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This review has been accessed times since November 9, 2005

Anyon, Jean. (2005). Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement. New York: Routledge.

$85.00 (Hardcover)   ISBN 0415950988
$22.95 (Paperback)   ISBN 0415950996

Reviewed by Nicholas Appleton
Arizona State University

November 9, 2005

(For an essay review of this book by Gary L. Anderson, see http://edrev.asu.edu/essays/v8n1index.html)

Jean Anyon describes what other sources confirm: as the rich get richer the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. This phenomenon, she argues, is the result of social, economic and political policies. She also believes that given sufficient social pressure these policies can be changed. This is important because, like other theorists, Anyon believes there is a strong relationship between social class and educational attainment. But while most liberal and conservative policy makers believe that higher educational achievement is the means out of poverty, Anyon reverses the relationship. Schools, she argues, are not the reliable social leveler they were once thought to be for individuals and groups who used them to move from urban ghettos to the middle class. If we want to increase the educational attainment of lower SES urban students, she argues, we must increase the household incomes of the students’ families. To do this, we must venture outside the realm of education to provide options for the poor. In Radical Possibilities, she shows how historic and contemporary policies have lead to and perpetuate the cycle of poverty, why education reform alone cannot reverse the cycle, and ways to create a new social movement for social justice.

Anyon’s agenda, as with her other writings, is the attainment of social justice, especially for students in urban schools. She argues for a new social movement that drives social and educational transformation. Her voice, and her optimism, are rooted in her childhood when she was raised by politically active parents, and from her own involvement in political movements. Both her parents were labor organizers. As a student she was involved in civil rights activities, and later while teaching in inner-city schools, she was active in protests against the Vietnam War. She has seen the power of social movements, and it is from her experiences that she draws her hope. While arguing that failing schools in cities are a logical consequence of the U.S. macro economy and the federal and regional policies and practices that support it, she maintains the belief that politically active people can change these policies. After examining the ways that macroeconomic policies like those regulating the minimum wage, job availability, tax rates, federal transportation and affordable housing create conditions in cities that no existing educational policy or urban school reform can transcend, she describes how these social policies can be replaced by significantly more equitable ones by the power of people who are united and organized.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on federal policies that have negative consequences for the poor, including policies which are conspicuous by their absence. Anyon closes Part I with an examination of how federally induced poverty and low-wage work affects urban children and schools. In a similar fashion, Part II examines metropolitan inequities and the interrelationship between federal policy, metropolitan areas and urban areas. She states that metropolitan areas account for over 80% of national economic output and drive the economic performance of the nation as a whole. She chronicles the field of metropolitan studies and the promise it holds for urban education. She closes Part II with an assessment of the efforts of foundations and community organizations in urban neighborhoods and finds that most successful endeavors arise from local groups that join with others in metro-wide coalitions to challenge federal or regional policies that maintain inequalities.

Part III, Social Movements, New Public Policy and Urban Educational Reform, provides historically and theoretically based suggestions for ways to obtain the policies Anyon recommends. She uses early civil rights activism as an example of the historical relationship between political contention and more equitable public policy. She theorizes that raising people’s consciousness about their oppression through reflection and talk is extremely valuable, but it alone is not enough. Such consciousness raising must be supported by physical and emotional support for participation. Next she applies this and other theoretical lessons to the current scene. She asks, “How can we, in these conservative times, motivate the active involvement of hundreds of thousands of people in a movement to change unjust economic and educational policies?” Here Anyon turns to the condition of education. She believes that placing education at the center of a unified campaign could lead to an enlightened focus on urban education, which would highlight poverty wages, joblessness and housing injustice. The last chapter provides concrete activities that educators in various positions can utilize to make classrooms and schools places to build a progressive movement. For example, she suggests ways in which equity-seeking school reform groups and community organizers could join forces and involve urban students and communities in overt political struggle.

Radical Possibilities is 240 pages including the bibliography and index. It is a relative quick and informative read and well worth the time.

About the Reviewer

Nicholas Appleton is Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies in the College of Education at Arizona State University. His doctorate is in Philosophy of Education from the University of Massachusetts. Email: appleton@asu.edu.

Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.

Editors: Gene V Glass, Kate Corby, Gustavo Fischman

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