Dennis Shirley

The development of collective moral leadership among parents through education organizing

It is often assumed that parent participation in schools is primarily based on self-interest and that this is a frequent source of contention between parents and teachers. This article examines the experiences of members of the Jamaica Plain Parent Organizing Project (JP-POP), a community-based organization in Boston, and reveals that some parents have learned to act beyond their individual self-interest and to organize on behalf of the entire community as a result of their participation. The authors present qualitative data from interviews with JP-POP members to ascertain the motivations behind their initial decisions to become involved in education, the benefits they derive from their participation, and the gradual evolution of narrow definitions of self-interest to more communal understandings. Finally, they draw out implications for the potential capacity enhancement of community-based organizations in education at both the institutional and district levels.

Entrenched Enemies, Tactical Partners, or Steadfast Allies? Exploring the Fault Lines between Teacher Unions and Community Organizing in the United States.

ABSTRACT Teachers’ unions and community organizing emerged out of shared collective struggles for social justice in the United States in the twentieth century. Beyond broad general aspirations for a better society, however, their interests and tactics have not always been compatible. This interpretive essay revisits three recent case studies of interaction between teachers and community organizing groups to investigate the conditions that can lead to episodic tactical relationships, entrenched polarization, or solidarity. The cases indicate that while there are many potential causes of mistrust between teachers and community activists, concrete and practical strategies can be forged that can improve student learning, benefit teachers collectively, and increase community engagement in public schools.

Community Organizing and Educational Change

As recently as the late 1990s, the concept of community organizing for educational change would scarcely have registered a blip on the proverbial screen of most change theorists. The first foray into research on this topic, documenting the origins, growth, and impacts of the “Alliance Schools” of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Texas (Shirley, 1997), generated some interest, but many considered the Alliance Schools to be an idiosyncratic appearance on the educational landscape and expected community organizing for educational change to dissipate as had so many other change efforts before it. After all, what were the chances that a network of schools organized through community-based organizations (CBOs) founded by the flamboyant, willfully adversarial Saul Alinsky, with institutional membership made up of inner-city African American and Latino churches, could have any lasting impacts on low-achieving schools in a state as famously conservative as Texas? Furthermore, unlike the Accelerated Schools, the Comer Schools, or the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Alliance Schools lacked a powerful, well-positioned academic leader such as Hank Levin (at Stanford), James Comer (at Yale), or Ted Sizer (at Brown) heading the network, with a resultant diminished impact on education anticipated.

Backtalk: Learn from a diverse, new Germany

When the United States considers what it can learn from countries that perform well on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), it should consider the diversity the country’s population. Although much attention has been given to Finland, Japan, South Korea, and Shanghai, the United States would be smarter to look at Germany, a country with growing diversity and one that has shown consistent growth on PISA. Germany has improved while avoiding many of the market-based reforms that have gained traction in the U.S.When the United States considers what it can learn from countries that perform well on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), it should consider the diversity the country’s population. Although much attention has been given to Finland, Japan, South Korea, and Shanghai, the United States would be smarter to look at Germany, a country with growing diversity and one that has shown consistent growth on PISA. Germany has improved while avoiding many of the market-based reforms that have gained traction in the U.S.