Episode Description
In the fourth and final episode of a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak with Heather Ganshorn from SOS Alberta.

Heather Ganshorn is the Research Director for Support Our Students Alberta, a volunteer organization that advocates for an equitable and accessible public education system. SOS believes that privatization threatens public education by diverting dollars from accountable systems that serve all children to unaccountable private providers who serve a customer niche rather than the public interest. Heather has written a number of media articles and op eds on current issues related to privatization and curriculum in Alberta. She is also an academic librarian at the University of Calgary, with experience in research support and knowledge synthesis.

Through this episode, Stephen and Shannon speak to Heather Ganshorn about the ways that the parental rights movement advance and legitimize privatization of/in public schools. Ganshorn describes the parental rights movement as a smokescreen for groups with a broader culture war agenda. In addition, Ganshorn elucidates the connection between groups stoking fear about parental rights and those calling for more school choice. Stephen and Shannon ask Heather about specific examples within Alberta and also what she has noted about the spread and alliances of parental rights groups across Canada. Ganshorn offers a clear answer about the problem of increased parental choice; these choices are not available to everyone and leave schools to make choices about students.

Episode Resources
Carter, M. (2008). “Debunking” Parents’ Rights In The Canadian Constitutional Context. The Canadian Bar Review, 86(3), Article 3. https://cbr.cba.org/index.php/cbr/article/view/4085

Cowen, J. (2022, July 20). After two decades of studying voucher programs, I’m now firmly opposed to them. The Hechinger Report. http://hechingerreport.org/opinion-after-two-decades-of-studying-voucher-programs-im-now-firmly-opposed-to-them/

Ganshorn, H. (2023, January 23). Populism, Polarization and Privatization in Alberta Education. The Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/populism-polarization-and-privatization-in-alberta-education/

Ganshorn, H. (2022, November 8). Undermining public education. Education Forum.https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/

Ganshorn, H., & Moussa, M. (2022, September 1). Beware “privatization creep” in education system. Leaderpost. https://leaderpost.com/opinion/heather-ganshorn-medeana-moussa-beware-privatization-creep-in-education-system

LeBrun, L. (2024, January 8). Conservative MP Helped Draft Text of Conspiratorial United Nations Petition, Author of Petition Says. PressProgress. https://pressprogress.ca/conservative-mp-helped-draft-text-of-conspiratorial-united-nations-petition-author-of-petition-says/

Magusiak, S. (2022, September 16). Danielle Smith Backs Plan to Spend More Public Dollars on Elite Private Schools and Homeschooling. PressProgress. https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-backs-plan-to-spend-more-public-dollars-on-elite-private-schools-and-homeschooling/

Magusiak, S. (2023a, April 27). New Data Shows Danielle Smith’s Education Plan Benefits Wealthiest Socioeconomic Households. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/new-data-shows-danielle-smiths-education-plan-benefits-wealthiest-socioeconomic-households/https://pressprogress.ca/new-data-shows-danielle-smiths-education-plan-benefits-wealthiest-socioeconomic-households/

Magusiak, S. (2023b, April 30). Mapping Canada’s Right-Wing Networks. PressProgress.https://pressprogress.ca/mapping-canadas-right-wing-networks/https://pressprogress.ca/mapping-canadas-right-wing-networks/

Magusiak, S. (2023c, October 26). Right-Wing ‘Take Back Alberta’ Group Purges Top Organizers As It Plans to Target School Boards Across Canada. PressProgress. https://pressprogress.ca/right-wing-take-back-alberta-group-purges-top-organizers-as-it-plans-to-target-school-boards-across-canada/

Ravitch, D. (2023, January 8). Josh Cowen: The Extremism of the School Privatization Movement. Diane Ravitch’s Blog. https://dianeravitch.net/2023/01/08/josh-cowen-the-extremism-of-the-school-privatization-movement/

Additional Resources
SOS Alberta: https://www.supportourstudents.ca/Have You Heard Podcast: https://www.haveyouheardpodcast.com/

Episode Description
In the third episode of a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Wayne Journell.

Dr. Journell is Professor of Social Studies Education and Associate Chair of the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG).
A former high school social studies teacher, Dr. Journell received his undergraduate degree and teacher licensure at James Madison University. He then received a master's degree in Curriculum & Instruction from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in Secondary Social Studies Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since then, he has taught at UNCG, where he also coordinates the Secondary Teacher Education Program.

Dr. Journell's research focuses primarily on the teaching of politics and controversial issues in secondary education, with secondary interests in teaching social studies with technology and via inquiry. Dr. Journell has received numerous awards for his scholarship, including being a two-time recipient of the Exemplary Research in Social Studies Award from the National Council for the Social Studies. He is also the current editor of Theory & Research in Social Education, which is the premier empirical journal in the field of social studies education, and editor for the Research and Practice in Social Studies book series at Teachers College Press.
Bio source: https://www.waynejournell.com/

Through this episode, Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Journell about the distinction between public and private values--and the relevance of this distinction to the public school classroom. Specifically, we speak about issues that remain open and valid for discussion in public school classrooms, and those that should be approached as closed or settled. Dr. Journell introduces criterion that can help educators determine which issues are closed for debate in public school classrooms. In particular, we speak about the ethical responsibility of educators to approach issues as closed/settled when they impact the identity, rights, and well-being of students in the classroom. Dr. Journell’s writing, and responses through this interview, intersect with discussions of parental rights and the attempted enforcement of private values in public schools. As he says, people can hold private values, but in the public school classroom we must uphold decided public values.

Episode Resources
Journell, W. (2016). Teaching Social Studies in an Era of Divisiveness: The Challenges of Discussing Social Issues in a Non-partisan Way. Rowman & Littlefield.

Journell, W. (2017). Framing Controversial Identity Issues in Schools: The Case of HB2, Bathroom Equity, and Transgender Students. Equity & Excellence in Education, 50(4), 339–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2017.1393640

Journell, W. (2018). Should Marriage Equality be Taught as Controversial Post-Obergefell v. Hodges? Teachers College Record, 120(8), 1–28.

Journell, W. (2022). Classroom Controversy in the Midst of Political Polarization: The Essential Role of School Administrators. NASSP Bulletin, 106(2), 133–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/01926365221100589

In the sixteenth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Benjamin Justice.

