Who Needs the Government to Police us When We Can Do it Ourselves? The New Panopticon in Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the creation of a new panopticon created by the media, the state, and the discourses of No Child Left Behind. In this new panopticon, teachers and scholars police themselves into silence for fear of serious personal and professional consequences should they critique public education policy (e.g., No Child Left Behind), which is currently eroding freedom, democracy, and social justice. This essay will describe the new panopticon, the media’s role in constructing No Child Left Behind as a benign, even beneficial regulation, and how the media has supported the state in its efforts to silence opposition to the new federal legislation. The essay will conclude with a reflection on the relationship on how teachers and scholars might once again “police the crisis” instead of the crisis policing them.

Keywords

No Child Left Behind school reform social control teacher freedom

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