The articles in this issue of Our Schools/Our Selves offer a snapshot of how the “parental rights” movement is unfolding distinctly within provincial borders and also point to the ways parental rights groups are working across provincial and national borders. Similar tactics are being used by provincial governments to legitimize “parental rights” and privilege the views of particular parents, and local governments, like school boards, are being impacted by groups claiming to speak for local parents.
This issue also examines the context in which the parental rights movement is gaining political traction, the impact of mis/disinformation and the role of religious rights and private values in public schools. This issue asks readers to consider the way mainstream media, sports podcasts, and discursive strategies more broadly, are being used to advance the narrative of “parental rights”; to legitimize and validate “parental rights” in public education; and to dismantle public education and undermine public values and the public good more broadly.
About the author
Erika (she/her) became Director of the National Office in 2020, but began her career at the CCPA in 1997 as director of the Education Project. Originally established to monitor corporate intrusion in public education, the project broadened its focus to include standardized testing, social justice and anti-racism education in schools, educational equity, school finance, child care and early childhood education, tuition and user fees, technology, surveillance and privacy, the arts, and community-based education. In 2000 she also became editor of Our Schools/Our Selves, the popular education journal founded in 1988. It provides commentary and analysis on a wide variety of education-related topics. Erika has a BA in History from McGill University and an MA in English (critical literary analysis) from the University of Guelph. Prior to coming to the CCPA, she worked in Washington DC researching the corporatization of childhood, and was one of the founders of UNPLUG (which became the now-defunct Center for Commercial-Free Public Education). She spends far too much time on social media.
