Research

Research Interests

My research considers the ways in which powerful and wealthy non-governmental actors interact with communities and public institutions they identify as "vulnerable" or "underserved", particularly where they engage with public education.

I am particularly intrigued by corporate and philanthropic actors' exertion of control over priorities in education, and the funding of computer science and STEM initiatives, character education curriculum and equity oriented policies.

Selected Scholarship and Publications

Comstock, M, Reikosky, N., & Norton, C. (in press). Conceptualizing Equity and Justice in Education Policy Research: Toward a Unifying Framework and a Path Forward. Review of Research in Education.

In this systematic review, we examine how equity and justice are conceptualized in equity-focused K-12 education policy scholarship published between January 2014 and June 2024. We make two key contributions: (1) we articulate a unifying framework for equity and justice, building on Fraser’s (2009) theorizing about justice and ecological conceptions of student thriving; and (2) we use this framework to evaluate the specific dimensions and characterizations of justice foregrounded in empirical policy studies. Ultimately, we find fragmentation in how the reviewed scholarship conceptualizes equity and justice, and we argue that transforming education systems toward collective thriving demands a robust, multidimensional, and anti-oppressive conception of justice that illuminates injustices while making space for imagining just futures. We interrogate the inherent tensions in equity-focused education policy work and highlight overlooked domains necessary for student thriving, offering a path forward for the field.

Reikosky, N. (2024). For (Y)our future: Plutocracy and the vocationalization of education (Order No. 31335724). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ University of Pennsylvania; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (3098058147).

While powerful private actors have long played an influential role in public education in the United States, there is significant urgency in the current moment given the centrality of private actors in educational policymaking. I argue that private actors—philanthropic and corporate actors, in particular—are plutocratic where they accumulate political power and access to decision-making spaces within public education as a result of their wealth. This power culminates in the circulation of their ideas about the political purposes of schooling that may come at the expense of other educational visions. I theorize the problems posed by plutocratic actors engaged with public education, typologize and evaluate the ecosystem of private actors engaged with public education, and diagram normative ideas about the political purposes of public education. I contend the contemporary emphasis on career readiness results from a persistent public-private schooling for work institutional order and is the outcome of coalitional political projects that instrumentally position schools to serve private and state economic imperatives. Finally, I develop the case of President Obama’s Computer Science for All initiative and subsequent philanthropically supported efforts to expand computer science education across all levels of public education. This dissertation advances a conceptual understanding of power and influence in the educational policy construction process and reveals an influential political coalition that invests in and advocates for particular education reforms through private power.

Reikosky, N. (2023). Pipeline Philanthropy: Understanding Philanthropic Corporate Action in Education During the COVID-19 Era and Beyond. Educational Policy, 37(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048231163802 (OPEN ACCESS)

In response to the COVID-19 crisis many companies, particularly technology companies, voluntarily responded to strains in the education sector by temporarily donating or discounting their core products, generating public support and gratitude. I analyze this type of contribution as ‘pipeline philanthropy,’ which offers a novel frame through which to evaluate the burgeoning philanthropic action of corporations in education during the COVID-19 era. This paper explores how the ‘pipeline philanthropy’ model of corporate giving differs from existing models of philanthropy in education. Through a selection of contemporary and historical illustrations, I evaluate the democratic implications and develop a framework for assessing this important and expanding type of giving in education.

Reikosky, N. (2023). Commissioned Book Review: Emma Saunders-Hastings, Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality. Political Studies Review, 21(1), NP13–NP14. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221147449

Philanthropy presents a puzzle for liberal democracies committed to equality. In Private Virtues, Public Vices: Philanthropy and Democratic Equality, Emma Saunders-Hastings greatly expands a vibrant and still emerging scholarly conversation about the perils and possibilities of philanthropy for existing democratic societies. Moving with agility between historical cases, ongoing intellectual debates, contemporary illustrations, and normative recommendations, Saunders-Hastings manages both a comprehensive survey of perspectives on philanthropy in democratic societies and develops a normative stance on the possibilities for a democratic philanthropy going forward.

