Where does educational activism take place online?

In preparation for the submission of my pre-proposal, I have been researching the existing public spheres for education reform in the United States, specifically online. I expected to find areas that called for action only, as in the instrumental view of social media use, which Shirky talked about in the article from my last blog post. Instead, I found spaces that attempt to disseminate information, encourage discourse, and call for community action, which seems to fit more closely with the environmental view of social media use. 

Each space that I encountered seemed to be speaking to different publics, and about different aspects of education reform. The Center for Education Reform (http://www.edreform.com/) for example, claims to make a difference by; creating connections, fact-checking, and mobilizing grassroots campaigns. While their issues cover areas that could potentially interest a broad audience, their target audience seems to be mostly parents, teachers, and high-level administrators/ decision makers. References to stakeholders on various sections of their website mention family and teachers as the most important groups involved in the issues of education reform. Perhaps this targeted audience is a result of the Center’s strong belief in testing and assessment as a means of demonstrating successful instruction. While this website has some great information, the information is very focused on their “shared” perspective. This led me to question where other groups go to find a reform group with different priorities.

For the student activists, I found Students for Education Reform (SFER) (http://www.studentsforedreform.org/), which was founded by students for students. This site has a decidedly different focus. They claim to be interested in a just social order that enables equitable education for all. While education standards are included on their list of “What we stand for,” this issue appears 4^th on the list after high expectation regardless of background, quality school choices and great teachers and leaders. This movement is housed in over 140 campuses across that nation in chapters that attract current students and recent graduates to share their stories about their experiences with public education. The great thing about the SFER webpage is that their strategy and mission are clearly laid out and easily accessible. Information is easy to find and in some cases, presented graphically, in a way that allows information to be found without reading lengthy manifestos or policy manuals. By presenting the information in this way, the webpage developers have understood that the current generation (current/recent students) respond to information that is easily accessible. 

As I move forward I want to locate other sites of activism to see how they are reaching out to their publics. In particular I will be looking at any references to a public, how their information is presented, which issues are emphasized, and the type of action they are promoting. My first action items is to look at teacher and administrator unions to uncover how they compare to these other spaces of the education reform environment.