Benjamin Justice is Professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy, and Administration at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. He is also an associate member of the History Department at Rutgers—New Brunswick and is a Senior Research Scholar and member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. Dr. Justice is immediate past-president of the History of Education Society. Dr. Justice holds a B.A. (history) from Yale, and a M.A. (history) and Ph.D. (Education) from Stanford University. His scholarship is wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, appearing in journals in education, history, law, social and political science, and philosophy, as well as in mainstream periodicals, radio, and tv. In 2016 he co-authored the book, Have a Little Faith: Religion, Democracy, and the American Public School.

In this episode, Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Justice about his recent piece in History of Education Quarterly, Schooling as a White Good. Our conversation begins with a discussion of the Little Rock Nine--and the disparate ways this moment in history is viewed, and still echoes. Dr. Justice speaks about the ways that schooling has always been a white good, and shares his rationale for the intentional use of the terms gaslighting, hobbling and white cartel behaviour. This discussion encourages the listener to think about the public that is served by public education. This is not a call to dismantle public education, rather the conversation invites educational historians and public education advocates to consider their complicity in upholding the current education system. As Dr. Justice says, he is in favour of public education--and looks forward to the day that we have it.

In our fifteenth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Sean Carleton

Dr. Sean Carleton is a settler scholar and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Dr. Carleton’s research examines the history and political economy of colonialism, capitalism, and education in Canada. He holds a BA and MA in History from Simon Fraser University and a PhD from the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Lessons in Legitimacy: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Rise of State Schooling in British Columbia published in October 2022 by UBC Press. You may also recognize Dr. Carleton’s name as he frequently comments on issues related to history, Indigenous-settler relations, and education for CBC, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Toronto Star, CTV, APTN, Global et. al. He is also a Contributing Editor with Active History, an Associate with thehttps://wilson.humanities.mcmaster.ca/L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History, and a founding member of the Graphic History Collective.

In this episode we speak to Dr. Carleton about his new book, Lessons in Legitimacy. This interview invites criticality about the history of public schools in BC, and the complicity of public schools in upholding settler colonial capitalism. Dr. Carleton places Public Schools, Day Schools, and Residential Schools into the same analytical frame in order to challenge the progressive narrative about public schools. "Critically understanding public schooling," he says, "can help us ask different kinds of questions and perhaps come up with different kinds of solutions". We hope this episode will encourage complexity about public education advocacy. If we think of public education as a good, which public is it good for?

In our fourteenth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Charline Grant from Parents of Black Children.

Charline Grant led the fight to take on the York Region District School Board to defend and advocate for her children and others against systematic racism. Her efforts led to: provincial changes in education; increased accountability and transparency around finances; and equity training within the York Region District School Board. Charline is a recipient of the Courage Award from the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the President’s Award from the Association of Black Law Enforcers. Charline is the Chief Advocacy Officer of Parents of Black Children. https://parentsofblackchildren.org/

In this episode Charline begins by outlining her road to advocacy, a journey that began as a result of the way her own children were treated in the education system. Stephen and Shannon ask Charline about her work with Parents of Black Children. Specifically, they inquire about the group's mandate, advocacy and list of demands. Charline speaks about the way Black students are streamed, over-disciplined, and policed within the school system. She also speaks about the lack of representation in the official curriculum. This is an incredibly powerful interview that is a must listen for anyone in the education system--at any level.

In our thirteenth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Stéphane Vigneault of L’école Ensemble

After studying political science (University of Ottawa, IEP Strasbourg, Stockholms Universitet), Stéphane Vigneault worked at home and abroad in the field of public policy and communications. He is one of the co-founders of École ensemble and is its coordinator.
https://www.ecoleensemble.com/

In this episode Stéphane Vigneault speaks about the moment that compelled him to become a common schools advocate in Quebec. He goes on to explain how his individual actions to raise awareness about the consequences of market thinking in/on education turned into an organization of like minded students and parents, École ensemble. Stephen and Shannon learn about the development of a three tiered school system in Quebec, and École ensemble's decision to take their fight against school segregation in Quebec to the United Nations. Stéphane also explains their vision for a common schools network in Quebec. Stephen and Shannon are left wanting to know more about the common schools network, in particular the lack of public governance. To read more about the work of École ensemble: https://monitormag.ca/articles/quebecs-sadly-distinct-education-systemhttps://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/Holding%20Quebec%20accountable.pdf
https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/Holding%20Quebec%20accountable.pdf
https://world-education-blog.org/2022/09/07/a-plan-to-tackle-school-segregation-in-quebec/

In our twelfth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Annie Kidder from People for Education

Annie Kidder is the Executive Director and a founder of People for Education. Formerly a theatre director, Kidder became involved in public education in Ontario in the late 1990’s and since then has become an expert on education policy and funding. She regularly provides advice to policy-makers and government, and her writing on education has been published in a range of media. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ontario Principals’ Council 2004 Outstanding Contribution to Education Award, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation 2005 Public Education Advocacy Award, and in 2018, an honourary doctorate from York University.

In this episode Dr. Kidder shares how her education advocacy work began. She explains how People for Education started and how it has developed over the last three decades. This episode offers a rich conversation about the purpose and future of public education. Specifically, if we are going to reimagine education whose priorities and vision do we center? In addition, Dr. Kidder suggests that we need to find a middle ground in conversations about public education. In response, Stepen and Shannon ask: Is there a way to meet in the middle, or does the middle demand that we compromise particular values? For more on People for Education: https://peopleforeducation.ca/

In our eleventh episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Joelle Rodway

Dr. Joelle Rodway is an assistant professor in Educational Leadership at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her primary research interests focus on the role of social capital in educational change in K-12 contexts. Specifically, she examines the ways educators’ social networks mediate the ways in which they develop, understand, and implement educational policy and how these processes affect school improvement outcomes.

In this episode Dr. Rodway speaks about the specific political and historical context of Newfoundland & Labrador, and the way this context has impacted public education, public attitudes, and public education advocacy. In particular, Dr. Rodway speaks about the way scarcity in the province has impacted the response to marketization and privatization in/of schools. Dr. Rodway outlines the moves to centralize public education. Stephen & Shannon also ask Dr. Rodway about the government's recommendations for education, and the response of the N & L Teachers' Association. Although the goal of Public Good is to reveal the parallels between provinces in the fight for public education, Dr. Rodway reminds us that the rich histories of each province can result in distinct experiences and responses.

In our tenth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Samantha Becotte.

Samantha Becotte is the president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation. She has bachelor’s degrees in education and science and a Master of Mathematics for Teachers. Prior to taking on the role of president of the STF, she taught mathematics and financial literacy. Samantha actively participates in the community by supporting local not-for-profit organizations. She is passionate about women in leadership and values continued professional development.

