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Urban Rev (2014) 46:632653
DOI 10.1007/s11256-014-0271-z
Kerry Kretchmar
Published online: 4 February 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract This article examines the ways that the charter school movement is experienced and negotiated by educators who entered the profession through Teach For America (TFA). TFAs impact has been signicant in the larger educational trend towards market-based reforms and, in particular, the charter school movement. Analyzed through a critical theory lens that focuses on issues of power and on the ways individuals interact amid larger (and often distal) structural forces, the experiences of TFA corps members are situated within the larger changing context of education. Amid contested, fractured, and complex narratives about charter school reform, TFAs idea of relentless pursuit shaped participants conceptions and actions around charter schools.
Keywords Urban education Educational policy Teacher education
In a tumultuous week in February 2013, I attended the Teach For America alumni summit, where the plenary panel described a future with more charter schools and fewer unions as revolutionary. A mere 2 days later, I joined thousands of public workers and concerned citizens in protests in Madison, Wisconsin, in resistance to a budget repair bill that would strip workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights and essentially dismantle public sector unions, including teachers unions. During that week, connections that once seemed implicit to me became explicit.
K. Kretchmar (&)
Education Department, Carroll University, Waukesha, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected]
K. Kretchmar3234 Oakridge Ave, Madison, WI 53704, USA
The Revolution Will Be Privatized: Teach For America and Charter Schools
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Urban Rev (2014) 46:632653 633
Privatization of public education went from a far-off, abstract concept to a real and immediate threat.
I went to the TFA alumni summit in Washington, D.C. with some substantial critiques of the program, fully expecting to be critical of elements of the summit because of how my vision for transforming education is in conict with TFAs ideas about education reform. However, I was unprepared to hear such an extreme agenda. During the opening plenary session, panelists Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, John Deasy, David Levin, and Geoffrey Canada frequently drew comparisons between the TFA movement and the Egyptian revolution, as the panel was held a day after Egypts President, Hosni Mubarak, stepped down as a...