Bradley Levinson Research Collection

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/25629

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 29

Afterword: Implications for educational policy and practice
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) Levinson, Bradley A. U.; Sutton, Margaret
This book provides rich resources for teaching and learning about broad social and cultural issues in education. At the same time, it raises a question often heard by instructors in educational foundations courses, and that is, "What is the practical relevance of this material?" -to policy formation, curriculum design, school administration, classroom pedagogy, and so on. This is a fair question, but not an east one to answer. Social and cultural analysis in education is often more akin toe "basic" than "applied" research, to use a distinction common in the natural sciences. The primary purpose of this work is to clarify and expand existing insights, illuminate new concepts, raise new questions, and the reframe perspectives on long-standing issues. To be sure, a few of the authors in this book -notably several in section III- do offer specific ideas for improving educational policy and practice that flow from their research. Most, however, leave the reader to draw out such ideas in the context of his or her own specific experiences and understandings. This kind of contingent "application" is compatible with the interpretive enterprise in which the authors are engaged.
An Anthropological Approach to Education Policy as a Practice of Power: Concepts and Methods
(Springer, 2020) Levinson, Bradley A. U.; Winstead, Teresa; Sutton, Margaret
Since the introduction to our 2001 edited volume, Policy as Practice: Toward a Comparative Sociocultural Analysis of Education Policy (Sutton and Levinson 2001), we have continued to sketch the foundational postulates of a critical anthropological approach to the study of education policy. In 2009, we expanded and deepened many of the points from that introduction, more systematically introducing and defining theoretical terms, and providing a bit of their intellectual genealogy (Levinson et al. 2009). We also discussed certain methodological considerations that accompanied the theoretical approach, and we argued for a type of engaged educational anthropology that goes beyond the mere “study” of education policy to its democratization and transformation. Here we provide an updated synopsis of our approach.
La antropología de la educación estadounidense: Temas y tensiones en el conocimiento de un campo social
(Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 2014-02) Levinson, Bradley A.
En esta ponencia, bosquejo una especie de auto-retrato y procuro dar cuenta de algunos temas y tensiones que marcan la antropología estadounidense contemporánea, con alguna atención al concepto de educación que implican estas tensiones. Ilustro la gama de tensiones con una pequeña selección de artículos de publicación reciente en nuestra revista principal, The Anthropology and Education Quarterly, o en los libros de algunos de nuestros colegas más destacados.
Bringing in the citizen: Culture, politics, and democracy in the U.S. anthropology of education
(Tsantsa: The Swiss Review of Anthropology, 2005) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
This article reviews historical and con- temporary developments in the field of educational anthropology in relation to programs for democratic citizenship. Anchored in reflections and insights from his evolving research in Mexico, the author attempts to show how the anthropology of education, engaged with critical theoretical discourses in the broader discipline, can contribute to research on democratic citizenship education. The author argues for the need to put questions of democracy, citizenship, and governance at the conceptual heart of the field.
Cultural production and reproduction in contemporary schools
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) Borman, Kathryn M.; Fox, Amy E.; Levinson, Bradley A. U.
The articles included in this section include a wide range of topical areas and theoretical frameworks. A common set of organizing ideas links the articles that, taken together, cover the life course of school-aged children and young adults engaged in formal schooling arrangements. Three important concepts related to schooling in a capitalist society constitute overlapping themes. These themes are: (1) persistent and inherent inequities in the educational delivery system, resulting in equally persistent gaps in academic achievement between groups of students; (2) inadequacies of current pedagogical and administrative practices; and (3) the continuing importance of race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) in structuring students' life experiences and opportunities.
