Educators Challenge Pearson's Corporate Take-Over
Minneapolis, MN - On Saturday afternoon (Nov. 21) as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota for their annual convention, the floor of Exhibit Hall erupted in protest. Dozens of teachers and education professors occupied the space for over 30 mins to protest British-based publishing giant Pearson’s influence on public education in America.
Protest for kids over profit at #ncte15 https://t.co/v5UlQ2YOjE
— Ida Olson (@IdaOlson) November 21, 2015
The protest came out of the Commission on Social Justice in Teacher Education Programs within NCTE’s Conference on English Education. Assistant Professor Dr. Noah Golden of Chapman University in California is one of the Commission’s three co-chairs.
“Companies like Pearson drive educational policy and implementation throughout the K-12 and teacher education worlds,” he said when asked to comment on the protest. “This is often harmful, inserting a profit motive instead of what is in the best interest of students, families, communities, and teachers. We need a public dialogue and greater equity in education rather than high-stakes tests inserted into public policy by for-profit entities. A focus on these tests, whether in the K-12 realm or teacher education, is a means of masking inequalities and disinvestment in particular communities. Simply put, Pearson and similar companies drive our focus from the conversations we need to be having about meaningful teaching, learning, and assessment. We on the Conference on English Education (CEE– an organization within NCTE) Commission on Social Justice in Teacher Education programs want to be part of an organization that names and works against policy that is not in the interest of our children and their teachers.”
Tweets from the protest captured the essence of what the educators were protesting.
#NCTE15 protest against Pearson & corporatization of public school: read & see! https://t.co/xt6bZ2mL5l #literacies #engchat Plse RT
— Karen LaBonté (@klbz) November 21, 2015
Lovely protest in the exhibition area against Pearson, corporatization of ed. Students not profit! #ncte15
— Karen LaBonté (@klbz) November 21, 2015
