New Issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy Now Online and Upcoming Seminar

The new issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy, on the theme "Who Defines the Public in Public Education?," can be found here. The idea for this issue's theme was sparked by the ruthless and seemingly politically motivated ban on Mexican American Studies in the Tucson, Arizona school district, after years of the MAS curriculum being taught in Tucson without controversy. All of the authors included in this issue speak to the questions, both pedagogical and philosophical, arising in the wake of the Mexican American Studies ban in Tucson. The article in the new issue by former Tucson MAS teacher Curtis Acosta addresses the root of this controversy and Mr. Acosta will be joining the Western Washington University community in a discussion of his article, via webcam, on May 14th, 4-6pm. The upcoming seminar is sponsored by Western's Center for Education, Equity and Diversity, as well as the Journal of Educational Controversy and the Woodring College of Education. (Watch an interview with Curtis Acosta conducted last fall by JEC editor Lorraine Kasprisin and associate editor John Richardson here.)

The article titles, authors, and affiliations of the authors for this volume of the Journal of Educational Controversy are:

"Ask Not Only Who Defines the Curriculum: Rather Ask Too What the Curriculum Aim Should Be"

Walter Feinberg

Charles Hardie Professor, Emeritus

The University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana

"Religious Citizens in a Secular Public: Separate, Equal?"

John F. Covaleskie

University of Oklahoma

"Reading NCLB as a Form of Structural Violence"

Kerry Burch

Northern Illinois University

"Critical Study of the Concept of 'Public Identity' as Manifested in Postmodernist Versions of Critical Pedagogy"

Boaz Tsabar

Hebrew University, Israel

"The Public and Its Problem: Dewey, Habermas, and Levinas"

Guoping Zhao

Oklahoma State University

"Attack of the Cyborgs: 'Economic Imperialism' and the Human Deficit in Educational Policy-Making and Research"

Scott Ellison

University of Tennessee

"Middle School Students, Slam Poetry and the Notion of Citizenship"

Anthony M. Pellegrino, George Mason University

Kristien Zenkov, George Mason Univeristy

Gerardo Aponte-Martinez, Michigan State University

"Dangerous Minds in Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical Thinking in Arizona"

Curtis Acosta

Former Teacher of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District

Editorial: "Who Defines the Public in Pubic Education"

Lorraine Kasprisin

Editor of the Journal of Educational Controversy

Western Washington University

"Interview with Ari Palos, Film Director of Precious Knowledge" 

Celina Meza

JEC Editorial Staff

Western Washington University