One Binghamton University professor has received a national award for his book, “The Other School Reformers: Conservative Activism in American Education.” In it, he tackles the subject of conservatism in the education system, a topic that is not frequently explored.

Adam Laats, a professor of education, will be presented with the History of Education Society’s Outstanding Book Award in Rhode Island this November. The History of Education Society is a global professional organization which gives out a yearly award for what it believes is the best book on education.

Laats’ book investigates how education has been shaped by both progressive and conservative thought by studying four education controversies: the 1925 Scopes Trial, the 1939 Rugg textbook controversy, the 1950 ouster of Pasadena public schools regarding superintendent Willard Goslin and the 1974 Kanawha County schools boycott. These cases explored Darwinism, socialism, multiculturalism and feminism, respectively.

While many historians regard history education as a liberal discipline shaped by progressive thought, Laats said that conservative activists have shaped and defined U.S. classrooms during the 20th century and his book is an exploration of why and how this has happened.

His book aims to address why schools are generally regarded by the public as conservative places concerning their rigid organization structure and teaching styles, while educators say otherwise. He said his goal was to let the definition of conservative schooling emerge from the four cases instead of imposing a definition of what it means to be conservative.

“Instead of trying to figure out what it meant to be conservative, I decided to let the people speak for themselves — the people of the 20th century,” Laats said.

According to Laats’ research, there is a conservative tradition that has defined how different generations have understood what schools should be doing. This tradition, Laats said, involves raising new generations of religious, patriotic kids who can read and do math.

He said the meaning of conservatism in schools has changed significantly over time. In the 1920s, conservatives argued schools should be centered around a religious pedagogy and that the law should mandate schools teach religion. By the 1970s, conservative advocacy had changed the focus to advocating for theology classes.

Laats’ colleague, Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of education at University of Pennsylvania, said most historians are liberals and tell the story of school reform from this biased worldview. But he said Laats writes from a different, more objective perspective that is fairly unique in this area of scholarship.

“Adam [Laats] is the first scholar to chronicle school reform as a conservative project, as well as a liberal one,” Zimmerman said. “From the Scopes anti-evolution era to more recent campaigns for school prayer and beyond, right-wingers tried to infuse their values into the schools with the same vehemence and sometimes, with the same success as liberals did.”

He began writing the book in 2009 and with funding from the Spencer Foundation, a nonprofit that funds education research, he traveled to the locations of the four trials.
Laats said that this award is significant to him because he holds the organization in high esteem and because his dissertation adviser won it some time ago.

“In general, a lot of books come out and the ones that the experts pick — sometimes they’re able to shape the field, push it in different directions,” Laats said. “So I think these are questions that historians haven’t asked yet and I think that’s why they thought it was worth noticing.”