Penn State

Consortium forSocial Movements and Education
Research and Practice

Learning Power: Organizing for Education and Justice

Learning Power: Organizing for Education and Justice

Jeannie Oakes, John Rogers, Martin Lipton
2006
2006

Abstract

In cities across the nation, low-income African American and Latino parents hope that their children’s education will bring a better life. But their schools, typically, are overcrowded, ill equipped, and shamefully under-staffed. Unless things change dramatically, more than half the students will never graduate and many will face a life of poverty-wage work. Learning Power documents a radical approach to school reform that includes: 1)Grassroots public activism informed by social inquiry as the best way to realize Brown v. Board of Education’s promise of “education on equal terms.” 2) Activist young people, teachers, parents, and community organizations working to improve schools in our nation’s poorest neighborhoods. 3) The voices, images, and actions of people who are organizing to fight for better schools. 4)A comprehensive critique of the prevailing logic of American schooling and an alternative logic based on justice and participatory democracy.

Abstract

In cities across the nation, low-income African American and Latino parents hope that their children’s education will bring a better life. But their schools, typically, are overcrowded, ill equipped, and shamefully under-staffed. Unless things change dramatically, more than half the students will never graduate and many will face a life of poverty-wage work. Learning Power documents a radical approach to school reform that includes: 1)Grassroots public activism informed by social inquiry as the best way to realize Brown v. Board of Education’s promise of “education on equal terms.” 2) Activist young people, teachers, parents, and community organizations working to improve schools in our nation’s poorest neighborhoods. 3) The voices, images, and actions of people who are organizing to fight for better schools. 4)A comprehensive critique of the prevailing logic of American schooling and an alternative logic based on justice and participatory democracy.

Social Movements

Participatory Democracy, Teachers' Rights, Youth Activism

Keywords

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

Theme

Social Movements Within; Through; and for Public Education