Penn State

Consortium forSocial Movements and Education
Research and Practice

Dissent From Within: How Educational Insiders Use Protest to Create Policy Change

Dissent From Within: How Educational Insiders Use Protest to Create Policy Change

Frank Grossman
2010
2010

Abstract

This article utilizes social movement theory to analyze policy change created by site-based educators. The author uses a qualitative case study to examine how an organization comprised of teachers and administrators in New York State used protest to protect a waiver, which exempted students in their schools from having to pass statewide graduation exams. The author finds that the educators’ ability to mobilize resources and to strategically frame their struggle in a manner that resonated with policymakers allowed the educator activists to capitalize on emerging controversies surrounding the state’s assessment system and create policy change. This article provides a framework to understand how marginalized actors within systems of schooling organize to create change. Such a framework is becoming increasingly relevant as educators attempt to create space for local practice in the current top-down policy environment.

Abstract

This article utilizes social movement theory to analyze policy change created by site-based educators. The author uses a qualitative case study to examine how an organization comprised of teachers and administrators in New York State used protest to protect a waiver, which exempted students in their schools from having to pass statewide graduation exams. The author finds that the educators’ ability to mobilize resources and to strategically frame their struggle in a manner that resonated with policymakers allowed the educator activists to capitalize on emerging controversies surrounding the state’s assessment system and create policy change. This article provides a framework to understand how marginalized actors within systems of schooling organize to create change. Such a framework is becoming increasingly relevant as educators attempt to create space for local practice in the current top-down policy environment.

Social Movements

School Reform Movements, Teachers' Rights

Keywords

Community Organizing, Educator, North America, Policy, Public Schooling

Theme

Social Movements Within; Through; and for Public Education