This valuable book explores the conflicting meanings of community - exclusive and inclusive, tribal and cosmopolitan - that have been embedded in American urban school reform efforts in the last half century. - David Labaree, Stanford University
Franklin provides a thoughtful discussion of community, with historical and contemporary accounts of its complexity, especially in connection with educational problems. His treatment of the dilemmas facing city schools reveals the political tensions that make reform difficult. In the end, there can be little doubt that finding common ground in a shared sense of purpose is essential to enabling troubled urban institutions to succeed. - John L. Rury, Professor of Education (ELPS), University of Kansas
Franklin is the foremost historian of community in the U.S.Compellingly written and based on meticulous research, his nuanced analysis of urban school reform reawakens in us a sense of belonging while it fortifies our commitment to providing education for the good of all people. - Lynn Fendler, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University
By turning the varied conceptions of community into an interpretive lens that links teachers' thoughts and school organization to broader global shifts, Franklin demonstratesthe movefrom governing to enabling, providing new analytical leverage on aspects of the everyday that are both visible and invisible. It's rare to read this range of literature around such a commonplace term - a true redefinition of the debate over what it means to belong and to educate. - Bernadette Baker, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education
This inspiring book impressively remindseducational scientists, reformers, and policy makers of the essential role of community in analyzing and understanding the genealogies of school and curriculum reforms. - Daniel Troehler, University of Luxembourg
Franklin assembles a tight mosaic of 'policy narratives' in his historical and contemporary case-study approach to important educational and social issues. He brings sharp critical lenses and extensive research to a formidable task, clarifying complex questions in the process. His interpretive and analytical coverage of the last half century of urban school 'reform' illuminates deeply rooted racial conflict, the possibilities and pitfalls in public-private partnerships, and the promise and uncertainty inherent in globalization and cosmopolitanism. Above compensatory education, mayoral takeovers, community control, educational partnerships, and smaller learning communities in places such as New York, Detroit, Minneapolis and Great Britain. These case studies help readers to more fully grasp political tensions and thus prepare them to search for firmer common ground in troubled times...Highly recommended. - CHOICE