Democratic citizenship education in Latin America: A new imperative for the Americas
(Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy, 2007-09) Levinson, Bradley A.U.; Schugurensky, Daniel; González, Roberto
During the last decade, countries across the Americas have been active in revising programs for civic education in order to create a broader and deeper democratic political culture. Perennially a bulwark of national identity and allegiance for more authoritarian or populist regimes, civic education has been reconceived as a space for fostering democratic citizenship. Yet school-based civic education remains but one actor in the drama, variously competing and aligning with the many forces and influences that shape the construction of citizenship, from popular culture and the media, to peer groups and economic relations, to political opportunities and the balance of rights and responsibilities present in each particular context. In discourse across the Americas, civic education is giving way to “citizenship” education, and the broader term, “citizenship formation,” is often preferred, especially in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. In our usage, then, democratic citizenship education (DCE) includes state-sponsored initiatives in schools and in non-formal education programs, as well as informal socialization processes and organized civil society initiatives. During the last decade, the Organization of American States (OAS) has also played an important role in the region promoting DCE. At least since the Second Summit of the Americas, held in Santiago de Chile in 1998, numerous mandates for attention to “democratic values and practices” have been promulgated during OAS general assemblies, plenary sessions, and Summits of the Americas. Such efforts were strongly bolstered by the signing of the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the OAS in September of 2001. Articles 26 and 27 of the Charter placed emphasis on the need to develop a “democratic culture” to accompany democratic political reforms. In particular, Article 27 mandated that “special attention shall be given to the development of programs and activities for the education of children and youth as a means of ensuring the continuance of democratic values, including liberty and social justice.” Since that time, the Department of Education and Culture, in collaboration with the Department for the Promotion of Governance of the OAS, has taken the lead in convening meetings with participants from governmental and non-governmental institutions throughout the Americas to share knowledge of best practices across borders and to exchange ideas through open discussions and debates.
Editorial Introduction
(Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy, 2009-06) Levinson, Bradley A.U.
As I write these words, the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago has just wrapped up, and a renewed sense of respectful hemispheric cooperation is being widely proclaimed. The Inter - American Democratic Charter, which stimulates and reaffirms all OAS member states’ commitment to democracy as way of life, has once again been invoked as a touchstone for such cooperation. At the Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy, we are heartened by these trends, and we also look forward to similar collaboration at the upcoming sixth OAS Meeting of Ministers of Education, already in planning for August 12th, in Quito, Ecuador. We see our work as contributing to educational development in the Americas, and we envision this work unfolding in a spirit of mutuality and public-mindedness. The Journal serves as a space for the exchange of research experiences and ideas, a vital forum for reflection amidst the otherwise urgent business of constructing and strengthening democratic political cultures in our region.
Education reform sparks teacher protest in Mexico
(Phi Delta Kappan, 2014-05) Levinson, Bradley A.
The tumult in Mexican education has deep roots in politics and tradition, but it is latter-day global competition and international measures of student performance that are driving reform efforts.
El docente de secundaria ante las reformas educativas. De apóstol a empleado desechable
(Revista Electrónica Actualidades Investigativas en Educación, 2018) Lozano Andrade, Inés; Levinson, Bradley A.
Este artículo trata sobre las condiciones que vive el docente de secundaria ante los cambios derivados de la implementación de diversas reformas educativas en México (2006, 2011, 2013). Se realiza una investigación cualitativa que emplea entrevista semi-estructurada a 18 docentes de este nivel en la ciudad de México. El objetivo es describir e interpretar los significados y sentidos que tienen los docentes acerca de cómo viven estos cambios y de los factores que generan su situación. El análisis revela cómo los docentes de secundaria han significado su labor cada vez menos autónoma y, por tanto, más alienante, este último concepto es fundamental para comprender la sensación que están viviendo hoy en función de la implementación de estas reformas que han generado sensaciones que van desde el desencanto hasta el malestar. Los resultados revelan que los docentes hacen mención a la indisciplina e indiferencia de los jóvenes como una problemática central; a una pérdida del poder derivada de imposiciones para acreditar forzadamente al estudiantado independientemente de su desempeño; a la pérdida del prestigio social de su labor por las campañas mediáticas realizadas recientemente, las cuales justificaban la nueva y última reforma que afecta sus condiciones de estabilidad laboral, lo que les genera una sensación de incertidumbre y discontinuidad. La enajenación, como pérdida del dominio que tienen sobre sus acciones y la pérdida de seguridad en sus perspectivas, se plantea como un factor importante para ser considerado en la comprensión de la situación crítica de la escuela secundaria en México.
