Volatile Knowing: Parents, Teachers, and the Censored Story of Accountability in America's Public Schools

by Kaia Tollefson, Maxine Greene (Foreword by)

Overview

Volatile Knowing refers to the positive change that can result when parents and teachers talk together about the politics of school reform. Based on a study of teachers and parents who researched aspects of the accountability movement typically censored in mainstream media, Volatile Knowing reveals the hidden power behind current reform efforts that serve private, not public interests. It is aimed at provoking a new, child-centered movement for accountability and creativity in the nation's schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739145715
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/28/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	222
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Kaia Tollefson is assistant professor of education at California State University Channel Islands.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgements xi

1 Accountability in the Schools: What the People Don't Know 1

2 Challenging the Virtually Unchallenged: A Personal Experience 11

3 Making Sense of the Accountability Movement: Organized (and Profitable) Malevolence Against the Public Schools 21

4 Redefining Accountability in Our Schools: Inviting Parents to the Learning Community 45

5 Research Findings: Tracing a Path Toward Hope 91

6 The Inversion of Visibility 125

7 The Instruments of Discipline 135

8 Reframing the Panopticon 161

Appendices

A Methodology 171

B Discipline in the Public School Panopticon 191

C Osmosis & the Evolution of the Public School Panopticon 195

Bibliography 197

Index 203

About the Author 209

Editorial Reviews

In our current educational world of ruthless individualism, Kaia Tollefson attempts to reassemble the pieces of a broken democracy by bringing parents and teachers together for some honest conversation about the children they share. What she finds above all is that parents and teachers are hungry for authentic dialogue. In the context of the generally shallow research on 'parent involvement,' this study stands out for its honesty and integrity.

Gary L. Anderson

Recommended.

Choice Reviews

This eloquent, indignant, and scholarly book pulls down the screens obscuring the damage being done by the practices of accountability being imposed on public schools...This is a book that unnerves and awakens. Its readers may well see what they have seldom seen, hear what they have never heard.

From The Foreword

Recommended.

January 2009 Choice Reviews

Recommended.

Choice

Recommended.

January 2009 CHOICE

In our current educational world of ruthless individualism, Kaia Tollefson attempts to reassemble the pieces of a broken democracy by bringing parents and teachers together for some honest conversation about the children they share. What she finds above all is that parents and teachers are hungry for authentic dialogue. In the context of the generally shallow research on 'parent involvement, ' this study stands out for its honesty and integrity.--Gary L. Anderson, Steinhardt School of culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University Steinhardt School of culture, Education, an

Recommended.--CHOICE, January 2009

This eloquent, indignant, and scholarly book pulls down the screens obscuring the damage being done by the practices of accountability being imposed on public schools...This is a book that unnerves and awakens. Its readers may well see what they have seldom seen, hear what they have never heard.--From The Foreword

From the Publisher