History and the Education Policy Imagination

Abstract

This chapter examines varying kinds of interaction between education policy and history to argue that U.S. education policy has long been influenced by false and distorting views of the past. This is true across many areas of education policymaking, but the authors argue that it is most visible in policymaking about the education of Black students. U.S. education policy has been built on misguided and incomplete views of African American lives and communities, and on narratives that ignore policy mechanisms that harm Black students, poor students, and their families while allowing resource hoarding by white and wealthier families. It does not have to be this way. Education policy can turn to more factually sound interpretations of the past. The authors show that recent work in African American educational history and the history of racism in U.S. education can provide an accurate base for current policymaking.

Keywords: African American education; history of education; racism; historical methods