Bradley Levinson Research Collection

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

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 29

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.
Theoretical Foundations for a Critical Anthropology of Education Policy
(Routledge/Taylor Francis, 2018) Levinson, Bradley A.; Winstead, Teresa; Sutton, Margaret
In this chapter we revisit and update the foundational postulates of our previous work, articulating a critical practice approach to the study of education policy. We provide what we hope is a more succinct and accessible statement of our approach, placing emphasis on three particular elements: 1) the historical, holistic, and cross-cultural insights that an anthropological lens brings to our understanding of policy as a practice of power; 2) the centrality of a non-dualistic and agentic conception of appropriation in social practice, and 3), an emphasis on social scientific knowledge produced democratically as much for various civic publics as for the scholarly or authorized “policymaking” communities. Along the way we highlight how our particular contribution to the anthropology of education policy, as theoretically informed by practice theory and committed to democratic praxis, has been both challenged and enriched over the last decade and a half.
Stealth diversity and the indigenous question: The challenges of citizenship in Mexican civic education
(AERA Publications, 2017) Levinson, Bradley A.; Luna Elizarrarás, María Eugenia
In broad brush strokes, the story of citizenship and citizenship education in Mexico features a strongly secular, liberal, nationalist state that in the 19th century begins a project to assimilate its indigenous peoples to a mainstream, mestizo national culture. This project is then inflected, but not fundamentally altered by, the Revolution of the early 20th century, which comes to glorify the indigenous contribution to national culture but provides few differentiated citizenship rights to indigenous peoples. Since the late 1980s this project has evolved in fits and starts toward a more inclusive, accommodating pluricultural framework. Yet there is still much more work to be done.
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.
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.
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.
Radical pluralism and the challenges of educating for democratic-ecological civic identities: Reflections from the Mexican school context
(Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice, 2020) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
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.
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.
Toward an Anthropology of (Democratic) Citizenship Education
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
In recent years, discourses about citizenship have come to occupy center stage, in both contemporary political practice and academic scholarship. The salience of citizenship has certainly made itself felt in anthropology as well, but less so in our educational subfield. In this chapter, my aim is to explore the relationships between educational processes and citizenship education from an anthropological perspective. In doing so, I review (not exhaustively) a good deal of work in anthropology that probes these relationships, but I also argue that our patchwork conceptual frameworks in the anthropology of education have yet to catch up with the richness and complexity of citizenship education across both formal and informal educational domains. I hope to point the way toward a more coherent and unified approach.
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.
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.
Whither the symbolic animal?; Society, culture, and education at the millennium
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
The question I pose here interrogates the evolution of humankind: How are we unfolding, and what form will our individual capacities and our global society eventually take? Education, of course, provides an important key to the answer, and the fields comprising the interpretive social sciences provide important intellectual resources for understanding and improving education. This reader presents some of the very best work produced by the interpretive social sciences on the social and cultural foundations of education. My aim is to provide teachers and students with the basic conceptual tools to understand a variety of sociocultural dynamics that shape the educational process in its many dimensions. Such sociocultural understanding is especially crucial for designing educational experiences -forging "tools for conviviality," in Ivan Illich's (1973) rich phrase- worthy of the multicultural societies of the present and future. Therefore, this book aims to compose one small part of the answer to the question: Whither the symbolic animal?
The symbolic animal: Foundations of cultural transmission and acquisition
(Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) Levinson, Bradley A. U.
In this section I present a number of key writings on the nature of education and culture. My aim is to illuminate how the very foundations of the educational process are rooted in the human penchant for making meaning out of experience and communicating that meaning to others. I hope to show that, in a very real sense, education is culture, that is, education involves the continual remaking of culture as human beings transmit and acquire the symbolic meanings that infuse social life.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Reduciendo brechas entre cultura juvenil y cultura docente escolar: El desafío institucional para crear una secundaria con sentido
(IIPE-UNESCO, 2012) Levinson, Bradley A.
¿Por qué no se ha podido construir una secundaria en América Latina que realmente atienda los intereses y las necesidades de los jóvenes de la región? ¿Por qué sigue habiendo una brecha tan abismal entre la expectativa del joven y la oferta de la escuela? En torno a estas preguntas, compartiré algunas reflexiones que han surgido a partir de mis investigaciones empíricas en México, combinadas con mi lectura de una bibliografía sobre la juventud y la secundaria en todas las Américas así como la teorización sociocultural del proceso educativo. Mis investigaciones en México, cabe señalar, han ido desde la convivencia profunda, etnográfica, con alumnos de una secundaria mexicana de provincia hace ya 20 años (Levinson, 1993; Levinson, 2002), hasta las entrevistas y observaciones con maestros, directivos, supervisores, funcionarios, y responsables de decisiones en distintos ámbitos de la educación básica mexicana, sobre todo con referencia a la secundaria, entre los años 2001 hasta la fecha (Blackwood, Levinson, y Cross, en prensa; Levinson, 2004; Levinson, 2005). A lo largo de muchos años, en mi calidad como antropólogo, he estudiado la problemática de la secundaria cualitativamente desde “abajo”, o sea, desde la perspectiva de los estudiantes y sus padres de familia, hasta “arriba”, es decir, desde la perspectiva de los que ocupan varios puestos de administración y poder en un sistema educativo. Tengo en cuenta todos los actores del sistema como punto de referencia etnográfico. Y hay que añadir que estas reflexiones han surgido también en el marco de un proceso de democratización de la sociedad y las instituciones mexicanas, y de una gran reforma de la educación básica, que hoy sigue en marcha. Así lo marcan los mismos documentos de la reforma mexicana, donde se apuesta a la formación de un estudiante crítico y democrático. A mi juicio, no se puede hablar ni de reforma educativa ni de mejorar la calidad de vida de nuestra juventud sin hacer referencia al horizonte de democratización y la democracia que se intenta construir en México y todas las Américas.
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.

Browse

Recent Submissions