Abstract

ANDERSON, Gary L.. A reforma escolar como performance e espetáculo político. Educ. Real. [online]. 2010, vol.35, n.02, pp.57-76. ISSN 0100-3143.

A school reform industry has developed in the U.S. dating back to the 1983 commissioned report A Nation at Risk. This school reform movement was driven by human capital theory, the influence of the Business lobby, bipartisan support of high stakes accountability through standardized testing, and venture philanthropists like Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and Eli Broad. This article argues that a thorough understanding of this movement requires new theories of power and politics. While traditional political actors were instrumental in promoting school reform legislation, new well-funded political actors promoted it through the creation of what Edelman (1988) called political spectacle resulting in a culture of performativity (Lyotard, 1984) and the privatization of major sectors of public schooling.

Keywords : School Reform; Political Spectacle; Privatization.

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