Rebecca Goldstein | Montclair State University (original) (raw)

Articles by Rebecca Goldstein

This article examines the political discourse surrounding NCLB, educational reform, and how that ... more This article examines the political discourse surrounding NCLB, educational reform, and how that discourse shaped perceptions of public education during the Bush Administration. Examining mass media campaigns in the New York Times and Time Magazine, the article demonstrates how the media has visually and textually framed and reinforced NCLB and market reforms as the only solution to address the failures of public education by attacking teachers’ unions and individual teachers. Visual and textual data were collected, cataloged, and analyzed employing frame analysis in concert with critical discourse and visual analysis. Analysis revealed that media framing presented an overwhelmingly negative image of teachers’ unions as opposed to NCLB and other school reform efforts. Even in the rare instances where unions were presented positively, the debate resonated with general public perception so that even when individuals or the general public are critical of NLCB and educational reform efforts, they support overall premises about “saving” public education.

Critical Education, 2015

In this introductory essay, the special issue editors examine the relationship between the media ... more In this introductory essay, the special issue editors examine the relationship between the media and the neoliberal privatization of education in the U.S. They first take up an examination of news media journalism in late modernity and highlight how neoliberal politics under the guise of democratization of the news media have resulted in both the gutting of professional education journalism and the intensification of the representation of the interests of the economic elite. They next turn to the task of establishing a common and critical understanding of the term neoliberalism, locating it as an extension of Marx’s concept of primary accumulation, an important logic that defines the relationships between individuals, communities, the state, and capital. Finally, they consider how people can disrupt the powerful processes that serve the interests of the neoliberal social imaginary. Highlighting the political actions of Raymond ‘Boots’ Riley to disrupt the destructive practices of neoliberalized education, they illustrate the possibilities of engaging with alternative media to reframe educational debates, while remaining critical of alternative media.

This article examines how the political discourse surrounding No Child Left Behind (NCLB) rhetori... more This article examines how the political discourse surrounding No Child Left Behind (NCLB) rhetorically constructs teachers and teaching. Using the prepared speeches and press releases from the Bush Administration (January 2001-December 2008) we illustrate that teachers were framed as both allies to the federal government (as supporters of NCLB and public education) and therefore, soldiers of democracy, and as obstacles to student learning and therefore, enemies of the state. Further, the discourse employed by the Bush Administration identified educating America‟s children as the problem; teachers, in particular, were to blame. It posed a remedy that resonated with the public: NCLB. By identifying public education as the problem, and blaming teachers for that problem, it was easier to focus on changing (or eliminating) individual teachers, students, and schools rather than larger social, institutional, and structural barriers. Such a phenomenon is further reflective of the influence of neoliberalism on public education in the United States, so that individual teachers and schools are expendable if they fail to meet the expectations of the market

With the landmark passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in January 2002, a new era of accountabi... more With the landmark passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in January 2002, a new era of accountability, standards, and sanctions have become solid fixtures in public education (see Cross, 2004;
McGuinn, 2005; and McGuinn, 2006 for an extensive discussion of the evolution of standards in US public education). The implications of this federal mandate were viewed differently, depending upon the perspective of the viewer. Regardless, there has been and continues to be a great deal of skepticism regarding NCLB’s ability to change the educational experiences of children and youth, particularly those of poor and minority students (Fusarelli, 2004; Kantor & Lowe, 2006; Rogers & Oakes, 2005). Further, the political discourse surrounding NCLB has been very charged since its inception, with different camps supporting the legislation as an extension of the Brown decision (and hence, the realization of equality in
US society), while others have decried it as discriminatory, marginalizing, and undemocratic (see for instance, Kozol, 2005; Paige, 2006; Slavin, 2006; and Stiefel, Schwartz, & Chellman, 2007 for examples of these different arguments). It is these arguments surrounding equality/equity, social justice, democracy (and education for democracy), and NCLB that this article will examine. Using the speeches of Secretaries of Education Roderick Paige and Margaret Spellings, we will illustrate how the federal government and NCLB, the federal education policy driving US public education, frames the notions of equality/equity, justice, and democracy to reflect the Administration’s conservative and market-driven ideologies. By engaging in an iterative process of critical discourse analysis, we will illustrate how the message conveyed regarding NCLB remains the same, even as the audience changes. As a result, the Bush Administration has been able to galvanize support across multiple communities, while simultaneously silencing opposition.

