Linda McSpadden McNeil

Linda McSpadden McNeil passed away in April, 2021. She was a professor in the Department of Education at Rice University, and Director of its Center for Education. Her research centered on educational equity as an indicator of the relationship between public education and democracy in the context of privatization and the globalized threat to the public good. Her research situated the micro-level educational experiences of youth (in the school and classroom) in the larger power structures, the systemic (macro) and policy contexts. With an interest in ways schools make knowledge accessible, or inaccessible, to children and youth, she analyzed the factors shaping what is taught in schools, and to whom. Specific areas of focus included curriculum theory and policy, secondary education, school organization and policy, urban schools, teaching and learning, the consequences of standardization in education, and issues of equity in public education with special attention to Latino youth.