{"title":"“Whatever You Want to Call It”: Science of Reading Mythologies in the Education Reform Movement","authors":"Elena Aydarova","doi":"10.17763/1943-5045-93.4.556","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, a wave of science of reading (SOR) reforms have swept across the nation. Although advocates argue that these are based on science-based research, SOR remains a contested and ambiguous notion. In this essay, Elena Aydarova uses an anthropology of policy approach to analyze advocacy efforts that promoted SOR reforms and legislative deliberations in Tennessee. Drawing on Barthes’s theory of mythology, this analysis sheds light on the semiotic chains that link SOR with tradition, knowledge-build ingcurricula, and the scaling down of social safety nets. This deciphering of SOR mythologies under scores how the focus on “science” distorts the intentions of these myths to naturalize socioeconomic inequality and depoliticize social conditions of precarity. This study problematizes the claims made by SOR advocates and sheds light on the ways these reforms are likely to reproduce, rather than disrupt, inequities and injustices.","PeriodicalId":48207,"journal":{"name":"Harvard Educational Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Harvard Educational Review","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-93.4.556","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In recent years, a wave of science of reading (SOR) reforms have swept across the nation. Although advocates argue that these are based on science-based research, SOR remains a contested and ambiguous notion. In this essay, Elena Aydarova uses an anthropology of policy approach to analyze advocacy efforts that promoted SOR reforms and legislative deliberations in Tennessee. Drawing on Barthes’s theory of mythology, this analysis sheds light on the semiotic chains that link SOR with tradition, knowledge-build ingcurricula, and the scaling down of social safety nets. This deciphering of SOR mythologies under scores how the focus on “science” distorts the intentions of these myths to naturalize socioeconomic inequality and depoliticize social conditions of precarity. This study problematizes the claims made by SOR advocates and sheds light on the ways these reforms are likely to reproduce, rather than disrupt, inequities and injustices.
近年来,科学阅读(SOR)改革浪潮席卷全国。尽管倡导者认为这些改革是以科学研究为基础的,但 "科学阅读 "仍然是一个有争议和模糊的概念。在这篇文章中,Elena Aydarova 运用政策人类学的方法分析了田纳西州推动 SOR 改革的倡导工作和立法审议情况。这一分析借鉴了巴特的神话理论,揭示了将 SOR 与传统、知识建设课程和缩减社会安全网联系在一起的符号链。通过对 SOR 神话的解读,我们可以看出对 "科学 "的关注如何扭曲了这些神话的意图,使社会经济不平等自然化,并使不稳定的社会条件非政治化。本研究对 SOR 倡导者的主张提出了质疑,并揭示了这些改革可能复制而非破坏不平等和不公正的方式。
期刊介绍:
The Harvard Educational Review (HER) accepts contributions from researchers, scholars, policy makers, practitioners, teachers, students, and informed observers in education and related fields. In addition to original reports of research and theory, HER welcomes articles that reflect on teaching and practice in educational settings in the United States and abroad.