Effect of Politics on Education, The

The Effect of Politics on Education

Political Spectacle and the Fate of American Schools by Mary Lee Smith with Linda Miller Kahn, Walter Heinecke, and Patricia R Jarvis. New York: Routledge-Falmer. © 2004. 282 pages. ISBN 0-415-93201-7.

Drawing on the work of Murray Edelman, Mary Lee Smith and her collaborators use the concept of political spectacle to argue that American politics distort educational policies. Political spectacle theory holds that "contemporary politics resemble theater, with directors, stages, casts of actors, narrative plots, and (most importantly) a curtain that separates the action onstage-what the audience has access to-from the backstage, where the real 'allocation of values' takes place" (11). Thus the public does not learn who really benefits from changes in educational policy.

Using the Arizona Board of Education's concern with student assessment, school choice in Boulder, Colorado, and desegregation policy in Phoenix as examples, Smith et al. employ the components of political spectacle theory to understand what transpired. The theory's components are symbolic language; the casting of political actors as leaders, enemies, and allies; the use of political stages and props; the illusion of democratic participation; the use of opinion polls; the illusion of rationality; and the disconnect between means and ends and between onstage action and backstage action. Political spectacle works against equalitarian, compensatory, and communitarian values. Instead, political spectacle serves the special interests of the few (often policies that stratify and segregate) that hide behind a mask of common sense and the common good, as the allocation of goods is hidden backstage. The authors also consider two other critical issues. Their view of much educational research is conveyed by the chapter title, "Research and the Illusion of Rationality." Another chapter is devoted to the pernicious effect of big business on education.

One can agree to some extent with Smith et al. about the seriousness of the problems facing American education and the causes of those problems. But, the reader may be put off by the book's polemics. The authors do not help their case by their frequent overstatements. It is not true, for example, that journalists always rely on press releases and "interviews with handlers and experts in public relations rather than investigating leads, exploring counter claims" (125). Do all corporations always "support public institutions begrudgingly" (238)? Also, the authors strongly criticize contemporary reforms (e.g., school vouchers) but barely acknowledge public education deficiencies that prompted such initiatives. Instead, they assume that all parents favoring school choices are ideologues.

This book exemplifies the lack of consensus about education policy and practice in the U.S., with protagonists operating from incompatible sets of tightly held assumptions. Thus, the disagreements are sure to continue.

Peter Lamed is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research is concerned with the behavior, analytic description, and interpretation of cultural practices. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Copyright Kappa Delta Pi Spring 2004
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