Prelims

Context for This Book

We situate the book within the sociopolitical and sociocultural contexts surrounding education during our contemporary times. As such, we provide a concise, yet comprehensive overview of the sociohistorical milieu impacting education to contextualize this book. Education in the United States has been a democratic project since its founding in the 1700s. According to the Center on Education Policy (2020):

The Founding Fathers maintained that the success of the fragile American democracy would depend on the competency of its citizens. They believed strongly that preserving democracy would require an educated population that could understand political and social issues and would participate in civic life, vote wisely, protect their rights and freedoms, and resist tyrants and demagogues. Character and virtue were also considered essential to good citizenship, and education was seen as a means to provide moral instruction and build character. (p. 2)

As such, early policymakers worked to create a unified and formal education system, beginning with land grants (or trusted federal lands granted to states) for the creation and maintenance of schools. In some states, boards of education sprouted up, and in Massachusetts, the father of public education, Horace Mann, served as secretary of the state's education board. In the 1830s, Mann advocated for “creation of public schools that would be universally available to all children, free of charge, and funded by the state” (Center on Education Policy, p. 3). His ideas spawned the “common school” movement, wherein all students received instruction in core subjects, such as reading and math.

Previously, despite the federal government's efforts, education remained grossly unequal with wealthy elites having access to literacy and numeracy education, leading to increased access to jobs and wealth. Mann advocated for common schools to serve as the great equalizer in society, as educating poor and middle class children “would prepare them to obtain good jobs…and hereby strengthen the nation's economic position” (Center on Education Policy, 2020). The common school movement laid the groundwork for our current public education system despite some resistance from elites who did not want to pay for the education of other people's children (Center on Education Policy, 2020).

It is important to understand this brief history of public education in order to see how the American project of democracy is so deeply embedded into our educational system. As such, public education has morphed and adjusted in response to social, historical, cultural, and economic events that affect the US and the democratic project.

According to Alexander (1999), schools are open systems, as they consist of internal structures (the organization itself and people within it) and external structures (the environment, the students, graduates, and staff with lives outside the school). As an open system, school goals, functions, structures, and processes are constantly influenced by a feedback loop of the outside environment, which include social, economic, cultural, and political pressures (Katz & Kahn, 1978). Hence, various shifts in American history have impacted the internal structures of schooling. For example, throughout the course of history, we experienced increased immigration and industrialization throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Civil and World Wars, the Great Depression, the Space Race, the Civil Rights Movement, the Chicano Movement, the Women's Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and counterculture, the AIDS epidemic, the internet and tech bubble, social media, the September 11th attacks, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, Islamophobia, social media, the Great Recession, Barack Obama's election with the Affordable Care Act and the rise of the Tea Party, the legalization of gay marriage, Donald Trump's election, the #MeToo Movement, COVID-19, footage of police murdering Black, Indigenous and/or People of Color (BIPoC), #BlackLivesMatter, and the January 6th attacks have impacted shifts in public education.

As we write this book, we are facing a crisis in public education: A mass exodus from the profession following a global pandemic, low salaries and school budgets following massive cuts during the Great Recession 15 years ago, censorship of curriculum and instruction amid unfounded attacks on critical race theory (CRT) and ethnic studies, and increased scrutiny of public educators from parents, families, and the general public. These phenomena did not occur in a vacuum; these issues have boiled up over hundreds of years given public education's inextricable link with our political democracy.

Hence, we make a case for this book. The project of democracy in education is one that is unfulfilled in many ways, as we have failed to make public education the great equalizer in society. As we face crisis after crisis in education and beyond, we must adjust in such a way that fulfills the democratic process of equality and push forward the notion of equity in schools. As educators, we often work in silos, committed to getting through our curriculum, instruction, and impacting the students in front of us. Meanwhile, political mandates constrict our work, forcing us to focus more and more inward (i.e., the focus on standards and accountability, but more on that in this book!). As educational practitioners and leaders working within the institutions of public education, we have great influence over the trajectory of the institution. As such, in order to impact democracy and education, we must understand that as educators we are agents of democracy. As agents of democracy, we must then understand the roots of democracy in America and education. Moreover, we present this book to prepare you, the current and aspiring educator, to be not only an agent of democracy, but an agent of transformative, critically just democracy, who impacts the fabric of public education in favor of equity and justice. In this book, you will uncover what democracy in education is, what it is not, and what it could be. In visualizing what is possible in taking on this work, while situating yourself in the current context of public education, you can cause that shift that we so desperately need in the profession.

Structure and Use of This Book

The structure and use of the book is twofold, both reflective and theoretical while situating itself to be utilitarian and practical. As we intend to bridge theory to practice, we structure the book in a way that inspires a reflective, critical practice that is immediately applicable. We front-load discussions of history and theory and buttress these theories with real-world examples from our research data and current events. Additionally, we weave case study data throughout the chapters to provide deeper understanding and an exemplar for your transformative work and include end-of-chapter activities to deepen your knowledge, plan, and implement transformative practices in your school.

In Chapter 1, we present and analyze the history of democracy in education and current social movements that directly impact public education. Then, in Chapter 2, we discuss key theories and concepts that explain impediments to democracy throughout history and today. In the subsequent chapters, we define transformative, critically just democracy in the context of educational leadership and classroom practices and include concrete actions for practicing educators committed to doing this work. Most chapters conclude with activities that prompt you to engage in reflection by applying the key tenets to your practice and experiences. In later chapters, we push further by inviting you to conduct a mini case study situated within your own context, including an adapted equity audit, a transformative practices survey, and a semi-structured interview protocol to collect the voices of your greater school community. In the final chapter, we present an organizing document where aspiring and current school leaders can leverage theory (included in this book) into practice by creating and implementing their action plan. To end this book, we include two appendices, a list of resources where you might find transformative professional development and guest speakers dedicated to equity and justice in schools and a book list to dive deeper into education for social justice as a solitary leader or in community with your fellow educators. We see this book as both a resource and a tool for transformative leadership in preservice programs of study and in practice and we hope you do, as well.

Data Sources and Methods: Two Case Studies

Data woven throughout the chapters derive from case studies conducted at two urban high schools in the Southwest United States: Desert High School and Millennium High School (both pseudonyms).