In this episode Samantha gives an overview of the Saskatchewan education landscape. She outlines how the reformers are employing the privatization playbook, including changes in tax structures, boasting about spending rather than actual spending, vilification of teachers, and a reliance on consultants. Sound familiar? Drawing on the recent revelations about Legacy Christian Academy, Becotte outlines the broader concerns surrounding public dollars going to private schools. She also speaks about the government's plan to develop a new Distance Learning Crown Corporation. As the president of STF, Samantha shares what she is hearing from teachers about the consequences of government reforms, and the efforts that teachers in Saskatchewan are making to stand up for public education. If anyone happens to be in Saskatchewan on April 19th, you can join Samantha and the STF, at a rally for public education: https://www.stf.sk.ca/sites/default/files/stf-001406d_20230217_hn.pdf

In our ninth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Bárbara Silva.

Bárbara Silva is a public education advocate, organizer and activist, with degrees in both Chemical Engineering and Education. She is most passionate about building support for an equitable and accessible public education system and creating awareness about the proliferation of privatization across Canada. In 2015, Bárbara co-founded the citizen-run public education advocacy organization Support Our Students Alberta, which led several campaigns and rallies in defense of public education across the province. She now lives in BC, where she is a fellow with the Institute of Public Education.

In this episode, we speak to Bárbara Silva about her public education advocacy in Alberta and British Columbia. In particular, we speak to Bárbara about the tactics and reforms utilized in each province to advance privatization and undermine public education. One such tactic is the employment of choice rhetoric. Barbara shares some key insights from her recently published article, "In education, does more choice actually equal more freedom." Through this article, and in our conversation, Barbara challenges the perception that choice translates to freedom--it is accessibility that truly equals freedom. She also speaks to the way that choice undermines communities. The episode ends with an overview of Barbara's important work with SOS Alberta, and now with IPEBC.
https://monitormag.ca/articles/education-whats-missing-from-the-choice-freedom-equation/
https://instituteforpubliceducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Occassional-Paper-8-November-8-2022.pdf

In our eighth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Wing Li.

Dr. Wing Li (pronouns she/her) is the Communications Director at Support Our Students, or SOS Alberta. SOS Alberta is a non-partisan public education advocacy group fighting for the rights of all children to an equitable and accessible public education system. SOS Alberta is a political action-oriented collective that mobilizes policy research and media discourse into tangible social change. Dr. Li holds a Master of Science and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Lethbridge. She also currently works with elementary reading intervention at her community public school, has taught at the post-secondary level, and has worked with science education and knowledge translation initiatives. Along with the dedicated team at SOS Alberta, she is working to organize a movement for a truly universally accessible public education system for all students from a structural societal justice lens.

In this episode, we speak to Dr. Li about the education landscape in Alberta. Dr. Li offers a comprehensive outline of the varied forms of schooling in the province, namely public schools, charter schools, catholic schools, francophone schools, private schools, and homeschooling. She also raises some important questions about how these varied forms of schooling undermine the tenets of public education, such as universal access and governance. This is an incredibly rich interview filled with important discussions about: the use of rhetoric (choice and rights); the legitimation of private funding and influence; and, the insidiousness of privatization. Dr. Li also introduces listeners to SOS Alberta, an advocacy group that is challenging privatization and fighting for an equitable and accessible public education system: https://www.supportourstudents.ca/.

In our seventh episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Jon Young.

Dr. Jon Young is currently the Acting Department Head of the Department of Educational Administration, Foundations & Psychology in the Faculty of Education, at the University of Manitoba. His research interests include: school boards in Canada, internationalization of education, education funding, and fundraising. His areas of specialization are: Educational Administration, Public Governance & Education Policy.

In this episode, we speak to Dr. Young about the core values of public schooling. We also ask Dr. Young how broader public understandings of public education as a public good have changed over time. The episode offers specifics example from the Manitoba context—one that we think will give our listeners some hope about public action against government reforms. Anyone who had a “Kill Bill 64” sign on their lawn will want to listen to this episode—and so will anyone who does not know that means!

Episode Description
In this first episode in a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Jen Gilbert.

Dr. Gilbert is Professor and Chair of the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL). Dr. Gilbert’s scholarship and teaching explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and families in schools and the history of controversies over sex education in schools. Dr. Gilbert's work is international in scope and she has established a strong research partnership network in both the U.S. and Australia. She is an active public scholar and designs projects that explores the connections of social equity and education. Dr. Gilbert previously held Professorship and academic leadership roles at York University in the Faculty of Education. She has been formally recognized for her scholarship, mentorship and leadership by the American Educational Research Association, World Association of Sexual Health and Canadian Society for the Study of Education.
Bio Source: https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/54461-jen-gilbert

Dr. Gilbert begins the episode by explaining the ways that parental rights have been used throughout history to oppose more inclusive models of gender and sexuality in schools. While there are historical echoes, we also speak about the specific factors in the current context that have amplified and mobilized the parental rights movement. Dr. Gilbert challenges the misunderstanding that sexuality is brought into schools through teachers and curriculum, and provokes the construction of the innocent child that is often used to limit important conversations about gender and sexuality in schools. We also speak about the way the notion of parental rights privileges particular parents and erases parents and children. Dr. Gilbert shares two important cases in which youth have opposed regressive curricular moves. Rather than limiting and narrowing curriculum, we speak about the ways sex education, and discussions of gender and sexuality more broadly, need to move beyond the health curriculum. Dr. Gilbert ends our interview with an important, although reluctant, manifesto about how to foster educational hospitality.

Episode Resources
Gilbert, J. (2010). Ambivalence only? Sex education in the age of abstinence. Sex Education, 10(3), 233–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2010.491631

Gilbert, J. (2014). Sexuality in School: The Limits of Education. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt7zw6j4

Gilbert, J. (2016). The pleasure of protest: LGBTQ youth in school. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 13(1), 33–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2016.1138260

Gilbert, J. (2018a). Contesting consent in sex education*. Sex Education, 18(3), 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2017.1393407

Gilbert, J. (2021). Getting dirty and coming clean: Sex education and the problem of expertise. Curriculum Inquiry, 51(4), 455–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2021.1947732

Gilbert, J. (2018b, November 29). Responding to sexual violence in schools: What can educators learn? The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/responding-to-sexual-violence-in-schools-what-can-educators-learn-107769

Gilbert, J., & Rawlings, V. (2022, June 21). “Parental rights” lobby puts trans and queer kids at risk. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/parental-rights-lobby-puts-trans-and-queer-kids-at-risk-184804

In our sixth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Sue Winton.