Reikosky, N. (2023). Book Review: For-profit philanthropy: Elite power & the threat of limited liability companies, donor-advised funds, & strategic corporate giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640231176802

Recent developments in for-profit models of philanthropic giving establish intriguing possibilities for expanding the reach of philanthropic action. But these same developments bypass many long-standing accountability mechanisms historically hemming in philanthropic foundations, threatening to undo the trust brokered between elites and the public at large. In their book For-Profit Philanthropy: Elite Power & the Threat of Limited Liability Companies, Donor-Advised Funds, & Strategic Corporate Giving, authors Dana Brakman Reiser and Steven A. Dean offer a technical, yet accessible rendering of shifts in the philanthropy landscape by evaluating three cases: the philanthropy LLC (Limited Liability Company), commercially affiliated Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs), and strategic corporate giving.

Public Scholarship & Media Engagements

#164 Plutocratic Philanthropists are Bad for Schools–and Democracy, winner of Graduate Student Research Contest

(Podcast Episode), interview by Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, Have You Heard Podcast

"The power of plutocrats to shape and limit public debate is on the increase. That’s bad for K-12 education and for democracy, argues Nora Reikosky, the winner of the 2023 Have You Heard Graduate Student Research Contest. As a young “Googler,” Nora witnessed first hand the power of corporate philanthropy and its slick sales pitch, an experience that shapes her research into what she calls 'pipeline philanthropy.'"

Reikosky, N. (2023). Schooling for Work: Computer Science Education and Skills for the New Economy. American Journal of Education Forum.

In 2016, President Obama released The Computer Science For All presidential initiative, inviting states and private political actors to support efforts to expand computer science pathways to all students across all levels of K-12 education. On first blush, this call for more CS opportunities and expanded commitments from private sector actors to fulfill this access seems laudable. Yet, it is important to consider the ways powerful and wealthy actors, such as the philanthropists and corporate actors Obama called upon, might pursue their own economic ends by shaping education policies and practices, continually (re)positioning K-12 schools as sites for training future workers, split across racial and class lines. As schooling for future work becomes an increasingly dominant and mainstream objective of public education, such a singular focus on human capital development can come at the expense of other educational aims

Works in Progress

Schooling for Work: Philanthropy, Corporations, and the Quest to Educate Future Workers (Book project)

This book reveals the stakes of increasing entanglement between powerful private actors and public education as an urgent concern for educational policymaking and the preservation of democratic institutions more broadly. This manuscript first theorizes the problems posed by wealthy private actors who are engaged with public education, outlining the risks of entanglement between plutocratic actors and public education where wealthy actors wield power and influence over agenda-setting and educational governance. By novelly mapping the contours of what I theorize as the ‘schooling for work institutional order’—a complex ecosystem of private and economically-oriented public actors engaged with shaping public education—this book exposes the power relations that undermine public accountability and dominate popular and political ideas about education.

Plutocratic power in education: problems of philanthropic capture (under review)

Wealthy private actors increasingly shape educational policies, classroom practices, and the broader purpose of education. Elite philanthropic foundations and corporations exert outsized influence and power over decision-making yet remain unaccountable to the public. This increasing entanglement between private actors and public education produces political tensions that threaten the public foundations of schooling. Where their wealth permits them to interact with, influence, and manage the public good of education, philanthropic actors should be recognized as wielding plutocratic power. Philanthropic plutocratic actors subvert egalitarian relations through vision capture, and undermine democratic institutions’ capacity for fair distribution of public benefits through benefit capture.

Opaque Private Funding and the Limitations of Privacy in Education

This article asks what political risks philanthropic models that operate with varying degrees of opacity pose to public education, and inquires about how non-foundation models of philanthropic action—those that operate (partially) outside the public and legal eye—exert a distinct form of institutional pressure while remaining obscured and thus reputationally and legally protected. I offer a critical examination of the legitimate limits on privacy for individual and corporate actors who operate in the public sphere.

The Educated State: Economization, Neoliberalism, and Prioritizing Work

This article considers the formation of the homo oeconomicus subject through schooling. Drawing on critical political theories of power and subject formation (Brown 2015; Foucault 1979; Harvey 2005) and historical institutionalist approaches from American Political Development (Orren & Skowronek 2004), I analyze archival artifacts—policy documents, congressional records, and both draft and enacted legislation—to identify and theorize four primary and non-exhaustive public education policy alliances (Smith & King 2024). This article offers a theoretical conceptualization that will be used to interpret and evaluate political actors and discursive objectives within civil society.

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