best education writers

best education writers

Exploring the Impact of Influential Education Writers on Educational Theory and Practice

1. Introduction to the Role of Education Writers in Shaping Educational Discourse

Just as the impact of education writers on theory and educational practice has been analyzed in this special issue, this impact has several elements. Some of them position themselves and are determined by the degree of continuity of their ideas or their approach to the most important issues of education. Others are due to the most innovative aspects of their work. Part of the analysis of influential education writers is the extent to which their efforts reflect the attitudes and perspective characteristic of their decades and the extent to which they have contributed new paths of educational questions that have not been revealed earlier. The second level of the analysis is the extent to which there is evidence that workers’ work has influenced prominent leaders in education, leading professional associations and organizations that are relevant to the agenda. The hypothesis that is guiding this article is that the influence of writer workers of education in education is mediated by these two lenses. The level and effect of the work of the most prominent education writers is then determined by their readers interested in politics and teachers, not only by education or theory, but also as a matter of policy regarding the nature of individuals and citizens in the kind of social and moral order they are trying to achieve.

Education writers have played a significant role in shaping educational discourse. A number of education writers working in these periods had a significant impact on the development of educational theory and practical strategies in various educational practices. As the notion of education and its implicit conceptions have undergone significant changes over the years, the work of influential education writers has become more important. This special edition provides an overview of the work presented during the 2015 Education Writer’s Association of America (EWA) National Seminar, which focused on the work of influential education writers and their legacy.

2. Key Education Writers and Their Contributions

Not all education writers have had a compelling impact on educational theory and practice. While it is true that many teachers turn to the professional books of Alfie Kohn for inspiration and support, a greater number have not read these books and do not agree with the direction for education that they inspire. Many teachers do not put John Dewey’s ideas into practice, and they characterize standardized learning with top-down formats every day in their marginalizing classrooms. Concentrated educational efforts also continue to target “fixing the school” discourse and never propose work on the actual societal and economic conditions that affect the lives of students who congregate in these schools.

Numerous writers have impacted educational theory and practice. Some, like John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, and Paulo Freire, have written extensively about education. Their interpretations have often formed the basis of entire educational discourses. Others, such as the Brandt Adolescent Literacy Project researchers, have made significant contributions through their research reports and the resulting books. These publications may later be reviewed in education textbooks so that their interpretations may find their way into classroom practice. Several of these writers hope to have influenced local and state mandates for the good of struggling students. Some are entrepreneurs whose own educational research supports their need to become influential writers of education. They then turn to offer related materials for sale.

3. The Influence of Education Writers on Policy and Practice

The message and its narrative should be amenable to the furthering of the policies that policymakers wish to pursue. As stated in the introduction, textual information should be concise and targeted, with practical information leading the discussion. To further this latter avenue, real-world examples should be given to demonstrate the influence of the education writers on policy and practice with regard to the topic. A discussion should cover the general influence of the writer’s work and then move into specifics to relate the impact on the broader educational landscape. Research insights, experiences from the classroom, or from contributing educators in the realm of education writers’ area could also be an interesting and welcome addition.

Educational policymakers, in particular, will often have less personal experience of and, it could possibly be argued, less grassroots knowledge of teaching in the classroom. In any case, many are also surprisingly under- or uninformed about empirical research findings in the field of education as well. As such, they often rely on the advice of education writers to help steer and shape the policies they establish. These policy-shaping writers include Jay P. Greene, No Child Left Behind, E.D. Hirsch, Howard Gardner, and even Sir Ken Robinson, especially as his books and speeches caught the attention of Arne Duncan, the former secretary of education in the Obama administration.

There are large echoes in educational policy and practice of the writings of education writers. Writings in this context represent the form of an education writer’s opinions and arguments. Each of the examples discussed in this chapter has had significant political effects within the field of education, influencing education policy and setting the reform agenda in the US. Their works also inform and influence the on-the-ground practice of teachers and educators in this country and beyond.

Guideline 2: The Influence of Education Writers on Policy and Practice

4. Critiques and Controversies Surrounding Education Writers’ Work

Other scholars seem less interested in critiquing the distinct ed writers themselves, attending to their ideas or claims, than they are in challenging the consequences or impacts of their work-on theory, policy, research, or practice. In some instances, this critique suggests that the ideas promoted by influential ed writers have contributed to the diminishment of the influence of such educational theorists upon schooling.

Those critics have charged that ed writers typically draw on well-worn, often criticized intellectual frameworks, such as Dewey’s pragmatism and/or Brandian faculty psychology. They challenge very little, almost to a person, radical political projects, reader friendly pages, touching accounts of children, and homespun wisdom are considered by some contemporary commentators to be shallow or trivial, perhaps even banal. In short, while their writings often generate passionate, contentious scholarship, they are nevertheless open to serious critique.

In terms of the thinkers themselves, some critics have charged that the ed writers’ work is too ephemeral, often published in easily disposable popular media (e.g., newspapers, blogs), and too quickly forgotten to have serious impact on education and educational thought. The low volume of professional writing by these educators has been seen as both evidence of and a reason for skepticism about these thinkers’ contributions. Those who question the impact of ed writers on foundational educational thinking see their work as lacking depth and originality.

In addition to analyzing the ways in which influential education writers have shaped educational theory, the literature has offered many critiques of their work. Many of these critiques question either the quality of their thought or the consequences of their ideas.

5. Future Directions and Emerging Trends in Education Writing

We heard at the outset that a ‘New Times’ for education and educational change is upon us. Different discourses, vocabularies, and styles of reasoning have emerged in enacting the new landscape of education reform in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. What has become clear in sifting through the corpus of our influential educational writers is that these authors and their ideas have been overly predetermined and over-determined by larger socio-economic, ideological, and educational agendas at odds with how we assume we should investigate ‘influence’. The writer is ‘influenced’ as they are themselves influencing and are in turn influenced through the reception of their published work. These processes tend to differ across educational jurisdictions, shaped as they are by the nature and form of educational reform and by more global phenomena like the ascendancy of (hetero-) capitalism generally and the outworking of neoliberalism in particular.

Education Writing: The New Landscape

The field of education writing is significantly different now compared to when this special issue was first proposed. An examination of how it has changed and how it might continue to change is an important future agenda for educational theory and practice. Additionally, other themes that are currently emerging in the field of teaching and teacher education, and could become important in future research, include writing as professional identity work, relationships between writing, publishing, and promotion, and the ethics of writing about and with others. In exploring the next possible iterations of scholarship in this area, it is possible that different strands of educational writers may have different perspectives on what those ‘directions and emerging trends’ are. In the first part of this conclusion, I suggest where we have come to through each of the previous chapters. I then give a few pointers in this vein from the editors’ perspective of where the field of education writing might be heading.

5.0 Future Directions and Emerging Trends