Dr. Sue Winton (@Swintoncpahttps://twitter.com/HenryGiroux) is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University. Dr. Winton’s critical policy research examines how education policies and policy processes support and/or undermine critical democratic commitments to equity, diversity, social justice, and public participation in policymaking. She has just published a new book, Unequal Benefits: Privatization and Public Education in Canada. https://utorontopress.com/9781487508586/unequal-benefits/

In this episode, we ask Dr. Winton what compelled her to write Unequal Benefits and what she finds fruitful about examining policy. Dr. Winton speaks about policies that encourage privatization in/of education. In particular, we speak about the impact of boutique programs, school fees, and fundrasing. The episode invites some important questions about the impact of individual choices, and the simultaneous risk of individualizing systemic issues. Like Dr. Winton's book, the episode ends with some ideas for advocacy.

In our fifth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Henry Giroux.

Dr. Henry A. Giroux (@HenryGiroux) currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. He has published more than 65 books on critical pedagogy, cultural criticism and educational theory. His two most recent books are: Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy & Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance. For a full outline of his work: https://www.henryagiroux.com

In this episode, we ask Dr. Giroux about his use of the terms neoliberal fascism and gangster capitalism, and the impact each has had on the public imagination and notions of the public good. Through this interview, Dr. Giroux shares his thoughts on “patriotic education”, attacks on teachers and teacher unions, and the current war on youth. This is a riveting interview that offers incredible insights about trends and patterns in the broader educational landscape. The interview importantly ends with hope-- “without hope, there is no political agency”.

In our fourth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Joel Westheimer.

Dr. Joel Westheimer is University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa. He publishes widely in newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals, and is the co-author of the widely read book, What Kind of Citizen: Educating Our Children for the Common Good. Dr. Westheimer’s voice may sound familiar, as he is the education columnist for CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning.

In this episode, we consider the role of belief in the current context, particularly how it has impacted understanding of the “common good”. We also ask Dr. Westheimer how his views on citizenship have changed since writing What Kind of Citizen. In addition, we look at how the standards and accountability movement impacts students, teachers, learning, and the broader purpose of education.

In our third episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Wendy Hughes.

Dr. Wendy Hughes recently completed her EdD at OISE, U of T. Prior to this, Wendy was a school principal. In November, Hughes published an article in Conversation Canada, 'Why attending publicly funded schools may help students become more culturally sensitive'.

In this episode, Dr. Hughes shares the findings of recently completed research about the role of public schools in nurturing intercultural citizenship. Drawing on this research, we explore the ways that publicly-funded schools with diverse populations can create the conditions for developing intercultural citizens.

In our second episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by two guests, Dr. Gerald Fallon and Dr. Wendy Poole.

Gerald and Wendy are co-authors of many articles about the impacts of neoliberalism on K-12 education, specifically as it relates to education funding in BC. In 2021 they released their co-authored book, Neoliberalism and Public Education Finance Policy in Canada and Its Impacts in/on Public Education. Dr. Poole and Dr. Fallon are also both professors in the Department of Educational Studies in the Faculty of Education at UBC (@edstubc).

In this episode, we explore neoliberalism, and how neoliberal thinking motivated market oriented education financing in BC. Wendy and Gerald explain how an amendment to the school act in 2002 led to the creation of ‘school district business companies’. As the responsibility to fund education has landed on school district’s doors, issues of equity have emerged.

In our very first episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by education historian, Dr. Jack Schneider.

Jack is co-author of Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School. He and his co-author, Jennifer Berkshire, are the creators and hosts of the extremely popular education podcast, Have You Heard.

In this episode, we explore the idea of public education as a public good, some of the acts of "dismantling" occurring in the US and the importance of public scholarship in the fight for a strong vision of public education.

Follow Jack Schneider on Twitter at @Edu_Historian and on Mastadon at @jackschneider@toot.community

Episode Description
In this second episode in a four part mini series about "parental rights", Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Lauren Bialystok.

Professor Lauren Bialystok is an Associate Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in the Department of Social Justice Education. Her areas of expertise are ethics and education, identity, feminist philosophy, social and political philosophy, and women's health and sexuality. She is the co-author (with Lisa Andersen) of Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education (Chicago, 2022) and author of a forthcoming book on identity and education.
Bio Source: https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/11213-lauren-bialystok

Through this episode, Dr. Bialystok shares her perspective on what is motivating the parental rights movement. Drawing on her recently co-authored book, Touchy Subject, Dr. Bialystok explains how the history of sex education can shed light on the current context. Stephen and Shannon also ask Lauren about her writing on the conflicts surrounding comprehensive sex education in Ontario, specifically about the way political leaders have used the conflict to create division, undermine public education, and deprofessionalize teachers. Lauren offers a clear perspective as to why we cannot cater curriculum to particular parents. Importantly, she reminds listeners that children’s rights exist, while codified parents’ rights do not.

Episode Resources
Bialystok, L. (2017). My Child, My Choice? Mandatory Curriculum, Sex, and the Conscience of Parents. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/78899

Bialystok, L. (2019). Ontario Teachers’ Perceptions of the Controversial Update to Sexual Health and Human Development. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, 42(1), 1–41.

Bialystok, L., & Andersen, L. M. F. (2022). Touchy Subject: The History and Philosophy of Sex Education. University of Chicago Press.

Bialystok, L., & Wright, J. (2019). ‘Just Say No’: Public dissent over sexuality education and the Canadian national imaginary. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40(3), 343–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2017.1333085

Bialystok, L., Wright, J., Berzins, T., Guy, C., & Osborne, E. (2020). The appropriation of sex education by conservative populism. Curriculum Inquiry, 50(4), 330–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1809967

Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this fourth episode we speak to Sachin Maharaj (U of O), Stephanie Tuters (OISE), and Vidya Shah (York) about resistance. Specifically, the moves to resist the undermining and privatization of public education across Canada.

Bios
Sachin Maharaj, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Program Evaluation in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. His research, which focuses on school boards, teacher unions, and the equity implications of academic streaming and school choice, has been published in Education Policy Analysis Archives, Leadership and Policy in Schools, and the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, he was a secondary school teacher for 14 years at the Toronto District School Board. He is currently writing a book taking a critical look at Ontario educational policy, to be published by the University of Toronto Press.

