The Commodification of American Education

“It’s a story that needs telling and this book does that very readably! It’s especially useful to those who may disagree with its underlying viewpoint. Especially at this time of peril we need to understand the connections—and misconnections—between schools and democracy!”

Deborah Meier, Leader in Holistic Reform in Urban Public Education

“For decades the forces of neoliberalism have sought to make education into a competitive marketplace, turning teaching and learning into a product for profit. The Commodification of American Education not only highlights how this has transformed us as people and attacked our very identities, it also shows how we can resist it through tactics of play, unionization, and the reclamation of ourselves as learners. In The Commodification of American Education, editors Brewer and Harman have offered a powerful collection to help us all navigate and survive these troubling times.”

Wayne Au, Ph.D., Professor, University of Washington Bothell Editor, Rethinking Schools, Teaching for Black Lives, and author of "A Marxist Education"

“This book not only problematizes the issues across the landscape of education to inform the reader, but it also inspires action. The editors open the discussion by relaying that a resistance movement is challenging the neoliberal paradigm and is opposing the commodification of students and teachers. They urge the reader to bring schools ‘under the care of professional teachers rather than leaving it in the hands of people who have never taught students.’ Readers will come away with not only with a better understanding of alternatives to neoliberal education reform, but will also glean, in each chapter, more humane ways forward for children, their families, and communities.”

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D., Dean and Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, University of Kentucky

Foreword
Noah De Lissovoy

Chapter 1
Introduction
W. Gregory Harman

Chapter 2
Education and School: How Defining Our Terms Determines Our Approach
W. Gregory Harman & Matthew J. Hayden

Chapter 3
Resisting Neoliberal Reforms in Early Childhood Education: Play Pedagogy as the Antidote to GERM
Denisha Jones

Chapter 4
How Schools Reinforce Socially Constructed Notions of “Smartness” and How we Can Subvert them Through Trust
T. Jameson Brewer & Scott T. Grubbs

Chapter 5
Creating and Commodifying the Neoliberal Self: A Weberian Analysis of an International Education Course
Ashlee B. Anderson & Andrea Arce-Trigatti

Chapter 6
Combating the Commodification of Knowledge: The Maker Movement
Michael Schad & Kurt Stemhagen

Chapter 7
Unionizing Educators in Charter Schools: A Case Study of the Chicago Teacher’s Union Organizing Model
Michelle Strater Gunderson

Chapter 8
What Are “Soft Skills,” and Should We Be Teaching Them?
Bailey B. Smolarek

Editor and Contributor Biographies

Index

T. Jameson Brewer

T. Jameson Brewer, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Social Foundations of Education at the University of North Georgia. His teaching experience spans from the middle school, high school, undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels. Broadly conceptualized, his research focuses on the impact of privatization and marketization of public education by way of school vouchers, charter schools, alternative teacher certification, and homeschooling. His most recent books are Philanthropy, Strategy, and Collective Resistance: A Primer for Educators (Myers Education Press, 2019), Learning to Teach in an Era of Privatization: Global Trends in Teacher Preparation, and Teach For All Counter-Narratives: International Perspectives on a Global Reform Movement. Follow him on Twitter: @tjamesonbrewer.

William Gregory Harman

William Gregory Harman, Ed.D., M.E.A., is a professor of teacher education at Lewis-Clark State College. He was formerly at Dominican University, Chicago. He teaches educational psychology, educational philosophy, social studies methods, and mentors teacher candidates in their student teaching. He was a social studies teacher, teaching middle and high school students for over a decade in the Twin Cities metro. He has edited for SOJO, reviewed for Education Policy Analysis Archives, has published in both, as well as in Educational Theory, Teaching with Primary Sources: Research & Practice, Critical Questions in Education, and Teaching & Learning. His dissertation director, Walter Enloe, was a mentee of Jean Piaget, and his M.Ed. mentor, Peter Martorella was a mentee of Alan Griffiths, whose mentor was John Dewey. Greg believes that this line of wonderful teachers explains a lot about his own teaching, and his views and advocacy in education.