URBAN special edition

Abstract

Currently, neoliberalism serves as the foundation for the majority of educational reform efforts. Neoliberal approaches repeatedly privilege the value of ‘expert’ knowledge in framing policy and practice, resulting in limited opportunities for the impact of local community knowledge and experience on teaching and learning. While the neoliberal context narrows what counts as learning, participatory action research (PAR), youth-led participatory action research (YPAR), and engaged scholarship emphasize collaborative problem-solving among community organizations and schools that can expose the dangers of neoliberal trends in education. The articles in this special edition, titled ‘Challenging Neoliberal Reforms through Collaborative, Community Engaged Research,’ illuminate diverse approaches to collaborative research aimed at fostering a more inclusive, productive dialog regarding the impact and possibilities for educational reforms in K-16 schools. The authors identify the specific neoliberal reforms that shape their contexts, the nature of their collaborative research partnerships and methods, and the kinds of inroads their coalitions are making in altering harmful neoliberal policy implementations. Individually and collectively, the authors speak about new ways of framing the impact of neoliberalism on local communities. They provide alternative designs for educational policies.