This article will explore how symbolic and institutional violence shaped students’ understandings... more This article will explore how symbolic and institutional violence shaped students’ understandings of themselves within the educational context, and will argue that the creation of critical educational spaces can enable students and teachers to explore and transgress the internal and external influences and violence that shape the learning experience. Bourdieu’s construction of symbolic power, violence and the institution will be employed to illustrate the complex and contradictory ways in which schools and their representatives commit egregious acts against students under the guise of benevolence. The article will also illustrate how the development of a critical educational space in a magnet program entitled the ‘Becoming Teachers Program’ enabled students and teachers to transgress and combat the normative and oppressive relations of the institution as a result of and in response to school violence, and pose some considerations for how we approach teaching for peace and social justice.

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the creation of a new panopticon created by the media, th... more The purpose of this essay is to discuss the creation of a new panopticon created by the media, the state, and the discourses of No Child Left Behind. In
this new panopticon, teachers and scholars police themselves into silence for fear of serious personal and professional consequences should they critique public education policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind), which is currently eroding freedom, democracy, and social justice. This essay will
describe the new panopticon, the media’s role in constructing No Child Left Behind as a benign, even beneficial regulation, and how the media has supported the state in its efforts to silence opposition to the new federal legislation.
The essay will conclude with a reflection on the relationship on how teachers and scholars might once again “police the crisis” instead of the
crisis policing them.

Papers by Rebecca Goldstein

... and Democracy in the College Classroom: The Practice of Student Self-Evaluation Juan-Miguel F... more ... and Democracy in the College Classroom: The Practice of Student Self-Evaluation Juan-Miguel Fernandez-Balboa 105 Part Three: Critical Praxis in the Digital Age 7. &amp;amp;amp;quot;Doing Technology&amp;amp;amp;quot; in the College Classroom: Media Literacy as Critical Pedagogy Vanessa Domine 131 8 ...

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the media has functioned to reinforce the marketiz... more The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the media has functioned to reinforce the marketization and mediatization of public education, particularly in regard to education policy debates surrounding reform efforts. Using different examples from media sources, we will illustrate how the media outlet has been able to effectively help shape the public’s consciousness regarding important issues related to school reform. One outcome has been the framing of education in the United States as an economic imperative. If the nation does not ‘reform’ public education, teachers, and how students perform on metrics like national and international tests, the United States will continue its downward economic spiral—locally, nationally, and globally. As a result, the media, intentionally or not, supports a dramatically reduced concept of public life and citizenship, one in which the vagaries and demands of the market and national and global economies drive the purposes, structures, and outcom...

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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the media reinforces the marketization and mediat... more The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the media reinforces the
marketization and mediatization of public education, particularly in regard to education
policy debates surrounding reform efforts. Using different examples from media
sources, we will illustrate how the media has contributed to the shaping of the public’s
consciousness regarding important issues related to school reform. One outcome has
been the framing of education in the United States as an economic imperative; if
the nation does not “reform” public education, teachers, and how students perform
on metrics such as standardized national and international tests, the United States
will continue its downward economic spiral—locally, nationally, and globally. As a
result, the media, intentionally or not, supports a dramatically reduced concept of
public life and citizenship, one in which the vagaries and demands of the market and
national and global economies drive the purposes, structures, and outcomes of education.
We argue that the combination of marketization and mediatization of school
reform and the education policy process has brought about a shift in the purposes of
public education, one that threatens the health of U.S. society and has the potential
to silence constructive criticism and dissent within the public sphere. We call upon
educational scholars to take up a more rigorous study of how the media frames public
school reform measures, and we point to particular research questions that might
serve as a starting point for such work.

Critical Education, 2015

Please consider submitting a chapter abstract.