Tag: Education

A More Perfect Meritocracy

Two new books take aim at the moral failures of meritocracy. But we can advocate for a more just society without giving up on merit.

Agnes Callard

Bolsonaro’s War Against Reason

The Brazilian president’s offensive against universities threatens democracy and recalls the dark years of the country’s dictatorship.

Marcelo K. Silva, Gianpaolo Baiocchi

Budgeting Diversity

How faculty retirement policies shape racial and gender diversity on campus.

Anne McDonough, Oluchi Mbonu, Daniel E. Ho

Beyond the Neoliberal University

Astra Taylor talks with Rutgers faculty union president Todd Wolfson about organizing academic communities in the age of COVID-19.

Todd Wolfson, Astra Taylor

Who Pays for Cheap Language Instruction?

Media stories praising online language learning as an inexpensive way to take a “vacation” during COVID-19 have expressed astonishingly little curiosity about the conditions under which gig-economy language teachers labor.

Roberto Rey Agudo, Alberto Bruzos Moro, Yuliya Komska

Black Bereavement, White Condolences

“This sudden attention to the ongoing grief of black life can also feel like a slap in the face. Didn’t you notice we were dying?”

Marina Magloire

Decolonizing the University

An interview with Lorgia García-Peña on ethnic studies and protest.

Mordecai Lyon, Lorgia García-Peña

Teaching African American Literature During COVID-19

“In a season of unimaginable death, my students emerged as visionaries. I hope to live to see the world they create."

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Deaths of Despair

Boston Review talks with Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton about COVID-19, the relationship between culture, financial hardship, and health, and why capitalism’s flaws are proving fatal for America’s working class.

Angus Deaton, Joshua Cohen

Forum

Higher Education in the Age of Coronavirus

COVID-19 will accelerate a number of troubling longer-term trends—including less public funding and a migration of courses online.

Jeffrey Aaron Snyder

April 30, 2020

High Stakes Tests Aren’t Better—And They Never Will Be

Accountability is important. But tests that tie school funding to student performance only make things worse.

Lelac Almagor

Loving Latin at the End of the World

The beauty of the language should not keep us from reckoning with its history.

Joel Christensen

College Behind Bars

One man’s struggle to earn a degree while incarcerated shows how far tough-on-crime policies go to prevent prisoners from having a second chance.

Shannon Ross

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

Elitism can't be democratized.

Richard Ford

Got Shakespeare?

When conservatives declare the death of the English major, they highlight the need for the critical thinking skills that English departments excel at teaching.

Jonathan Beecher Field

What White Kids Learn About Race in School

Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, U.S. schools remain largely segregated. This matters not only because white and black students experience very different educational outcomes, but also because school is where children form many of their ideas about race and privilege.

Erik Loomis