Chapter 16: See Something, Say Something: Collective Resistance to Teacher Education Reform

When I consider all that has been left behind in the race of corporate education reform, I see devastation at all levels. At the macro level, I see the loss of the very idea of the public good and democratic education, as neoliberal reformers tout the market as the “cure” for what they have successfully labeled a crisis in education (Lipman, 2004, 2011; Saltman, 2007; Watkins, 2011). At the micro level, I see the dull eyes of students who have been subject to high-control, high-stakes testing environments, and the tears of panic and anxiety from teachers trying to meet data-driven objectives. For these students and teachers, the possibilities for creative, meaningful teaching and learning are being left behind with each test-preparation lesson. As a teacher educator in a university-based teacher education program, I am witness to and participant in high-surveillance, standardized accountability regimes being imposed on our practice.