Public Education as a Contested Site of Struggle

Public education is a contested site of struggle, reflecting the different ideologies and values held by various stakeholders. It can be used to support human flourishing and civic participation, but it can also be used to advance economic and political ideologies that do not enhance the human condition. Public education is a battleground where stakeholders struggle over questions of worthwhile knowledge. These cultural struggles over knowledge influence the formal and informal curricula of public and higher education. The current iteration of the culture wars in the US centers around issues of racial and gender identity, sexual orientation, and the teaching of history. Conservative forces have targeted public education as a site of struggle, seeking to impose their vision of socially valuable knowledge. Neoliberalism has also infiltrated public education, shifting the focus towards market-driven logics and undermining the traditional mission of serving the public good. To reclaim the free spaces of public and higher education, there is a need for reflexivity and a reorientation of academic fields of knowledge. This special issue explores various rejections of neoliberal and white supremacist ideologies in education and embraces curricula of possibility that promote human flourishing.