Deborah Loewenberg Ball reflects on education reform and the power of teaching in Kappan article
April 14, 2022
In the April issue of Phi Delta Kappan, Deborah Ball offers a historical review of the many ways that education reform efforts over the years have simply reinforced normative educational practices.
Focusing specifically on the teaching profession and how it has become grounded in whiteness, she reflects on how these reform efforts have erased, ignored, and rejected the profound contributions of teachers of color. To counter normative education practices that have been steeped in persistent racism, Ball offers three calls to action:
- Prioritize the development of a diverse teaching force with the qualities needed to help children thrive;
- Create and learn new practices that lift up Black and Brown children’s humanity and development; and
- Embrace the wholeness and complexity of teaching and reject a simplistic perspective of what the work entails.
Featured in this Article
William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of Education and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Marsal Family School of Education; Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research