Steph Tuters is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She researches how social justice pursuits are enacted through leadership, policy, and practice. She is currently investigating how actors within and outside of school districts are working towards racial and greater social justice. Steph has published 13 journal articles, 4 book chapters and numerous popular articles. She has done professional development for school boards, teacher and Principal organisations, and adult educators.

Dr. Vidya Shah is an educator, scholar and activist committed to equity and racial justice in the service of liberatory education. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, and her research explores anti-racist and decolonizing approaches to leadership in schools, communities, and school districts. She also explores educational barriers to the success and well-being of Black, Indigenous, and racialized students. Dr. Shah teaches in the Master of Leadership and Community Engagement, as well as undergraduate and graduate level courses in education. She has worked in the Model Schools for Inner Cities Program in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and was an elementary classroom teacher in the TDSB. Dr. Shah is committed to bridging the gaps between communities, classrooms, school districts and the academy, to re/imagine emancipatory possibilities for schooling.

References
Maharaj, S. (2019a). From Oversight to Advocacy: An Examination of School-Board Leadership.Leadership and Policy in Schools, 19(3), 421-443.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331948433_From_Oversight_to_Advocac_An_Examination_of_School-Board_Leadership

Maharaj, S. (2019b). Teacher Unions in the Public Sphere: Strategies Intended to Influence Public Opinion - ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/openview/87d4bcce8439f1d7464dbe1f950d4989/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=51922&diss=y

Maharaj, S., & Bascia, N. (2021). Teachers’ Organizations and Educational Reform: Resistance and Beyond. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy / Revue Canadienne En Administration et Politique de l’éducation, 196, 34–48. https://doi.org/10.7202/1078516ar

Ryan, J., & Tuters, S. (2017). Picking a hill to die on: Discreet activism, leadership and social justice in education. Journal of Educational Administration, 55(5), 569–588. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1148292

Shah, V. (2018). Leadership for social justice through the lens of self-identified, racially and other-privileged leaders. Journal of Global Citizenship & Equity Education, 6(1).https://journals.sfu.ca/jgcee/index.php/jgcee/article/view/168/399

Shah, V. (2021). The Colour of Wellbeing: How Do We Ensure the Wellbeing and Success of BIPOC Students and K-12 Staff. EdCan Research. https://www.edcan.ca/articles/colour-of-wellbeing/

Shah, V., Aoudeh, N., Cuglievan-Mindreau, G., & Flessa, J. (2022). Subverting whiteness and amplifying anti-racisms: Mid-level district leadership for racial justice. Journal of School Leadership, 32(5), 456–487.https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1347567

Shah, V., Cuglievan-Mindreau, G., & Flessa, J. (2022). Reforming for racial justice: A narrative synthesis and critique of the literature on district reform in Ontario over 25 years. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 198, 35–54.https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/73144

Shah, V., & Grimaldos, D. (2022). Lies, denials, and cover-ups: The pervasiveness of whiteness in school districts relations with black and racialized parents. Urban Education. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420859221095004

Shah, V., & Grimaldos, D. K. (2023). Rising up: Collectivizing, strategizing, and forging solidarities among parents and caregivers leading for racial justice. VUE (Voices in Urban Education), 51(1).https://vue.metrocenter.steinhardt.nyu.edu/article/id/20/

Tuters, S. (2017). What informs and inspires the work of equity minded teachers. Brock Education Journal, 26(2).https://journals.library.brocku.ca/brocked/index.php/home/article/view/605

Tuters, S., & Portelli, J. (2017). Ontario school principals and diversity: Are they prepared to lead for equity? International Journal of Educational Management, 31(5), 598–611.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315501499_Ontario_school_principals_and_dversity_Are_they_prepared_to_lead_for_equity

Tuters, S., Portelli, J. P., & MacDonald-Vemic, A. (2018). Navigating neoliberalism: Challenges faced by social justice educators. In M. J. Harkins & S.E. Singer (Eds.), Educators on Diversity, Social Justice, and Schooling: A Reader. Canadian Scholars.https://canadianscholars.ca/book/educators-on-diversity-social-justice-and-schooling/

Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this second episode of the special series we speak to Adamo di Giovanni (U of Windsor, PhD student), Heather Ganshorn (SOS Alberta) and Ellen Bees (P4PE) about the provincial privatization. This theme was intended to demonstrate how privatization is manifesting “uniquely” across the provinces, but also to demonstrate how these supposed distinctions between provinces reveal similar motivations and tactics.

Guest Bios
Adamo Di Giovanni is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. His dissertation research investigates how neoliberalism and capitalism shape contemporary education discourse and policy. He explores how education policy might evolve toward collectivism and community as a way to address inequality and more effectively deal with 21st century social, environmental, and economic issues. Adamo is currently a Research Assistant on a SSHRC Insight Grant examining the educational impact of mis/dis/information. Adamo is also an Ontario elementary school Vice-Principal within the Greater Toronto Area with over 15 years of experience in elementary schools.

Heather Ganshorn is the Research Director for Support Our Students Alberta, a volunteer organization that advocates for an equitable and accessible public education system. SOS believes that privatization threatens public education by diverting dollars from accountable systems that serve all children to unaccountable private providers who serve a customer niche rather than the public interest. Heather has written a number of media articles and op eds on current issues related to privatization and curriculum in Alberta. She is also an academic librarian at the University of Calgary, with experience in research support and knowledge synthesis.

Ellen Bees is a grade seven educator in Manitoba. She is a community organizer with People for Public Ed, working with the aim to promote consistent and substantive funding of public schools in Manitoba. She recently published her Master's thesis Manitoba Education Reforms, White Settler Discourses, and the Marginalization of Indigenous Perspectives (2022) at the University of Manitoba, which examines how neoliberal discourses of learning and achievement work to marginalize Indigenous perspectives within Manitoba education reform documents. Her research has focused on the education reform movement in Manitoba, including "Cultural Capital and Cultural Community Wealth: A Critique of the BEST Report" (2021) and "Culturally Unresponsive: The Manitoba Education Review and Colonial Perspectives" (2021), which was co written with Shannon D. M. Moore.

