Doing things the ‘right’ way: legitimating educational inequalities in conservative times1

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Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size This article is part of the following collections: The Educational Review Hall of Fame Notes 1. This article is drawn from a much more extensive analysis in Michael W. Apple, Educating the 'Right' way: markets, standards, god, and inequality (New York, Routledge, 2001). 2. Madeleine Arnot, 'Schooling for social justice,' unpublished paper, Department of Education, University of Cambridge, 1990. 3. This is dealt with much more substantively in Michael W. Apple, et al., The state and the politics of knowledge (New York, Routledge, 2003). 4. Ibid. 5. Michael W. Apple, Educating the 'Right' way (New York, Routledge, 2001). 6. William Greider, One world, ready or not (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1997). 7. See Michael W. Apple, Cultural politics and education (New York, Teachers College Press, 1996) and Michael W. Apple, Official knowledge (2nd edn) (New York, Routledge, 2000). 8. I am drawing upon Roger Dale, 'The Thatcherite project in education,' Critical Social Policy 9 (winter 1989/1990), 4–19. Because of the size and complexity of the US, I cannot focus on all of the policy issues and initiatives now being debated or implemented. For further descriptions, see the chapters on policy research in William Pink and George Noblit (Eds) Continuity and contradiction: the futures of the sociology of education (Cresskill, NJ, Hampton Press, 1995). 9. Apple, Educating the 'Right' way, see especially chapters 3–6. 10. Apple, Cultural politics and education and Ted Honderich, Conservatism (Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1990). 11. Given the current emphasis on this by neo‐liberals, it may be the case that while Bowles and Gintis's book on the relationship between education and capitalism, Schooling in capitalist America, was reductive, economistic, and essentializing when it first appeared in 1976, oddly it may be more accurate today. See Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in capitalist America (New York, Basic Books, 1976). For criticism of their position see Michael W. Apple, Teachers and texts (New York, Routledge, 1988), Michael W. Apple, Education and power (2nd edn) (New York, Routledge, 1995), and Mike Cole (Ed.) Bowles and Gintis revisited (New York, Falmer Press, 1988). 12. See Michael W. Apple, Ideology and curriculum (3rd edn) (New York, Routledge, 2004). 13. Stephen Ball, Education Reform (Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press, 1994) and Apple, Cultural Politics and Education. 14. Apple, Teachers and Texts, pp. 31–78 and Sandra Acker, 'Gender and teachers' work,' in Michael W. Apple (Ed.) Review of research in education volume 21 (Washington, DC, American Educational Research Association, 1995), pp. 99–162. A number of the larger gender implications of neo‐liberalism in education and the economy can be seen in Jacky Brine, Under‐educating woman; globalizing inequality (Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press, 1992) and Madeleine Arnot, Miriam David, and Gaby Weiner, Closing the gender gap: postwar education and social change (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999). 15. John Chubb and Terry Moe, Politics, markets, and America's schools (Washington, DC, Brookings Institution, 1990). See also, Ernest House, Schools for sale (New York, Teachers College Press, 1998). 16. See Amy Stuart Wells, Time to choose (New York, Hill and Wang, 1993), Jeffrey Henig, Rethinking school choice (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1994), Kevin Smith and Kenneth Meier (Eds) The case against school choice (Armonk, NY, M.E. Sharpe, 1995), Bruce Fuller, Elizabeth Burr, Luis Huerta, Susan Puryear, and Edward Wexler, School choice: abundant hopes, scarce evidence of results (Berkeley and Stanford, CA, Policy Analysis for California Education, University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University, 1999), and John F. Witte, The market approach to education (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2000). 17. Geoff Whitty, 'Creating Quasi‐Markets in Education,' in Michael W. Apple, Review of research in education volume 22 (Washington, DC, American Educational Research Association, 1997), p17. See also, Chubb and Moe, Politics, markets, and America's schools and Gary Rosen, 'Are Schools Vouchers Un‐American?' Commentary, 109 (February 2000), 26–31. 