Category: Educational Reform
-
Anthropology of Policy: Methodological Considerations
In this video interview, I discuss the ethnographic study of educational reforms in Russia and explain how I navigated the project that served as the foundation for the Political Theater of Teacher Education Reforms. If you are designing a research study that explores policy processes or presents a critical analysis of educational reforms, this video…
-
Educators’ Policy Advocacy
Technocratic and managerial reforms spreading around the world are built on the assumption that if teaching is executed with technical precision that constitutes “high quality teaching,” then equity and justice will emerge as a byproduct of these efforts. But equity and justice require moral and ethical commitments that go beyond technical skills. It is about…
-
Masks and Guises
In my book Teacher education reform as political theater: Russian policy dramas, I analyze how in 2014 a small group of Russian reformers enacted teacher education modernization reform despite great opposition from educators and the public. Using rich ethnographic material, the book captures how the official story of improving education obscures a radical change in purposes…
-
Money Matters: Political Theater of Competitive Grant Funding
“Money matters: Political theater of competitive grant-funding and reform ideologies” was presented during Eurasia Special Interest Group Highlighted Session at the Comparative and International Education Society Annual Meeting in Mexico City on March 26, 2018.
-
Revolutionary Change and Teacher Education Reforms
On October 4, Arne Duncan issued an open letter to America’s college presidents and education school deans urging them “to create revolutionary change” in teacher education. The letter that appeared on the Brookings Institute website seemed to repeat many of the litanies shared before: teacher education lacks rigor, teacher education is not changing, teacher candidates…
-
What is Political Theater?
One way to view educational reform as political theater is from the perspective of theatrics of politics – or observing reformers’ proposals for educational change as a type of dramatic performances, in which reformers as actors (or even directors) attempt to create an illusionary world wrought with problems for which they allegedly identified solutions. Viewing educational…
Elena (Helen) Aydarova 