Challenging knowledge monopoly in education in the U.S. through democratizing knowledge production and dissemination

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe discuss democratizing knowledge production and dissemination in education illustrated in two parts that challenge the current knowledge monopoly. Our discourse includes (a) problematic cultivation of the status quo in the hierarchy of knowledge value in the U.S. as a component of civic illiteracy and (b) the need for more evidence through developing practice-based research evidence as a counter to the fixation with evidence-based practice in education. We point out a cultivated state of complacency with regard to the societal expectations of the roles of educational practitioners in the U.S. and discuss developing a new status of practitioner research for knowledge democracy. A virtual space for mentoring practitioner researchers with a goal to help them produce and disseminate their research was included as an example of knowledge democracy.