This post is a paper I published in 1997 in American Journal of Educational Research. Here's a link to a PDF of the original. It became the framing chapter in my 1997 book, How to Succeed In School Without Really Learning. Here's the abstract: This article explores three alternative goals for American education that have … Continue reading Public Goods, Private Goods — The American Struggle over Educational Goals
This post is the transcript of my discussion with Chris Saldaña of University of Wisconsin as part of the podcast, NEPC Talks Education. Here's a link to the audio version of this podcast. This is how NEPC describes the conversation in its press release for the podcast: In this month's episode of NEPC Talks Education, … Continue reading NEPC Podcast: Conversation with Chris Saldana about Education Policy
In this paper, I explore the issue of relevance in educational research. I argue that the chronic efforts by researchers to pursue relevance is counterproductive. Paradoxically, trying to make research more relevant actually makes it less so. Drawing on an analysis by Mie Augier and Jim March, I show that this is the result of … Continue reading The Dysfunctional Pursuit of Relevance in Educational Research
This post is the text of a lecture I gave in 2009 at the University of Berne. It was originally published in the Swiss journal Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Historiographie and then found its way into my 2010 book, Someone Has to Fail. Here is the link to the first published version. It’s about a longstanding problem in American … Continue reading What Schools Can’t Do
This is an op-ed I published in the Detroit News way back in 1998. It captures a key part of the argument about educational consumerism that I developed in my second book, How to Succeed in Schools Without Really Learning. And now it's a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. EDUCATIONAL CONSUMERISM: BAD FOR SCHOOLS … Continue reading Educational Consumerism
This post is a recent essay by Peter Gray published on his Substack, Play Makes Us Human. Here's a link to the original. He is a research professor of psychology at Boston College, who has written a number of books about the importance of free play for children. Like me, Gray is concerned that we over … Continue reading Peter Gray: The Toxic Consequences of Attending a High-Achieving School
This post is a piece I that came out in 2021 as a chapter in a book edited by Kyle Steele, New Perspectives on the Twentieth Century American High School. The book was published by Palgrave Macmillan as part a series edited by Bill Reese and John Rury on Historical Studies in Education. Here is a link … Continue reading Politics and Markets: The Enduring Dynamics of the US System of Schooling
This post is a piece I published in 2021 in Kappan. Here’s a link to the original. It is now a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. In this essay, I explore an issue about the “grammar of schooling” that bothered me over the years as I was teaching about this subject. … Continue reading The Dynamic Tension at the Core of the Grammar of Schooling
This post is a paper I published Educational Theory in 2008. Here’s a link to the original. In is included as a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. In this essay, I examine the paradox of educationalization in the American context. I argue that, like most modern Western societies, the United States has displayed a … Continue reading The Winning Ways of a Losing Strategy: Educationalizing Social Problems in the US
This post is a 2012 piece I published Journal of Curriculum Studies. Here’s a link to a PDF of the original. This piece is now a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. Here's an overview of the story I’m telling: The USA is suffering from a school syndrome, which arises from Americans’ insistence … Continue reading School Syndrome
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 