Changing the Frame

Abstract

Berner suggests a process by which educational pluralism could replace uniformity as the cultural norm in the United States. She draws upon the work of Randall Collins, Christian Smith, and James Davison Hunter to suggest that cultural change requires, minimally, overlapping networks of individuals with high financial, political, intellectual, and social capital; who articulate a common goal over a long period of time; and create new institutions that embody those ideals; which must be plausible and morally compelling to the audiences they seek to persuade. Berner finds that educational changes in Finland, Alberta Canada, and the United Kingdom, map onto this theory, and contrasts them with the federal, bi-partisan accountability movement that took hold in the 1990s and 2000s, represented so well in the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top Initiative. Berner concludes by charting the possibilities and the challenges associated with plural education in the United States.