Woodring releases fifth anniversary issue of Journal of Educational Controversy

Western Washington University’s Woodring College of Education has released the Fifth Anniversary Issue of its Journal of Educational Controversy on the theme “The Education and Schools our Children Deserve.”

The journal addresses politicizing education at the national level, which has centered on issues of standards, accountability, global competitiveness, national economic growth, low student achievement on worldwide norms, and federally mandated uniformity. There has been little discussion of the public purposes of our schools or what kind of education is necessary for an individual’s development and search for a meaningful life.

This issue is co-edited with Susan Donnelly, head of the Whatcom Day Academy, and features an article by the new dean of Woodring, Francisco Rios, on "The Future of Schools of Education." Rios writes about his vision of the public mission of schools in a democratic society and the kinds of teachers that can make that education possible.

This issue is dedicated to Alfie Kohn, whose book, “The Schools our Children Deserve,” was the inspiration for the controversy posed in this issue of the journal. Kohn wrote the prologue for the issue in which he reflects on the past few years and the need more than ever to be asking what kind of schools our children “still” deserve.

For more information, visit http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v006n001/, or contact Lorraine Kasprisin at Lorraine.Kasprisin@wwu.edu or (360) 650-3871.