This dissertation attempts to illuminate the varied and common understandings of the meanings of various social value laden terms such as: “equity”, “democracy”, “social justice”, “choice”, that are commonly used in the debate surrounding charter schools and their impact upon the traditional public educational setting. This analysis also explores unexamined questions and opportunities for extended discourse based on participants’ responses to survey and interview questions, as well as document analysis of the literature and position statements of organizations on both sides of the choice debate. By gaining a more precise understanding of how proponents and opponents within the field of education conceptualize various educational concepts, the debate surrounding educational reform in the form of choice can be advanced from a debate to a conversation and/or dialogue. The benefits of employing the tools of conversation/dialogue versus debate in discussing choice reform is that dialogue provides the opportunity for all stake holders instead of a select few to problem-solve and participate in the discussion on educational reform. Conversations and/or dialogue allow participants the opportunity to thoroughly explore and discover salient and minute issues related to the policy of choice so that all possible outcomes can be evaluated. This process could reduce the possibility of creating additional ineffective educational reforms that not only neglect to advance the educational opportunities of all American children in general, but continues to increase the already existing inequities that currently plague our educational institutions.
Initial findings reveal that in general educational leaders’ ability to define and operationalize various terms and constructs that center the debate on school choice was very vague and lacked any congruence among like minded participants within the same group. The information presented in this analysis merely scratched the surface of the numerous possible narratives that could be discovered from this database. Thus, it would prove advantageous to conduct additional intensive inquiries into this phenomenon using a more sophisticated research design such as longitudinal methods, with controlled variables and comprehensive statistical analysis. The knowledge gleaned from this discourse could play a valuable role in rearticulating the role and function of public education in America.