18. Quoted in Whitty, 'Creating quasi‐markets in education,' p. 17. 19. See, for example, Apple, Educating the 'Right' way, Geoff Whitty, Sally Power, and David Halpin, Devolution and choice in education (Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press, 1998) and Hugh Lauder and David Hughes, Trading in futures: why markets in education don't work (Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press, 1999). 20. See Apple, Cultural politics and education, especially chapter 4, for a description of the ways in which many current social and educational policies often widen racial gaps. 21. Whitty, 'Creating quasi‐markets in education,' p. 58. 22. Henig, Rethinking school choice, p. 22. 23. See Apple, Educating the 'Right' way, Whitty, 'Creating quasi‐markets in education,' Lauder and Hughes, Trading in futures, and Apple, Cultural politics and education. 24. Many times, however, these initiatives are actually 'unfunded mandates.' That is, requirements such as these are made mandatory, but no additional funding is provided to accomplish them. The intensification of teachers' labor at all levels of the education system that results from this situation is very visible. On the history of education for employment, see Herbert Kliebard, Schooled to work: vocationalism and the American Curriculum, 1876–1946 (New York, Teachers College Press, 1999). For clear and thoughtful analyses of other effects on higher education, see Geoffrey White (Ed.) Campus, Inc. (Amherst, NY, Prometheus Books, 2000) and Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie, Academic capitalism (Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997). 25. I have engaged in a much more detailed analysis of Channel One in Apple, Official knowledge, pp. 89–112. See also Alex Molnar, Giving kids the business (Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1996). A good example as well is provided by ZapMe! which gives free computer equipment in return for demographic information on children in schools. Of course, there is a history of resistance to things such as Channel One. UNPLUG, a student led group, has been in the forefront of contesting the commercialization of schools. Further, as I discuss in Educating the 'Right' way, both conservative and progressive groups have joined forces to act against Channel One. 26. Apple, Cultural politics and education, pp. 68–90 and Greider, One world, ready or not. 27. Ibid. See also, Christopher Cook, 'Temps demand a new deal,' The Nation, 27 March, 2000, 13–19. 28. Nancy Fraser, Unruly practices (Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press, 1989), p. 168. 29. Ibid, p. 172. See also the discussion of how gains in one sphere of social life can be 'transported' into another sphere in Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Democracy and capitalism (New York, Basic Books, 1986) and Apple, Teachers and texts. On the history of such positions in health care, see Sandra Opdycke, No one was turned away (New York, Oxford University Press, 1999). 30. Fraser, Unruly practices, p. 172. 31. Roger Dale, The state and education policy (Philadelphia, PA, Open University Press, 1989). 32. For further discussion of residual and emergent ideological forms, see Raymond Williams, Marxism and literature (New York, Oxford University Press, 1977). 33. See Allen Hunter, Children in the service of conservatism (Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin, Institute for Legal Studies, 1988) and Apple, Cultural politics and education. 34. I have discussed the ways in which both neo‐liberal and neo‐conservative tendencies within conservative modernization are based on an unacknowledged dependence on a racial contract in much greater detail in Apple, Educating the 'Right' way. 35. See, for example, E. D. Hirsch, Jr, The schools we need and why we don't have them (New York, Doubleday, 1996). For an insightful critique of Hirsch's position, see Kristen L. Buras, 'Questioning core assumptions: a critical reading of E.D. Hirsch's The schools we need and why we don't have them,' Harvard Educational Review, 69 (Spring 1999), 67–93. See also, Susan Ohanian, One size fits few: the folly of educational standards (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann, 1999). 36. William Bennett, The book of virtues (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1994). 37. William Bennett, Our children and our country (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1988), pp. 8–10. 