ABSTRACTS

SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION, MORAL AGENCY, AND THE SUBJECT OF RESISTANCE

Barbara Applebaum

This paper explores the concept of white complicity and provides illustrations of howtraditional conceptions of moral agency support the denial of such complicity. JudithButler’s conception of subjectivity is then examined with the aim of assessing itsusefulness as a foundation for social justice pedagogy. Butler’s conception of subjectiv-ity is of interest because it offers insights into how dominant group identities areunintentionally complicit in the perpetuation of hegemonic social norms. WhileButler’s conception of subjectivity is shown to be useful in understanding whitecomplicity, questions around the notion of agency that follow from such a conceptionof subjectivity are raised and briefly discussed. Finally, I show the implications ofButler’s conception of self and agency for social justice pedagogy.

HISTORY, MYTH, AND THE POLITICS OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Robert Nelson Reddick

This paper analyzes the politics of education in the United States by considering theideas and lives of Emma Willard and Catharine Beecher, nineteenth century educa-tional reformers. It argues that understanding these women as American Antigones, asworking through the contradictions between their public writing and their privatelives, provides a perspective on the history of educational reform that combinesmyth and history. This perspective refuses idealized accounts of ‘‘lost’’ moments orpossibilities in the past, grounding educational reform in the project of reimagininggender relations within families and schools in the present.

WHAT FUTURE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE?

Francis Schrag

Each of the authors discussed in this review essay deplores the attempts of scholars inthe human sciences to ape their colleagues in the natural sciences and economics.Their criticisms are not dissimilar, nor are they without merit, but it is important toask the following questions: What would they offer in its place? What kind of warrant-ability do the alternatives promise? Can researchers avoid the dominant paradigms andstill have something valuable to say to policymakers? The bulk of the review focuseson Bent Flyvbjerg’s Making Social Science Matter, the best-reasoned critique, and theone that offers the clearest alternative to the status quo.

CONCEPTUALIZING TEACHING AS SCIENCE: JOHN DEWEY IN DIALOGUE WITH THE NATIONAL

RESEARCH COUNCIL

Greg Seals

John Dewey and the National Research Council (NRC) both discuss the problem oftranslating scientific research into contexts of schooling, but differ about the propersolution to the problem. The NRC would solve it by empirical investigation. Dewey

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finds value in that approach, but also wants educational theorists to construct generalheuristics to guide scientists in creating research agendas of intrinsic interest toeducation practitioners. Dewey’s plan faces an apparently insurmountable difficulty.General heuristics of the sort Dewey needs are not widely recognized to exist. In lightof the presumed fact of education’s inability to articulate a general framework to guideteaching practice, the NRC plan becomes preferred by default. I propose that Experi-ence and Education provides a frame of reference from which pedagogical practiceappears as a field of scientific endeavor in its own right. Conceptualizing teaching as ascience suggests ways to rework the NRC plan.

GLOBALIZATION AND EDUCATION

Parlo Singh

This paper reviews four books on globalization and education. It begins with a briefoverview of theories of globalization, focusing specifically on cultural globalization.The paper then moves on to examine how each of the books deploys and develops atheory of globalization in relation to the topic of education. It also examines theutopian vision of education outlined within the books, as well all as the methodsused to undertake research in an era of globalization.

GENTLEMANLY ORTHODOXY: CRITICAL RACE FEMINISM, WHITENESS THEORY, AND THE

APA MANUAL

Audrey Thompson

Although often viewed as burdensome, academic writing guidelines are rarely treatedas actively problematic. Even progressive scholars are unlikely to challenge the cul-tural assumptions or political investments of academic style guides. Yet standardsregarding clarity, precision, appropriateness, sensitivity, and objectivity are not politi-cally innocent. In codifying formal guidelines for the presentation of research, aca-demic style manuals reflect and reinscribe the racialized and gendered (among other)power relations characteristic of the academy. Drawing on critical race feminism andwhiteness theories, this paper considers how scholarly investments in whiteness andpatriarchy organize the influential APA writing guidelines. The present analysis refersspecifically to the APA Manual, but similar analyses might apply to aspects of theChicago and MLA manuals and the Bluebook, among other style guides.

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