Volume 3 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Research - Page 7

Journal of K-12 Educational Research 5 SEARCHING FOR DEMOCRACY IN THE MARKET: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF TEXAS SUPERINTENDENTS NAVIGATING SCHOOL CHOICE REFORM Paul Cook, Ed.D. Introduction The American educational marketplace is more dynamic today and nuanced than it has ever been (EdChoice.org, 2017). Charter schools have completely replaced public schools in New Orleans and almost replaced them in Detroit. Florida and Indiana have increased their voucher programs at the state level by more than 400% while states like Arizona and Nevada have passed legislation to make vouchers available for every student in the state (Black, 2017). Conversations about the continued diversification of educational offerings in the United States are not new. In the 1990s many educational researchers were busy discussing this changing landscape including Peter Cookson (1994). Cookson, an educational sociologist, posited that there was an ongoing shift in American ideologies of education reform. This shift could be attributed to the growth and proliferation of market-based reform practices. Cookson saw the growth of school-choice-based initiatives in 1994 as an indicator that American sentiment towards communal accountability and national identity was giving way to ideas about American individualism and personal freedoms. Cookson suggested that a metaphorical framework could be used to describe this change. The metaphors he selected are that of democracy and the market. Purpose of the Study The purpose of the current study was to assess the phenomenological experiences of public school superintendents navigating these market-based reform initiatives. With their respective backgrounds, superintendents have almost universally experienced significant historical changes within their career which have a formative effect on their beliefs about public education and their assessment of its current efficacy in relationship to its past iterations. Acknowledging the myriad voices in the school change conversation, and recognizing the lack of phenomenological data from superintendents, created the purpose for the current study. The researcher chose to focus on the experiences of superintendents in the North Texas area with two competing reform metaphors, the market and democracy. These metaphors are further understood through the addition of eight respective dimensions, four for each metaphor. Review of Literature According to Cookson, these two metaphors are in competition with each other and represent a very real tension between the ideological camps of educational reformers. In his framework, market reformers view educational landscapes primarily in terms of transactions and recognize the “primacy and efficacy of consumership as a way of life” (Cookson, 1994, p. 99). Opposite the market is the metaphor of democracy in which Cookson described the aim as the “primacy and efficacy of citizenship as a way of life” (Cookson, 1994, p. 99). Markowitz (2001) offered a similar metaphorical framework for evaluating educational reform initiatives. While her work dealt specifically with “Deweyan democracy” and “Charter theory,” the characteristics of each metaphor are easily understood within the context of Cookson’s reform theories. Markowitz identified four distinct characterizations for both Deweyan democracy and Charter theory. Deweyan democracy is identified by dimensions labeled Association, Connection, Communication, and Growth. Journal of K-12 Educational Research 2019, VOL. 3, ISSUE 1 www.dbu.edu/doctoral/edd