El sueño y la práctica de sí: Pedagogía feminista
(El Colegio de México, 2009) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
Los antropólogos de la educación hemos señalada desde have décadas ya que la educación debe concebirse como un proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, en mayor o menor medida intencional, que se da tanto dentro como fuera de la escuela. Y aunque los procesos escolares siguen ocupando mucho a los investigadores educativos, siempre ha existido el reconocimiento de la vida cotidiana, la llamada educación no formal.
Etnografía de la educación: Tendencias actuales [Ethnography of education: Current trends]
(Revista mexicana de investigación educativa, 2007-07) Levinson, Bradley A.U.; Sandoval-Flores, Etelvina; Bertely-Busquets, María
Qué es la etnografía, de dónde proviene, y hacia dónde se dirige, en cuanto acercamiento teórico-metodológico? ¿Cómo ha aportado la etnografía a la investigación educativa y, consecuentemente, al cambio de la práctica educativa? ¿Cuáles son las tendencias actuales de la etnografía educativa, que nos permiten apreciar las nuevas comprensiones y conocimientos que pueda aportar a los procesos educativos? En este ensayo introductorio a la sección temática procuramos dar respuesta a estas preguntas, de forma muy breve y sintética, sobre todo a través del recuento de los temas y avances teórico-metodológicos representados en los artículos que conforman la temática.
Forming and implementing a new secondary civic education program in Mexico
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2007) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
For at least two decades now, Mexico has been in the throes of a fitful transition from a long history of corrupt authoritarian rule to a more fully democratic regime. yet changes in civil society have not always kept pace with changes in the formal political-electoral sphere. Like so many other countries currently experiencing democratic transition, Mexico has looked to its school system to undertake the daunting task of cultivating democratic attitudes and dispositions among the new generation. There is both great enthusiasm for this project, and great skepticism that schools can accomplish it.
From curriculum to practice: Removing structural and cultural obstacles to effective secondary education reform in the Americas
(Organization of American States Working Papers for the Sixth Meeting of Ministers of Education, 2009) Levinson, Bradley A. U.; Casas, Carolina
Few would question the growing importance of secondary education in the contemporary outlook. Now more than ever, amidst globalization, youth require sophisticated and engaging pedagogies that will enable them to navigate the social, moral, and technological complexity of the modern world, and to recapture a sense of excitement, purpose, and wonder in learning. Ideally, schools can provide youth with the tools to navigate this new landscape. Yet sadly, schools and school systems in our region still reflect the bureaucratic, state-building imperatives of an older age. With all too few exceptions, and often in spite of their own best efforts, schools attempt to instill standardized knowledge through authoritarian means.
From Non-Compliance to Columbine: Capturing Student Perspectives to Understand Non-Compliance and Violence in High Schools
(Urban Review, 2003) Stevick, E. Doyle; Levinson, Bradley A. U.
The paper reviews a number of ethnographic studies of students in U.S. secondary schools to help understand the causes of a range of student behaviors from minor non-compliance to lethal violence. Based on these studies, as well personal experience, the authors suggest that educators and educational researchers approach and understand student perspectives on school life. Such perspectives often reveal the logic of non-compliance, and show that aspects of school structure and practice can exacerbate or contribute to violence. Student non-compliance and alienation can escalate into violence if the student view is not regularly consulted in schools.
Hopes and challenges for the new civic education in Mexico: Toward a democratic citizen without adjectives
(International Journal of Educational Development, 2004) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
This paper presents the main goals and themes, as well as a critical analysis, of an ambitious new reform of Mexico’s secondary-level program for civic education. It begins with a brief historical review of the modern Mexican secondary school, as well as a thematic analysis of the new published curriculum and study program, which puts heavy emphasis on the development of democratic citizenship skills and habits. The paper then draws on interview research to highlight some of the challenges that national and local actors have identified for the program’s successful implementation. Because the new program espouses a progressive democratic pedagogy in the absence of a supportive democratic political culture, an appropriate structure of school governance, or adequate training for in-service teachers, many actors expressed skepticism about whether the reform could meaningfully take hold. Skepticism turned around two areas of concern that must be addressed by policymakers: 1), teacher training, teacher identities, and teacher hiring, all mired in older structures of tradition, convenience, economic opportunism, and even union favoritism and corruption, and 2) the cultural and political immaturity of the broader society to sustain whatever democratic habits and attitudes the school manages to develop in students.
