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The Critical Geographies of Educational Reform: Policy, Power, and Pedagogy

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The Critical Geographies of Educational Reform: Policy, Power, and Pedagogy THE CRITICAL GEOGRAPHIES OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM: POLICY, POWER, AND PEDAGOGY Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Suzanna Klaf, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2009 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Nancy Ettlinger, Co-Adviser Professor Mei-Po Kwan, Co-Adviser ________________________ Professor Kevin Cox Co-Advisers Geography Graduate Program Copyright by Suzanna Klaf 2009 ABSTRACT Since 2001 public schools in the United States have been subjected to No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This federal level reform policy was implemented in order to improve the state of public education and bring all students to grade level by 2013-2014. This is to be achieved by holding all schools accountable to the public. Accountability mechanisms are deployed in order to align underperforming schools with the neoliberal rationality underpinning contemporary school governance. In this dissertation I critique NCLB. I do so by filtering the policy through Foucauldian and critical geographic lenses. Foucault’s concepts of governmentality, biopower, techniques of governance, and power/knowledge lend themselves to unpacking and understanding NCLB for what it is: a policy that is imbued with power, circulates power, and produces power/knowledge. Despite the top-down nature of NCLB, I argue that in the Foucauldian sense there is room for critique/resistance at multiple scales and by multiple actors. I argue that NCLB’s aspatial, de-contextual and colorblind nature has real socio- spatial consequences. I problematize the taken-for-granted NCLB accountability ii mechanisms. In addition to a text-based critique, I weave original illustrations as part of a critical visual narrative. Through qualitative methods, this research aims at going beyond accountability data to shed light on the impacts of NCLB on perceptions, attitudes, practices, identities, and representations of people and place. Teacher narratives provide a glimpse into schools struggling to meet NCLB requirements. I focus specifically on inner city Title I schools, those that find themselves particularly squeezed by the neoliberal straitjacket, restrained by retrenchment, testing, and the labeling of school performance/quality. This one-size-fits-all garment is applied with disregard to the challenges and obstacles faced by inner city schools. Inner city schools find themselves tackling mounting pressure to improve student performance and align themselves with market norms. Pressure is also induced by the hegemonic representations of school quality produced by NCLB. Teacher insights highlight disconnect between these policy- produced representations and school realities. iii Dedicated to my mother, brother, and late father iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation committee: Dr. Kevin Cox, Dr. Nancy Ettlinger, and Dr. Mei-Po Kwan for all of their time, encouragement, and patience. I would also like to thank my family and friends for all of their support. Finally, I am grateful to the Urban Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers for a fellowship that helped fund this research. v VITA September 7, 1980 ……………………... Born – New York City, New York, USA 2001 ……………………………………. B.A. Sociology and Geography, Binghamton University, SUNY 2003 ……………………………………. M.A. Geography, Binghamton University, SUNY 2003 – 2007 ……………………………. Research Associate, The Ohio State University 2004 – 2009 ……………………………. Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major field: Geography vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………... ii Dedication …………………………………………………………………………... iv Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………..... v Vita ………………………………………………………………………………….. vi List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………... x List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………..... xi List of Illustrations ………………………………………………………………….. xii Chapters: 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………..... 1 1.1 Preamble…………………………………………………………………......... 1 1.2 Topic Overview …………………………………………………………......... 3 1.2.1 Public schools and the neoliberal city ……………………………….... 5 1.2.2 Bringing a Foucauldian lens to educational reform: Governing schools / governing space ……………………………......... 8 1.2.3 Bringing a geographic lens to contemporary educational reform …….... 11 1.3 Research Questions ………………………………………………………….... 14 1.4 Research Methods …………………………………………………………….. 15 1.4.1 Survey methodology and study area …………………………………... 17 1.4.2 Representations of school space and educational reform: A visual narrative ………………………………………………………................ 