Volatile knowing : parents, teachers, and the censored story of accountability in America's public schools / Kaia Tollefson ; foreword by Maxine Greene.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tollefson, Kaia.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Educational accountability--United States.

Educational accountability.

United States.

Public schools--United States.

Public schools.

Physical Description:

xii, 209 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, [2008]

Summary:

Volatile Knowing refers to the potential for positive change that can result when parents and teachers discuss the politics and policies of externally defined accountability mandates in education. Kaia Tollefson tells the story of twelve teachers and parents who breached the unofficial but deeply inscribed home-school divide to discuss the current accountability-for-uniformity movement that has overtaken the nation's educational agenda at federal, state, and local levels. This kind of volatile knowing offers hope that-together-parents and teachers can ignite a new, child-centered movement for accountability and creativity in America's public schools.

Volatile Knowing is based on a qualitative case study of a particular group of parents and teachers who studied and discussed information about the accountability movement typically censored in mainstream media coverage. The themes that emerged from this study are presented through the lens of Foucault's analysis of the workings of modern power. By making the exercise of hierarchical power visible to readers, it is hoped that Volatile Knowing will prompt an expanding conversation and ongoing study of the ways in which the people's definitional authority in their schools and society can be both lost and found.

Contents:

1 Accountability in the Schools: What the People Don't Know 1

2 Challenging the Virtually Unchallenged: A Personal Experience 11

3 Making Sense of the Accountability Movement: Organized (and Profitable) Malevolence Against the Public Schools 21

4 Redefining Accountability in Our Schools: Inviting Parents to the Learning Community 45

5 Research Findings: Tracing a Path Toward Hope 91

6 The Inversion of Visibility 125

7 The Instruments of Discipline 135

8 Reframing the Panopticon 161

A Methodology 171

B Discipline in the Public School Panopticon 191

C Osmosis & the Evolution of the Public School Panopticon 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739115596

0739115596

OCLC:

175286380