The Revolution Will Be Privatized: Teach For America and Charter Schools

This article examines the ways that the charter school movement is experienced and negotiated by educators who entered the profession through Teach For America (TFA). TFA’s impact has been significant in the larger educational trend towards market-based reforms and, in particular, the charter school movement. Analyzed through a critical theory lens that focuses on issues of power and on the ways individuals interact amid larger (and often distal) structural forces, the experiences of TFA corps members are situated within the larger changing context of education. Amid contested, fractured, and complex narratives about charter school reform, TFA’s idea of “relentless pursuit” shaped participants’ conceptions and actions around charter schools.