November 17 at 12:30 pm: Education, Democracy, and Racial Justice During the COVID-19 Period with Dr. Jonathan Collins (Assistant Professor of Education, Brown University)
COVID-19 has brought about unique challenges for the politics of education. With the sudden emergence of the pandemic, American institutions have had to make major decisions around the opening and operation of schools and how to properly engage parents and stakeholders along the way. The pandemic also emerges during a time of immense racial tension. Dr. Collins will explore the extent to which democratic innovation helps us better understand the politics of education during such a unique moment. Using a series of original survey experiments, he finds evidence that exposing members of the public to school board decision-making processes that feature democratic innovation in the form of stakeholder participation and public deliberation increases trust in school boards as well as intentions of future participation. However, Dr. Collins also finds evidence that factors related to national politics and racial politics play an important role in how Americans are responding to key questions about education politics and policy during the COVID-19 period. The results, as a whole, speak to the importance of expanding democratic innovation, while schools around the US navigate such a difficult and uncertain time.