The Politics of Educational Policy: Urban School Reform in Unsettling Times

Abstract

This article argues that in relatively stable political periods a unifying policy discourse prevails in the state-what the author calls the hegemonic policy discourse-that represents the worldview and interests of the dominant political coalition. This policy discourse may remain basically unchanged until it is challenged by a counterhegemonic discourse based on new organizing principles and associated with the rise of a new political coalition and social movement. This general conceptual framework is applied to an analysis of urban school reform over the past several decades. The article indicates that throughout this period a hegemonic conservative discourse has constructed urban school reform issues around a "basic skills" model of the curriculum and suggests how basic skills reforms have participated in the structuring of class, race, and gender inequalities. After critiquing conservative approaches to managing the urban school crisis, the article discusses some possible organizing principles for a counterhegemonic, democratic-progressive policy discourse. In this regard it examines the contributions but also the limitations of recent liberal discourse in education, especially its concerns for higher-order thinking skills, equality of opportunity, and teacher professionalism. The article concludes by discussing the relevance of notions of workplace democratization and critical literacy and pedagogy.