Integrating Indiana’s Latino Newcomers: A Study of State and Community Responses to the New Immigration
(Indiana University, 2007) Levinson, Bradley A. U.; Everitt, Judson; Johnson, Linda C.
Despite decades of research on the “new immigration,” we know little about how states and communities where Latino immigrants have recently settled respond to the arrival of these newcomers.1Most research still highlights the experiences and problems of immigrant newcomers themselves; we have learned relatively little about the culture and institutions of long established residents in host states and communities.
Interculturality as a pivotal aspect of education for democracy: A dialogue with Sylvia Schmelkes
(Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy, 2008-06) Levinson, Bradley A.U.
In this dialogue, the editor of the Inter-American Journal of Education for Democracy, Bradley Levinson, interviews the distinguished educator and educational researcher Sylvia Schmelkes, member of the Editorial Board of this Journal, who is currently the Chair of the Department of Education and Director of the Institute for Educational Research of the Ibero-American University of Mexico. Sylvia Schmelkes has a long and prominent trajectory as an educational researcher, specializing in values education, popular and non-formal education, and aspects of quality in basic education. Among her more significant books and articles are Quality in Primary Education in Mexico; Toward Better Quality in our Schools; and Values Education in Basic Education. For many years Ms. Schmelkes was a researcher for the Center of Educational Studies, and later on, the Department of Educational Research (CINVESTAV-IPN), in Mexico. After 2001 she joined the Secretariat of Public Education as Director of the Office of Intercultural and Bilingual Education, a position she held until 2007.
Introduction: Cultural context and diversity in the study of democratic citizenship education
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2007) Stevick, E. Doyle; Levinson, Bradley A. U.
Jefferson's "safe repository" for the power (kratos) of the people (demos) is democracy itself. Since the Athenians first coined the term more than 2,500 years ago, democracies have taken remarkably diverse forms, even while debates over a democracy's essential and ideal characteristics continue. What constitutes a democratic society? The mechanisms of voting? The alternation of power, freedom to assemble, and to speak as one wishes? Meaningful participation for all citizens? Sets of rights- political, civil, cultural, human? Social safety nets or unencumbered markets? Openness to newcomers?
Linking state and society in discourse and action: Political and cultural studies of the Cárdenas era in Mexico
(Latin American Research Review, 1999) Spenser, Daniela; Levinson, Bradley A.
On 6 July 1997, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, founder and leader of the Mexican Partido de la Revolucion Democraitica (PRD), scored an impressive victory in being elected mayor of Mexico City. Cardenas's new status as leader of the world's largest city, along with the PRD's substantial gains in parliamentary elections, has raised important questions about the sources of their combined political strength. To what is owed the victory of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas and his party? At least three answers suggest themselves: the particular political talents, programs, and bases of support developed by Cuauhtemoc Cardenas; the identification of his father, former President Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940), with the zenith of a popular revolutionary project; and the exhaustion of the corporatist political model that, perhaps ironically and unwittingly, Lazaro Cardenas bequeathed to the Mexican state. All these elements contributed in some measure to the recent victory, but it is not our intention to sort them out here. Instead, we would like to explore the evidence that the popular legacy of the Lazaro Cardenas era has provided significant support for his son and the PRD.
Radical pluralism and the challenges of educating for democratic-ecological civic identities: Reflections from the Mexican school context
(2020) Levinson, Bradley A.
This paper builds on the growing importance of concepts of identity and diversity in citizenship education studies, and argues for an expanded conception of diversity that ultimately includes the non-human and even inanimate realm. The dramatic pace of human-induced global climate change requires a commensurate urgency in developing forms of citizenship education that shape new ecological as well as political civic identities, and which expand democracy beyond the human community. Situating my empirical work on Mexican civic education reform in a global, comparative context, I consider the challenges that all schools and school systems will need to address to incorporate even deeper practices of respect for diversity and acknowledgement of the radical pluralism that life (and non-life) on earth presents.

Browse

Browsing Bradley Levinson Research Collection by Title