38. See, for example, Amy Stuart Wells, Beyond the rhetoric of charter school reform (Los Angeles, CA, University of California at Los Angeles, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999). 39. Mary Douglas, Purity and danger (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966). 40. See, for example, Cameron McCarthy and Warren Crichlow (Eds) Race, identity, and representation in education (New York, Routledge, 1994). 41. This is treated in greater depth in Apple, Ideology and curriculum. 42. Lawrence Levine, The opening of the American mind (Boston, MA, Beacon Press, 1996), p. 20. 43. Ibid. 44. Ibid, p. 15. See also Apple, Ideology and curriculum and Herbert Kliebard, The struggle for the American curriculum (2nd edn) (New York, Routledge, 1995). 45. Levine, The opening of the American mind, p. 15. 46. Catherine Cornbleth and Dexter Waugh, The great speckled bird (New York, St Martin's Press, 1995). 47. For a counter‐narrative on the history of the US, see Howard Zinn, A people's history of the United States (New York, Harper Collins, 1999). See also Howard Zinn, The Howard Zinn reader (New York, Seven Stories Press, 1997) and Howard Zinn, The future of history (Monroe, ME, Common Courage Press, 1999). 48. This is often done through a process of 'mentioning' where texts and curricula include material on the contributions of women and 'minority' groups, but never allow the reader to see the world through the eyes of oppressed groups. Or as is the case in the discourse of 'we are all immigrants,' compromises are made so that the myth of historical similarity is constructed at the same time as economic divides among groups grow worse and worse. See Apple, Official knowledge, pp. 42–60. 49. Diane Ravitch, National standards in American education (Washington, DC, Brookings Institution, 1995). 50. In the face of concerted criticism, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recently has officially voted to return to more of an emphasis on traditional mathematical concerns and methods of teaching. See Anemona Hartocollis, 'Math teachers back return of education to basic skills,' The New York Times, 15 April, 2000, A16. 51. This is discussed in more detail in Apple, Power, meaning, and identity (New York, Peter Lang, 1999) and Apple, Cultural politics and education. See also Ohanian, One size fits few. Mary Lee Smith has argued that much of the discussion actually acts as a form of 'symbolic politics' in which the discourse is couched in a 'culture for everyone' and 'choice for everyone' but the effects on the ground are to revivify hierarchies and inequalities. See Mary Lee Smith, et al., Political spectacle and the fate of American schools (New York, Routledge, 2003). 52. This distinction is developed in more depth in Dale, The state and education policy. 53. For a detailed critical discussion of the effects of this on curricula, teaching, and evaluation, see Linda McNeil, Contradictions of school reform (New York, Routledge, 2000). 54. See Apple, Education and power, Apple, Teachers and texts, and Acker, 'Gender and teachers' work.' There are clear gender and class antagonisms at work here, ones that have a long history. Analyses of the ways in which race intersects with these dynamics and helps construct the history and labor process of teaching has been somewhat less developed. However, the ongoing work of Michelle Foster and Michael Fultz is quite helpful in this regard. 55. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The bell curve (New York, Free Press, 1994). 56. See Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial formation in the United States (2nd edn) (New York, Routledge, 1994) and Steven Selden, Inheriting shame (New York, Teachers College Press, 1999). Selden's book in particular demonstrates how very prevalent constructions of race were in a wide range of educational policies and practices, including many programs and individuals whose participation in, say, the popular eugenics movement is little known. 57. Ibid. See also Richard Dyer, White (New York, Routledge, 1997) and Cornel West, Race matters (New York, Vintage Books, 1994). 58. Rebecca Klatch, Women of the new right (Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press, 1987). For criticism of some of these positions, and especially those espoused by Herrnstein and Murray, see Joe Kincheloe, Shirley Steinberg, and Aaron D. Gresson (Eds) Measured lies (New York, St Martin's Press, 1996). 59. For further discussion of this, see Apple, Cultural politics and education, pp. 11–13. 