Prospects for Grassroots Influence: Can We Be Realistic Without Being Fatalistic?

In The Fight for America’s Schools, Barbara Ferman and her coauthors show parents and communities mobilizing in new and effective ways to resist or reconfigure threats imposed in the name of education reform. In this reflection on the volume, I discuss ways in which the political terrain has been ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban affairs review (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) Calif.), 2020-05, Vol.56 (3), p.930-942
Main Author: Henig, Jeffrey R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Education
Education reform
Grass roots movement
Mobilization
Neighborhoods
Optimism
Prospects
Schools
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Summary:In The Fight for America’s Schools, Barbara Ferman and her coauthors show parents and communities mobilizing in new and effective ways to resist or reconfigure threats imposed in the name of education reform. In this reflection on the volume, I discuss ways in which the political terrain has been changing and why these changes make the traditional model of organizing—neighborhood-based, localized, focused on education-specific arenas—problematic. Finally, taking off from the ideas and examples presented in the Ferman volume, I sketch out a more optimistic portrayal of why and how new approaches have a chance to succeed.
ISSN:1078-0874
1552-8332
DOI:10.1177/1078087419867164