Book Description

Voicing the Silences of Social and Cognitive Justice: Dartmouth Dialogues represents another transformative dialogue that results from a political project that was designed to prepare critical, transformative leaders, policy makers, and analysts in South Coast Massachusetts. In this volume, a diverse group of scholars debates crucial issues within and beyond our field, in an effort to help develop a multiplicity of analyses dissecting the challenges facing a strong epistemologically just theory and pedagogy of society. The volume explores why it has been historically difficult to produce a hegemonic critical theory and pedagogy of society. The volume also examines how social justice has been de-politicized from the cultural politics of everyday life through teacher-proof curricula that ‘forces’ a segregated uniformity; examines the multi-dimensional nature of language within relationships of power and discourses of reproduction, production, and resistance; unpacks how democracy has been challenged by an eugenic educational system; dissects the impact of corporate models of education on learning processes; examines how the use of zero tolerance policies in the U.S.’s public schools has led to the criminalization of non-violent acts within the nation’s public schools, thereby creating oppressed student populations; unveils how alternative proficiency assessment is not a good measure of student progress; and dissects the rationale behind standardized testing and its corresponding profits, suggesting other motives for high-stakes testing mandates. “In these challenging times, João Paraskeva and Elizabeth Janson’s book lifted me up with its sharp theoretical and historical critique of education from elementary schools through doctoral programs. Every chapter provided original critiques of the dominant neoliberal approach to organizing schools and society and provided ideas for how to challenge anti-intellectualism and neoliberalism. As a long time teacher of every level and subject, I appreciated the empirical research and detailed narrative descriptions of programs and classes. I know I will keep the book nearby as I reread chapters helping me to both expand my theoretical critique and critical practice. A must read for all educators really committed with critical transformative leadership.” – David Hursh, Warner Graduate School of Education, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, author of, most recently, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education