Citizens’ beliefs on neoliberalism, moral, and progressive/constructivist education

In America, moral education, progressive/constructivism, and neoliberalism educational philosophies have been influential in deciding the role, model, and form of public education. Yet, since the 1980s, neoliberalism has been driving the nation's public education system in setting standards, introducing school choice, and instilling accountability measures. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the citizens' beliefs regarding public education in Texas. The study was quantitative. The independent variables were citizens with five groupings: (a) policy makers; (b) parents; (c) teachers; (d) college students; and (e) community members and citizens' characteristics with seven groupings: (a) age; (b) ethnicity; (c) community size; (d) religious affiliation; (e) region; (f) political affiliation; and (g) gender. The dependent variables were three educational philosophies: (a) moral education; (b) constructivism; and (c) neoliberalism. Respondents were selected through purposeful sampling within seventeen counties along the Texas Gulf Coast. The participants (N=539) were surveyed with a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVAs and MANOVAS were used for data analysis.
The results showed that citizens ranked the three educational philosophies by preference as follows: constructivism, moral education, and neoliberalism. The different sects of citizens such as community size, religious affiliation, age, gender, political affiliation, role, ethnicity, and region were not unified with one particular philosophy. Instead, the results showed that citizens supported a variety of perspectives concerning public education.
There were several implications. First, citizens expressed ideologies that were unique to their views of education. Second, it will be difficult to unseat neoliberalism as the dominant educational philosophy. Third, citizens may be more concerned about their local communities than state mandates. Fourth, educational leaders such as superintendents, principals, and department chairs have been expected to implement and enforce state mandates; suggesting these leadership roles are much more complex than imagined. Finally, a new philosophy will need to emerge, one reflective of the diverse values that are consistent with citizens' views of education. For future research, it was recommended to replicate and expand this study to include the whole state of Texas to determine if the entire state views these educational philosophies the same way as the study.