Bureaucracies are often perceived as inflexible, impersonal, hierarchical, and too devoted to rules and red tape. But David Labaree makes a case for these characteristics being a positive in the world of public education. U.S. schools are built within a liberal democratic system, where the liberal pursuit of self-interest is often in tension with…

In this 2013 John Dewey Society Lecture I examine the history and the structure of the American system of higher education. I argue that the true hero of the story is the evolved "form" of the American university and that all the things we love about it, like free speech, are the side effects of a structure that arose for other purposes.…

Truly democratic politics is lacking in mainstream teacher education. Instead of being structured around efficient production and personal ambition, teacher preparation should be organized to reflect more elevated concerns about educational quality and emergent political and social consequences. Move to professionalize teaching has risen from…

The two major reports of the Holmes Group--"Tomorrow's Teachers" and "Tomorrow's Schools"--contain sharply contrasting rhetorics: the rhetoric of democratic values and scientistic rhetoric. Critical analysis of the reports suggests that the contrast highlights the contradictory tendencies embedded in the reform movement. (IAH)

Contrasting rhetorics of the two Holmes Group reports are examples of the polar types of educational rhetoric that have characterized the literature on educational reform in the United States. In "Tomorrow's Teachers," the argument for educational reform rests on technical grounds; the position is that of the educational expert and the…

Americans' commitment to local control, expanded educational opportunities, and form over substance have made standards a hard sell. Education is becoming a private good to serve consumers' individual interests, not a public good serving broader public interests. A consumerist approach to standards stresses schools' sorting function. (MLH)