Chapter 7: Learning to Organize for Educational Change: One CBO’s Efforts to Influence Educational Policy

Education organizing is the utilization of organizing strategies for the purpose of achieving educational change. The Cross City Campaign defines organizing as “building power for people who are powerless and those whose lives are negatively impacted by the decisions of others” (Gold, Simon & Brown, 2002, p. 5). The process enables otherwise marginalized individuals to work for change through relationship building. Education organizing is grounded in the traditions of community organizing but is also strongly influenced by the history of labor unions, the US settlement house movement, and the Civil Rights, farm worker, and Women’s Rights movements of the 1960s (Oakes & Rogers, 2006). Organizing provides an intriguing alternative (or supplementary opportunity) to traditional forms of family involvement by allowing families to become engaged and not just involved with education issues. Shirley (1997) describes the critical distinction between involvement and engagement as follows:

Family empowerment through organizing stems from the creation of opportunities independent of schools and school systems, though many CBOs work to develop partnerships with schools and teachers (Schutz, 2006). Moreover, community organizing extends opportunities to be involved in educational reform beyond the family to community citizens. It is an appealing model for individuals who feel excluded or limited by traditional opportunities for involvement (Evans, 2009) and it is an approach that continues to grow in popularity (Mediratta, Shah & McAlister, 2009).