References:
Bees, E. (2022). Manitoba education reforms, white settler discourses, and the marginalization of Indigenous perspectives. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/36814

Bees, E., & Moore, S. D. M. (2021). Culturally Unresponsive: The Manitoba Education Review and Colonial Perspectives. Inform-Ed. https://inform-ed.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Culturally-Unresponsive-The-Manitoba-Education-Review-and-Colonial-Perspectives.pdf

Ganshorn, H. (2023, January 23). Populism, Polarization and Privatization in Alberta Education. The Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/populism-polarization-and-privatization-in-alberta-education/

Ganshorn, H. (2022, November 8). Undermining public education. Education Forum.https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/https://education-forum.ca/2022/11/08/undermining-public-education/

Ganshorn, H., & Moussa, M. (2022, September 1). Beware “privatization creep” in education system. Leaderpost. https://leaderpost.com/opinion/heather-ganshorn-medeana-moussa-beware-privatization-creep-in-education-system

Parker, L. (2017). Creating a Crisis: Selling Neoliberal Policy Through the Rebranding of Education. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 183, Article 183. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/31168

Parker, L. (2021, April 5). Ontario’s ‘choice’ of fully online school would gamble on children for profit. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/ontarios-choice-of-fully-online-school-would-gamble-on-children-for-profit-158292

Resources:

• People for Public Ed: https://peopleforpubliced.com/
• SOS Alberta: https://www.supportourstudents.ca/
• Critical Education: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/
• Graphic Recordings of the Symposium: https://peopleforpubliced.com/graphics

Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this first episode of the special series we speak to Ee-Seul Yoon (U of M), Erika Shaker (CCPA), Pamela Rogers (CTF/FCE) and Nichole Grant (CTF/FCE) about the ideological motivations of this reform.

Bios:
Dr. Ee-Seul Yoon's scholarship focuses on how market-based educational reforms -- including choice, competition, entrepreneurship, and deregulation -- reproduce existing power structures based on social class, race, and community wealth, which are entrenched in residential segregation because of colonial racism and neoliberalism. Dr. Yoon has published in the top journals in the field, and their research highlights how the current reforms of school marketization (re)produce inequitable ideologies, structures, and practices. Dr. Yoon's ground-breaking critical spatial research is known for illuminating the impact of educational marketization on the differentiated and unequal educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of diverse learners and families. In a recent collaboration with Dr. Lyn Daniels, Director of Instruction, Aboriginal Learning (BC), they show that Indigenous families' school choice is economically and spatially constrained in the face of colonial racism; therefore, school choice policy needs to change in order to reduce this type of systematic and racial inequity. https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=xDUaNrcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Since 1997, Erika Shaker has directed the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' (CCPA) Education Project, established to monitor corporate intrusion in public education. In 2000 she became co-editor of the popular education journal Our Schools / Our Selves, established in 1987, and in 2020 Erika became director of the CCPA's National Office. She writes, researches and speaks on a wide variety of education issues including privatization and commercialism, inequality, standardization and social justice. Erika has a BA in History from McGill, and an MA from the University of Guelph in English with a focus on critical literary theory. Her dissertation, completed in 1995/96, was on the commercialization of curriculum in Ontario. https://policyalternatives.ca/authors/erika-shaker

Pamela Rogers is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, and CTF/FCE Principal Investigator on educator mental health research funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Her research focuses on discursive policy formations and teachers' lived experiences in neoliberal educational governance structures. She has publications in the Canadian Journal of Education, Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, and Historical Encounters, focusing on anti-oppressive education, critical historical consciousness, and understanding cultural productions of history in public spaces. Pamela is an independent consultant and public academic who has written articles for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives journal, Our Schools/Our Selves, the New Brunswick Media Co-op, and CTF/FCE's online blog, Perspectives. As a former high school social studies teacher from Nova Scotia, Pamela is interested in improving workplace conditions and building community alliances to support public school educators. https://www.ctf-fce.ca/authors/pamela-rogers-2/

Nichole Grant currently resides with her family in Ottawa, Ontario, the traditional unceded territories of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Peoples. She is Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and Part-time Professor with the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Education. Having published in several edited collections, the Canadian Journal of Education, Historical Encounters, and co-edited a collection on radical youth pedagogy (2020, DIO Press), Nichole’s research focuses on anti-oppressive practices and educational policies in Canada, as well as methods of knowledge formation and neoliberalism in everyday spaces. In this work, Nichole looks to understand the interactions of people, places, and histories in these areas through feminist posthumanism, decolonizing, and new materialist approaches. https://www.ctf-fce.ca/authors/nichole-grant/

Episode Resources:
Apple, M. W. (2013). Educating the Right Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality. Routledge.

Courtney, S. J., & Lee-Piggott, R. (2022).Time to turn the tide: Privatization trends in education in the Caribbean. Education International. https://www.ei-ie.org/en/item/26266:time-to-turn-the-tide-privatisation-trends-in-education-in-the-caribbean

Our Schools/Our Selves. (2023, Summer/Fall). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://policyalternatives.ca/our-schoolsour-selves-summerfall-2023

Rogers, P. & Grant, N. (2022, April 23). Policy influencers and privatizing pathways: A tale of organizing to endure [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association, SanDiego,
CA.

Shaker, E. (2023, June 23). “Parental choice” is a dog-whistle—Let’s recognize it as such. The Monitor. https://monitormag.ca/articles/parental-choice-is-a-dog-whistle-lets-recognize-it-as-such/The Monitor. (2023, August). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
https://policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/monitor-julyaugust-2023

Yoon, E., & Gulson, K. N. (2010). School choice in the stratilingual city of Vancouver. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(6), 703–718. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2010.528871

Yoon, E.-S. (2016). Neoliberal imaginary, school choice, and “new elites” in public secondary schools. Curriculum Inquiry, 46(4), 369–387.

Yoon, E.-S. (2020). School choice research and politics with Pierre Bourdieu: New possibilities. Educational Policy, 34(1), 193–210.

Yoon, E.-S., & Daniels, L. D. (2021). At the margins of Canada: School choice practices of Aboriginal families in a settler-colonial city. Educational policy, 35(7), 1288-1310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819864442

Yoon, E.-S., Lubienski, C., & Lee, J. (2018). The geography of school choice in a city with growing inequality: The case of Vancouver. Journal of Education Policy, 33(2), 279–298.

Yoon, E.-S., & Winton, S. (2020). Multiple privatisations in public education: Issues, theories, and conversations. In Journal of Educational Administration and History (Vol. 52, Issue 1, pp. 1–8). Taylor & Francis.

Zhu X., & Meng, T. (2020). Geographical leadership mobility and policy isomorphism: narrowing the regional inequality of social spending in China. Policy Studies Journal, 48, 806-832.

