An Essay review of Academia and activism: An essay review of Jean Anyon's Radical Possibilities
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This essay review provides an analysis and critique of Jean Anyon's new book, Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement.The analysis summarizes her argument, places her book in the context of her previous work and the current debates about school reform and policy analysis.Anyon attempts to link school reform to social reform and makes the case that unless school reformers connect to a new social movement with education at its center, educational researchers will end up colluding in a discourse that shields education reform from addressing growing economic and racial inequities.Like many social activists, I gave up activism when I became an academic.Growing up in a working class family in rural Iowa, the military draft and the Vietnam war thrust me, along with many of my generation, into the cauldron of campus activism.I became active in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in college, and during the 1970s, when I was a teacher and administrator in New York City, I volunteered for a number of organizations including Amnesty International, Michael Harrington's Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, and several solidarity groups fighting dictatorships in Chile and Argentina.Even as a doctoral student, I worked with the Sanctuary Movement, helping and teaching English
Source: Education Review
Author: Gary L. Anderson
Institution: New York University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4406159128