60. For a much more detailed analysis of the history and ideological tendencies within the authoritarian populist religious right, see Apple, Educating the 'Right' way, especially chapters 4 and 5. 61. Hunter, Children in the service of conservatism, p. 15. 62. Quoted in ibid, p. 57. 63. Ibid. 64. The power of the text and its contradictory impulses have been detailed in Apple, Teachers and texts and Apple, Official knowledge. For more discussion of the ways in which struggles over the textbook help mobilize conservative activists, see Apple, Cultural politics and education, pp. 42–67. 65. Delfattore, What Johnny shouldn't read, p. 123. 66. Ibid, p. 139. 67. The history and influence of the state's role in defining official knowledge and in textbooks is developed in much more depth in Apple, Teachers and texts and Apple, Official knowledge. See also, Cornbleth and Waugh, The great speckled bird. 68. See Delfattore, What Johnny shouldn't read, Ralph Reed, After the revolution (Dallas, TX, Word Publishing, 1996), and Fritz Detwiler, Standing on the premises of God (New York, New York University Press, 1999). 69. Anita Oliver and I provide an analysis of a concrete instance of this in Apple, Cultural politics and education, pp. 42–67. See also Apple, et al., The state and the politics of knowledge. 70. Although he limits himself to a discussion of the nation as an 'imagined community,' I am extending Benedict Anderson's metaphor to include religious communities as well since many of the attributes are the same. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined communities (New York, Verso, 1991). 71. Fraser, Unruly practices, pp. 172–173. 72. Basil Bernstein makes an important distinction between those fractions of the new middle class who work for the state and those who work in the private sector. They may have different ideological and educational commitments. See Basil Bernstein, The structuring of pedagogic discourse (New York, Routledge, 1990). For more on the ways 'intermediate' classes and class fractions operate and interpret their worlds, see Erik Olin Wright (Ed.) The debate on classes (New York, Verso, 1998), Erik Olin Wright, Classes (New York, Verso, 1985), Erik Olin Wright, Class counts (New York, Cambridge University Press, 1997), and Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1984). 73. For more on this, see John Clarke and Janet Newman, The managerial state (London, Sage, 1997). 74. See Bourdieu, Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu, Homo economicus (Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1988), and Pierre Bourdieu, The state nobility (Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1996). 75. A combination of the work of Bernstein, Wright, and Bourdieu would be useful in understanding this class. A satirical, but still interesting, analysis of a segment of this class can be found in the work of the conservative commentator David Brooks. See David Brooks, Bobos in paradise (New York, Simon and Schuster, 2000). 76. See, e.g. Apple, Educating the 'Right' way, chapter 3. 77. See Apple, Cultural politics and education, pp. 22–41. 78. See especially Michael W. Apple and James A. Beane (Eds) Democratic schools (Alexandria, VA, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1995), Michael W. Apple and James A. Beane (Eds) Democratic schools: lessons from the chalk face (Buckingham, Open University Press, 1999), and Gregory Smith, Public schools that work (New York, Routledge, 1993). Also of considerable interest here is the work on de‐tracking and educational reform by Jeannie Oakes. See Jeannie Oakes, Karen H. Quartz, Steve Ryan, and Martin Lipton, Becoming good American schools (San Francisco, CA, Jossey‐Bass, 2000). 79. See Jacques Steinberg, 'Blue books closed, students boycott standardized tests,' The New York Times, 13 April, 2000, A1, A22. It remains to be seen whether this will grow. It is also unclear whether children of the poor and culturally and economically disenfranchised will participate widely in this. After all, affluent children do have options and can compensate for not having tests scores. This may not be the case for the children of those this society calls the 'Other.' 80. See, for example, the journal Rethinking Schools. It is one of the very best indicators of progressive struggles, policies, and practices in education. Information can be gotten from Rethinking Schools, 1001 E. Keefe Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53212, USA or via its website at: www.rethinkingschools.org