Resources:

• Critical Education: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/
• Graphic Recordings of the Symposium: https://peopleforpubliced.com/graphics

Through this four episode special series of Public Good, Stephen and Shannon speak to presenters from a SSHRC funded symposium, Public Conversations About Privatization: Rejecting the Marketization of Public School Systems in Canada. The symposium, held on May 26 & 27th, 2023, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), brought together academics, educators, activists and community groups from across Canada to discuss: a) the ideological motivations of educational reforms; b) the way these reforms are manifesting “uniquely” in each province; and c) the political and community resistance to the reforms. The two-day symposium included ten thought provoking presentations on the three symposium themes (ideological motivations, provincial privatization, resistance). Through this special podcast series, we will speak to presenters from within each theme. In this third episode of the special series we speak to Beyhan Farhadi (OISE), Justin Fraser (P4PE), and E. Wayne Ross (UBC) about resistance. That is, the moves to resist the undermining and privatization of public education across Canada.

Bios
Dr. Beyhan Farhadi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher, and Adult Education at OISE, U of T. Prior to joining the faculty at OISE, Dr. Farhadi was the Research Cluster Lead for Community Engagement and Public Scholarship at the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies at York University and a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ontario. She was also a secondary teacher with the Toronto District School Board and a community organizer with Scarborough Families for Public Education. Her research focuses on the impact of online learning on educational equity in Ontario and, more recently, Alberta. Dr. Farhadi's lead-authored publications in The Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy (2022) and The Journal for Teaching and Learning (2021) reflect a commitment to open access scholarship and meaningful engagement with education stakeholders. She also mobilizes knowledge for the public in sole-authored publications for the Broadbent Centre and The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, as well as The Conversation, Canada, and First Policy Response at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Justin D. Fraser (he/him) is an educator, activist, musician, and graduate student from Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a public school teacher specializing in popular music education, he has firsthand experience with neoliberal education reforms such as funding cuts, "back-to-basics" curricular emphases, and the marketization of arts education. Fraser is a founding member of People for Public Ed, a Manitoba-based community group dedicated to promoting consistent and substantive public funding for public education, and is committed to ensuring that all students in Manitoba have equitable access to high quality public education. Specifically, his work with PfPE includes community organizing, outreach, writing, and popular education. Finally, as a graduate student at the University of Manitoba, Fraser's research interests include the impacts of neoliberal education reforms on public education as well as designing and facilitating more equitable and just models of popular music education within a critical education paradigm.

E. Wayne Ross, PhD is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at The University of British Columbia. His research and teaching focus on the role of curriculum and teaching in building democratic communities that are positioned to challenge the priorities and interests of neoliberal capitalism as manifest in educational and social policies that shape both formal and informal education experiences. His work includes books such as Neoliberalism and Education, Battleground Schools, Working for Social Justice Inside and Outside the Classroom, Defending Public Schools (4 Vols.) as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular media on the global education reform movement in North America. He is a scholar-activist and organizer having co-founded the Rouge Forum, Institute for Public Education/British Columbia and Institute for Critical Education Studies, the latter publishes the academic journals Critical Education and Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor.

References
Farhadi, B. (2019). “ The Sky’s the Limit”: On the Impossible Promise of e-Learning in the Toronto District School Board. University of Toronto (Canada).https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/97442/1/Farhadi_Beyhan_%20_201911_PhD_thesis.pdf

Farhadi, B., & Winton, S. (2021). Building a Plane While Flying: Crisis Policy Enactment during COVID-19 in Alberta Secondary Schools. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 15(2), 117–132.https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/6725

Fraser, J.D. (2023,June 13).Toward criticality: Popular music education for social justice. Association for Popular Music Education. https://www.popularmusiceducation.org/blog/toward-criticality-popular-music-ed ucation-for-social-justice/

Moore, S.D.M., & Fraser, J.D. (2022, September 17).Playing politics with public education. People for Public Education.https://bit.ly/3DWgPq4

Moore, S.D.M., Fraser, J.D.,& Janzen, M. (2022, December 6). Crowdfunding For Public education? Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. http://policyx.ca/2022/12/06/crowd-funding-for-public-education/

Gibson, R., Queen, G., Ross, E.W., & Vinson, K. (2008). The Rouge Forum. In D. Hill (Ed.), Contesting neoliberal education: Public resistance and collective advance (pp. 110-135). Routledge.https://www.routledge.com/Contesting-Neoliberal-Education-Public-Resistance-and-Collective-Advance/Hill/p/book/9780415507103

Ross, E. W. (2015). Teaching for Change: Social Education and Critical Knowledge of Everyday Life. In S. Totten (Ed.), The importance of teaching social issues: Our pedagogical creeds (pp. 141-146). Routledge.https://www.routledge.com/The-Importance-of-Teaching-Social-Issues-Our-Pedagogical-Creeds/Totten/p/book/9781138788534

Ross, E. W. (2020). Why Are Things As They Are? Action Research and the Transformation of Work and Education in the Neoliberal Age. The Canadian Journal of Action Research, 21(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.33524/cjar.v21i1.515

Ross, E. W., & Gibson, R. J. (2007). Neoliberalism and education reform. Hampton Press Cresskill, NJ.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265050471_Neoliberalism_and_Education_Reform

Ross, E. W., & Vinson, K. D. (2013). Resisting neoliberal education reform: Insurrectionist pedagogies and the pursuit of dangerous citizenship. Cultural Logic: A Journal of Marxist Theory & Practice, 20, 17-45.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265384800_Resisting_Neoliberal_Education_Reform_Insurrectionist_Pedagogies_and_the_Pursuit_of_Dangerous_Citizenship

Resources

• Critical Education: https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/
• People for Public Education: https://peopleforpubliced.com/
• Graphic Recordings of the Symposium: https://peopleforpubliced.com/graphics

In our eighteenth episode, Stephen and Shannon are joined by Dr. Gillian Parekh.

