theory, resulting in a volume both accessible
and thought-provoking to varied audiences—from undergraduate students of education
and concerned citizens to veteran educators, teacher educators, administrators, and
policymakers.
Brian Charest, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of
Teaching and Learning at the University of Redlands. He has presented
locally and nationally and published articles on teaching, equity, civic
engagement, community organizing, social justice, ethics, and radical
pragmatism.
Kate Sjostrom, PhD, is a lecturer and assistant director of English
education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research and
teaching focus on writing teacher identity development in the context
of education reforms, as well as on the potential for teacher-writing to
build teachers’ advocacy.
P
E
T
E
R
L EDITED BY BRIAN CHAREST
A
N
G
& KATE SJOSTROM
www.peterlang.com
Original Cover Artwork by Josh Staub
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
Unsettling Education
“In this political moment and in these palpably perilous times for youth and the adults
charged with their care and safe passage—parents, teachers, youth workers—Unsettling
Education offers both hope and guidance. The dazzling educators gathered together by
Brian Charest and Kate Sjostrom are animated by an urgent spirit of resistance to the status
quo that they recognize as representing a kind of state of emergency for the oppressed, the
exploited, and the disadvantaged. The challenge facing teachers in these troubling times is
to resist injustices, unsettle the settled, destabilize the stable, trouble the undisturbed,
explore the unknown, and dive into (rather than run away from) the contradictions. The
message these teachers bring to their students is generative: you are a full human being;
you have a right to be here; you need no one’s permission to interrogate the universe. This
book shows us what that can look like in real time.”
—William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at
the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired) and Author of To Teach, Fugitive Days,
and Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto
“From the educational ‘standards’ being compelled onto students, to the rhetoric of
educational ‘reform’ being sold to communities and educators alike, the problem is not
merely the silencing of dissent but the presumption that there is no alternative. What better
intervention than the call by Brian Charest, Kate Sjostrom, and colleagues for us all to
engage in ‘unsettling education.’ All who teach and who care about teaching will find
sources of inspiration and nourishment in the richly detailed and deeply thoughtful
portraits of K–12 teachers and teaching that model for us what this can look like in times,
like now, when pressure abounds to settle.”
—Kevin Kumashiro, Author of Against Common Sense:
Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice

Unsettling Education
sj Miller & Leslie David Burns
GE NE RA L E DITO RS

Vol. 11

The Social Justice Across Contexts in Education series is
part of the Peter Lang Education list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Unsettling Education

Searching for Ethical Footing
in a Time of Reform

Edited by Brian Charest
& Kate Sjostrom

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Charest, Brian, editor. | Sjostrom, Kate, editor.
Title: Unsettling education: searching for ethical footing in a time
of reform / edited by Brian Charest and Kate Sjostrom.
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2019.
Series: Social justice across contexts in education; vol. 11
ISSN 2372-6849 (print) | ISSN 2372-6857 (online)
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019002533 | ISBN 978-1-4331-6350-0 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-6701-0 (paperback: alk. paper) | ISBN 978-1-4331-6702-7 (ebook pdf)
ISBN 978-1-4331-6703-4 (epub) | ISBN 978-1-4331-6704-1 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Education and state—United States.
Education—Standards—United States. | Educational change—United States.
Education—Aims and objectives—United States.
Educational tests and measurements—United States.
Classification: LCC LC89 .U59 2019 | DDC 379.73—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002533
DOI 10.3726/b15559
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.
© 2019 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
For Elizabeth, Charles, and Theodore
—Brian Charest
For Andy and Bea
—Kate Sjostrom