20 1.5 Positionality and Contributions ……………………………………………..... 21 1.5.1 How I came to this project ……………………........................................ 21 1.5.2 Contributions to the geography of education and visualization ……....... 23 1.6 Dissertation Overview ………………………………………………………... 25 vii 2. A Genealogy of No Child Left Behind …………………………………………... 30 2.1 NCLB: Contemporary education reform ……………………………………. 33 2.2 Tracing Accountability and Education Reform ………………………………. 38 2.2.1 Genealogy of contemporary accountability …………………………… 39 2.2.2 The discourses of contemporary educational reform ………………… 42 2.2.2.1 The discourse of crisis / failure and blame ……………………... 43 2.2.2.2 The discourse of business-values and marketization …………... 45 2.2.2.3 The discourse of fairness / equality …………………………….. 47 2.3 Rationality Underpinning NCLB ……………………………………………... 49 2.4 Critique of NCLB …………………………………………………………….. 53 2.4.1 Aspatial / de-contextualized policy? …………………………………… 55 2.4.1.1 Metropolitan fragmentation and inequality …………………….. 57 2.4.1.2 Segregation ……………………………………………………... 58 2.4.2 Colorblind policy? ……………………………………………………… 61 2.4.2.1 The illusion of opportunity – choice ………………………….... 65 2.4.2.2 Racial ramifications of testing practices ……………………….. 67 2.4.3 Reproducing / maintaining the status quo ……………………………… 72 2.4.4 Persistence of educational inequality …………………………………... 74 3. The Neoliberal Straitjacket ……………………………………………………….. 75 3.1 Tailoring the NCLB Straitjacket ……………………………………………… 75 3.2 Feeling the Squeeze of the Straitjacket ……………………………………….. 78 3.2.1 Squeezed by retrenchment …………………………………………….... 79 3.2.2 Squeezed by testing ……………………………….................................. 83 3.2.3 Squeezed by the identification / labeling of failure …………………….. 87 3.2.3.1 Data collection …………………………………………………. 88 3.2.3.2 Name, shame, and blame strategy ……………………………… 90 3.2.3.3 Impacts of labeling on attitudes and behaviors ………………… 91 3.3 Problematizing the Straitjacket ……………………………………………….. 95 3.3.1 Unmasking school / classroom realities ………………………………... 97 3.3.2 Teacher resilience ………………………………………………………. 102 4. Biopower and Techniques of NCLB Governance ………………………………... 104 4.1 Governing Schools: Reform as Biopolitics …………………………………... 105 4.2 Techniques of Governance / Technologies of Power ………………………… 110 4.2.1 The “Gaze”: observation /surveillance / visibility …………………… 112 4.2.1.1 Testing / examination ………………………………………….. 113 4.2.1.2 Data collection ………………………......................................... 117 4.2.1.3 Data dissemination ……………………………………………... 119 4.2.2 Normalization / benchmarking …………………………………………. 121 4.2.3 Classification, totalization, and exclusion …………………………….. 124 4.2.3.1 Classification of schools / performance typologies …………… 125 4.2.3.2 Totalization: place-images and identities ………………………. 127 4.2.3.3 Exclusion ……………………………………………………….. 128 viii 4.2.4 Regulation ………………………………………………………………. 129 4.2.4.1 Carrots and sticks of NCLB ……………………………………. 130 4.2.4.2 Self-responsibility / blaming and shaming schools …………….. 132 4.3 The Power/Knowledge of School Performance ……………………………… 134 4.3.1 Production of school space ……………………………………………... 137 4.3.2 Representing school space ……………………………………………… 138 4.3.3 Media(ting) representations of schools …………………………………. 140 4.3.3.1 The media spectacle ……………………………………………. 145 4.3.3.2 The power of media images ……………………………………. 147 4.4 Demystifying / Contesting School Representations ………………………….. 147 4.4.1 School representations and the neoliberal city …………………………. 149 4.4.2 Demystifying representations …………………………………………... 150 4.4.3 Resisting (mis)representations ………………………………………….. 154 4.5 Problematizing representations ……………………………………………….. 161 5. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………... 164 5.1 Researching the Critical Geographies of Education ………………………….. 165 5.1.1 Future avenues ………………………………………………………….. 165 5.1.2 Insights of Critical Race Theory ………………………………………... 167 5.2 NCLB and the Narrowing of Curriculum: Geography not tested, Geography not taught ………………………………… 173 5.2.1 Geographic literacy and NCLB ……………………………………….... 173 5.2.2 Geography on the agenda ………………………………………………. 175 5.2.3 Macro-scale calls to action ……………………………………………... 178 5.3.2.1 Association of American Geographers ………………………… 178 5.3.2.2 National Geographic Education Foundation …………………… 180 5.2.4 Micro-scale practices: Geography in a university classroom …………... 181 Appendices: Appendix A: Mutual influences among the material, imaged, and imagineered cities…………………………………………………………………... 185 Appendix B: Survey ‘Your School and No Child Left Behind’…………………….. 186 Appendix C: Additional Survey questions…………………………………………... 191 Appendix D: Geographic Literacy Survey…………………………………………... 192 Appendix E: Art Show of Critical Visuals…………………………………………... 195 List of References …………………………………………………………………… 198 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page
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