Kuntz & Petrovic (2018) - (Un)Fixing Education

Kuntz, A.M. & Petrovic, J.E. Stud Philos Educ (2018) 37: 65. https://doi-org.ezproxy.hamline.edu/10.1007/s11217-016-9563-y

Problem of "Fixing" Schools

 * Schools work to keep status-quo of the past - create "good" citizens (able to work in bureaucratic system)
 * system has to work with large data averages to fix identities, which delegitimizes outliers (e.g. failing teachers, students falling behind)
 * Goal of regularizing behavior and thinking
 * 4 components of neoliberalism, reinforced in schools
 * hyper-individualism
 * hyper-surveillance (need to quantify everything of value)
 * economic productivity
 * competitive entrepreneurialism

Critical Geography

 * Premise: " social justice work requires a re-spatialization of our world, one that is not developed by the normative logic and values of our times." (p. 70)

Critical Pedagogy

 * " critical pedagogy can become an error of commission to the extent that students simultaneously understand but adapt to the construction of such social relations." (p. 72)
 * Self-regulated learning - student responsibility for learning, setting goals, monitoring and evaluating learning
 * But creates dependency on school system that enshrines neoliberal norms

Unschooling in Schools

 * Foundation of freedom
 * But still function in world of traditional schools and neoliberal norms, so goal can't be achieved.
 * Solve this problem with  radical community service learning  - "reﬂection toward solving material problems in context; radical service learning engages a space for education as enacted social justice." (p. 74)
 * Not just one-time philanthropy, volunteerism, or charity projects that check off requirements
 * purpose of "reinvigorate[ing] democratic habits of mind" (p. 75)
 * Focus on the "why" of social issues (not just the who, what, and how many)
 * " Reﬂection should invoke dialogue among students and stakeholders alike, lead students to see a problem or contradiction in their experience, make them imagine a solution, get them to apply their academic learning to possible solutions, lead them to test their plan in the problem situation, and get them to reevaluate the problem toward individual, communal, and structural transformation" (p. 76)
 * "Radical CSL seeks to unﬁx education, destabilizing students through emotional disequilibrium toward action even as it usefully disrupts the stilting spatial binary of education within schools and not without." (p. 77)