Dr. Parekh is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies in Education (Tier 2) within the Faculty of Education at York. Gillian is cross-appointed with York's graduate program in Critical Disability studies. As a previous teacher in special education and research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Gillian has conducted extensive system and school-based research in Toronto in the areas of structural equity, special education, and academic streaming. In particular, her work explores how schools construct and respond to disability as well as how students are organized across programs and systems.Source: https://edu.yorku.ca/edu-profiles/index.php?mid=732857

In this episode we speak to Dr. Parekh about her new book, Ableism in Education: Rethinking School Practices and Policies. Through the conversation, Dr. Parekh discusses the “unbreakable relationship” between ability and schooling. Ability is used to organize students, and this results in hierarchies and ranking of students; this is reinforced by assessment and grading. Dr. Parekh speaks to the way notions of ability re/produce deficit narratives. We speak about the impact of academic streaming, special education, and gifted programs. Through this conversation, we also talk about the ways that race, gender and parental education level intersects with constructions of students’ ability. At the end of the conversation, we speak about the rationale for inviting and involving students in decisions surrounding policies and practices. We also speak about a resource that Dr. Parekh helped co-create, Equity and Human Rights in Education: Critical Reflective Practice Guide

Relevant Publications:
Archer, L., Francis, B., Miller, S., Taylor, B., Tereshchenko, A., Mazenod, A., Pepper, D., & Travers, M.-C. (2018). The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting. British Educational Research Journal, 44(1), 119–140

Annamma, S., & Morrison, D. (2018). Identifying dysfunctional education ecologies: A DisCrit analysis of bias in the classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education, 51(2), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2018.1496047

Brantlinger, E. A. (2006). Who Benefits From Special Education?: Remediating (Fixing) Other People’s Children. Routledge.

Connor, D. J. (2017). Who is responsible for the racialized practices evident within (special) education and what can be done to change them? Theory into Practice, 56(3), 226–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2017.1336034

Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R., & Morrell, E. (2008). The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools. Peter Lang.

Gallagher-Mackay, K., Brown, R.S., Parekh, G., James C.E. & Corso, C. (2023). “I have all my credits – now what?”: Disparities in postsecondary transitions, invisible gatekeeping and inequitable access to rigorous upper year curriculum in Toronto, Ontario. Toronto: Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and the Diaspora at York University. https://www.yorku.ca/edu/jean-augustine-chair/publications/pse-access-report/

Gaztambide-Fernández, R., Saifer, A., & Desai, C. (2013). “Talent” and the misrecognition of social advantage in specialized arts education. Roeper Review, 35(2), 124–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2013.766964

Gaztambide-Fernández, R., & Parekh, G. (2017). Market "Choices" or Structured Pathways? How Specialized Arts Education Contributes to the Reproduction of Inequality. Education policy analysis archives, 25(41), n41.

James, C. E. & Parekh, G. (2021). Fixed Trajectories: Race, schooling and graduation from a Southern Ontario university. Canadian Journal of Higher Education.

James, C. E., & Turner, T. (2017). Towards race equity in education: The schooling of Black students in the Greater Toronto Area. York University. https://edu.yorku.ca/files/2017/04/Towards-Race-Equity-in-EducationApril2017.pdf

Ineese-Nash, N. (2020). Disability as a colonial construct: The missing discourse of culture in conceptualizations of disabled Indigenous children. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(3), 28–51. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v9i3.645

Parekh, G. (2022). Ableism in Education: Rethinking School Practices and Policies (Equity and Social Justice in Education). W. W. Norton & Company.

Parekh, G. (2017). The tyranny of “ability”. Curriculum Inquiry, 47(4), 337-343.

Parekh, G. & Brown, R. S. (2020). The tension between institutional and self-identification of disability. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 9(5), 347-379.

Parekh, G., & Brown, R. S. (2019). Changing lanes: The relationship between special education placement and students’ academic futures. Educational Policy, 33(1), 111-135.

Parekh, G., Brown, R. S., & Robson, K. (2018). The social construction of giftedness: The intersectional relationship between whiteness, economic privilege, and the identification of gifted. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 7(2), 1-33.

Parekh, G. Brown, R.S., & Zheng, S. (2018). Learning skills, system equity and implicit bias within Ontario, Canada. Educational Policy, 35(3), 395-321.

Reid, D. K., & Knight, M. G. (2006) Disability justifies exclusion of minority students: A critical history grounded in disability studies, educational researcher, 35(6), 18–23.

Sloan, K. (2013, May 9). The fallacy of intelligence and genetic determinism. The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. https://www.cbc-network.org/2013/05/the-fallacy-of-intelligence-and-genetic-determinism/

Relevant Resources Guide:
Equity and Human Rights in Special Educationhttps://www.criticalreflectivepractice.com/ https://www.criticalreflectivepractice.com/

In our seventeenth episode, Stephen and Shannon are joined by Dr. Tiffany Prete.

Dr. Apooyak’ii, Tiffany Prete (nee Hind Bull) is a member of the Kainai (Blood Tribe) of the Siksikasitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy), located in the Treaty 7 area. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge. Her program of work is comprised of implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action on the Blood Reserve. Dr. Prete’s background is in educational policy studies, specializing in Indigenous Peoples education. Her area of expertise includes: Indigenous secondary retention rates within the public school system, Blackfoot historical research, impacts of colonization, intergenerational trauma, and Indigenous research methodologies. Source: https://www.ulethbridge.ca/artsci/dr-apooyak%E2%80%99ii-tiffany-prete

In this episode we speak to Dr. Prete about what compels her work. Dr. Prete speaks about the 8 school models, and how each attempted to assimilate Indigenous peoples until they no longer existed. This included public schools. Dr. Prete also shares the way that schools were designed to give Indigenous students “just enough” education; this practice still exists in the current context. We also speak to Dr. Prete about her research on Indigenous secondary retention rates, and the positive impact of including Indigenous ways of knowing in schools. Dr. Prete also speaks about the impact of all students in public schools taking a specific course dedicated to Indigenous studies, and makes some recommendations for incorporating Indigenous epistemologies into curriculum and practice more broadly.

Episode Resources:
Prete, T. (2021). How Alberta Education's First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Policy Framework influence students' attitudes towards the Indigenous Peoples of Can-ada. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 14(2), 96-113. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcis.1840

Prete, T. (2021). Integrating traditional educational practices of the Siksikaitsita-pi (Blackfoot Confederacy) into a post-secondary context. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 40(4), 372-381. DOI: 10.1080/02601370.2021.1958940

Prete, T. (2020). How integrating Indigenous perspectives into the classroom affects students' attitudes towards Indigenous People. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 15(2), 120-134. http://dx.doi10.20355/jcie29387

Prete, T. (2018). 'Effects of Indigenous Epistemology on Indigenous Secondary Retention Rates.' Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 13(1), 23-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.20355/jcie29341

PUBlic Professor Series | Apooyak’ii, Dr. Tiffany Prete | University of Lethbridge. https://www.ulethbridge.ca/artsci/public-professor-series-apooyakii-dr-tiffany-prete

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