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| Teachers as Grantseekers: <br>
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| The Privatization of the
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| Urban Public School Teacher<br>
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| SARA FREEDMAN <br>
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| Boston College
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| "grantseeking, primarily but not exclusively promoted by numerous
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| private and corporate foundations, has introduced urban teachers to and fostered
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| among them some of the central tenets of the movement to privatize education—to
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| “market” one’s teaching as a product"
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| "The stark contrast between the very closed world of this teacher’s
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| school—literally locked away from the outside world—and the expansive, seemingly
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| boundless world that corporate and private foundation- sponsored grant competitions
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| were apparently inviting urban teachers to enter struck me with great force."
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| "funding agencies, as well as many teachers, now
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| promote the idea that the “good” teacher, especially the “good” urban
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| teacher, accepts responsibility for and is adept at raising such funds for her
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| classroom, her school, her school system, and her own professional development."
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| "Here was a teacher whose weekly, if not daily, routine was to write grants for
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| herself and her school. There were enough grants to which she could apply that could
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| keep her filling out such requests at the rate of two or three a week"
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| severe
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| problems in urban schools have especially been singled out by privatization
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| advocates as a justification for the movement to privatize public schools
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| teachers are also encouraged to use strategies borrowed
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| from private sector marketing to describe their project as unique and guar -
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| anteed to solve a myriad of teaching concerns. Marie recognizes her own
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| cynicism in preparing her applications and in coming up with a catchy title...
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| Such teachers combine the entrepreneurial spirit of competitive individu-
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| alism with an old- fashioned devotion to meeting the needs of the pupils
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| under their charge—the new professional woman combined, and in har -
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| mony, with the self less, caring public servant and mother substitute.
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| Those urban teachers who are uncomfortable with such self - promotion... are increasingly categorized as ineffective advo-
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| cates for their own students no matter how effective they may be within
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| their own classrooms, schools, or communities.
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