Date of Award
Fall 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Transformative Education and Social Change
Committee Chairperson
John Elmore, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Curry Malott, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Dana Morrison, Ph.D.
Abstract
Outside influence in education is nothing new, but over the last half-century, these influences have coalesced around a single point of interest: infusing American education with principles of free-market economics. As a result, teachers are now instructing students in a fast-paced, hyper-competitive, data-driven environment where performance and quantitative outcomes are paramount. Consequently, students are no longer taught, nor encouraged, to be active participants in a democratic society but rather workers in an ever- expanding capitalist market that mandates winners and losers - a notion wholly contradictory to the spirit of education.
The purpose of this research is to indicate how market principles not only undermine student learning but also threaten the nature of our democracy. The founding fathers believed an education grounded in small “r” republican values would ensure the continuation of the United States beyond their generation. Therefore, when education if forcible aligned with the principles of capitalism, the concept of the public good is supplanted by unmitigated competition, and the ideals of a participatory democracy replaced by a devotion to the market economy. In the spirit of fighting back, I have proposed a six-session workshop to help teachers define, identify, and correct the market's influence in modern American schools. Rather than yielding education to reformers with little interest in what is best for students, this campaign seeks to empower teachers to make the change they demand.
Recommended Citation
Malkasian, Andrew, "Selling Students Short: How Market Driven School Reforms Undermine Student Learning and our Shared Democratic Ideals." (2020). West Chester University Master’s Theses. 181.
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/all_theses/181