Jean Anyon: What "Counts" As Educational Policy? | Introducing CICERO

 Jean Anyon: What "Counts" as Educational Policy? | Introducing CICERO 

By April Federico

Jean Anyon argues that macroeconomic and social policies significantly impacts urban student achievement, as poverty continues to reproduce and spread throughout cities. Anyon first identifies the problem of minimum wage, first established in 1938. As inflation continues to grow in the United States in the twenty-first century, it is appalling to me that the first ever minimum wage established by Congress was just a mere $3.05. 

Nowadays, this would not even cover the cost of a small coffee at Dunkin' or Starbucks. 

Her critique of the minimum wage back illustrates how economic policy failed (and fails) to keep the pace with the cost of inflation and the creeping costs of living. This is just only one factor that Anyon argues affects families and, by extension, the educational experiences of children. 

Poverty continues to be a problem in the cognitive and academic development of children in the United States. It all comes down to Maslow's hierarchy of needs that more than half the class learned about in FNED 552: Psychology Perspectives in Teaching and Learning. 


And now I'm going to introduce something revolutionary, an academic risk of my own: my own personal CICERO method. 

    There was a point where I was interested in nutrition. But what came first? A type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Health and proper nutrition directly impacts education, as well, especially in urban environments because food is a physiological need. That experience of being diagnosed, alone, underscored how health and access to proper nutrition directly influence cognitive functioning and learning outcomes, particularly in urban environments where food and chronic stress are prevalent. And as Maslow's hierarchy of needs suggests, if one does not have the basic needs, they do not have the self-efficacy to succeed academically. Higher-order cognitive processes like concentration, problem-solving, and academic risk-taking are compromised. Moreover, the CICERO method used to stand for Confidence and Intelligence Create Emotional Resilience to Optimize (your well-being). Now, as an education student, it stands for Confidence, Intelligence, Connection, Emotional Resilience, Regulation, and Optimization.

    This is the context in which my CICERO method emerges as a developmentally aligned educational framework. I believe CICERO builds on Anyon's systemic analysis by asserting that learning cannot be disentangled from regulation, health, and material conditions. My own academic trajectory reflects this understanding. 

    The CICERO method integrates these insights by framing education as an interaction between structural conditions, human development, and instruction. Rather than attributing academic outcomes to individual efforts alone, CICERO emphasizes regulation, embodied well-being and relational stability all as prerequisites for learning. In doing so, it extends Anyon's argument into pedagogical theory, positioning education not as a "cure" for poverty, but as a space that must intentionally respond to the realities poverty creates. 



Also, yes, I thought about getting my doctorate in educational psychology. 

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