Blog #3: “What Counts as Education Policy?” by Jean Anyon

Anyon's thoughts are an invitation to rethink the current concept of "educational policy," which is somewhat outdated and overly traditional. Rather than confining it to standards, assessments, or school budgets, she argues that broader economic measures, such as minimum wage laws or social welfare policies, directly influence students' daily lives and, consequently, their educational prospects. The economy is cross-cutting and impacts the average citizen in all aspects of their life. Émile Durkheim believed that education serves to transmit norms and skills for social cohesion (organic solidarity). Anyon takes up the idea that school prepares students for society, but she demonstrates that this education varies according to social class, thus reproducing inequalities. This led me to question our educational system and the overall system, and the tendency with which we dissociate schools from the surrounding social and economic structures.

While both agree that schools serve as a tool for economic preparation, Durkheim views this as a necessary process of socialization, whereas Anyon sees it as a structure that produces a differentiated workforce (working-class schools teach obedience, while ruling-class schools teach critical thinking). One of the most striking ideas lies in her insistence that it is impossible to truly improve urban schools without addressing the poverty and unemployment within the communities they serve. I found this idea both compelling and unsettling, as many contemporary reforms continue to focus on "fixing" teachers, curricula, or assessment systems, while sidestepping the issue of economic inequality. Anyon’s perspective suggests that many school reforms are doomed to fail if they ignore housing insecurity, low wages, and a lack of social services. This led me to question how often we hold schools or teachers accountable for problems that are, by their very nature, fundamentally economic and political.

This article also helped me redefine what constitutes "success" within the context of debates on educational policy. Anyon suggests that improving standardized test scores, in a context of endemic poverty, cannot be equated with true justice; rather, authentic reform should be measured by the improvement of prospects for students and their families, specifically: better jobs, more stable housing, and accumulated social power. This expanded conception of success reorients the debate, shifting it away from technical solutions applied within the classroom and toward the structural transformation of society. I thus became acutely aware of the technocratic nature of much political discourse, as well as the scarcity of questions raised regarding the redistribution of power and resources, through educational policies, to the benefit of marginalized communities.

Anyon aligns herself with the tradition of critical curriculum theories, which can be viewed as an in-depth analysis of the social mechanisms that Durkheim had identified on a more macroscopic scale. In short, Anyon applies and critiques Durkheim’s theories of socialization to demonstrate how "school prepares children for their future social and economic roles" through a "hidden curriculum" differentiated by social class. Ultimately, reading Anyon’s work has transformed my understanding of my own role within the field of education. It has served to consolidate and reinforce my stance that daily school practices are inextricably linked to the broader political economy.