Rerouting the School to Prison Pipeline: A Phenomenological Study of the Educational Experiences of African American Males Who Have Been Expelled from Public Schools (original) (raw)
Related papers
Seen But Not Heard: Personal Narratives of Systemic Failure Within the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 2018
The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) involves harsh discipline practices and exclusionary processes that disproportionally effect students of color by excluding them from K-12 education and increasing the likelihood of their involvement with the criminal justice system. To curtail these unjust practices and end the negative effects of the STPP, much of the academic literature provides insight into the causes of the STPP and proposes solutions to this problem. However, the voices of those who have experienced the STPP are largely missing from the literature. Specifically, the perspective of academically capable but historically unsuccessful incarcerated adults is largely unknown. This paper uses first-hand narratives developed using evocative autoethnographic methodology to describe the K-12 experiences of currently incarcerated college students. The STPP literature and two developmental theories (Bronfenbrenner (1979); Maslow (1971)) frame the narratives that explore A) interpersonal and intrapersonal experiences within the STPP; B) the complex interplay of the systems the authors interacted with; C) unmet needs that prevented educational attainment; and D) unanswered questions such as: "Who could I have been if someone had intervened?" This article concludes with questions that challenge readers to become engaged in social justice actions that can prevent current and future K-12 students from becoming oppressed and controlled by the STPP.
Clues to Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Portrait of a Scholar
Urban Review (online first), 2019
The purpose of this article is to make an overlooked source of knowledge accessible to school teachers and administrators in order to challenge the prevalent discourse of cultural deprivation in urban schools and thus provide a more equitable education for all. Little is known about rich knowledge and self-education practices within prisons which could contribute to culturally relevant pedagogy as well as decrease the stigma of prison contact. Using portraiture methodology, we present a portrait of EL'YAH'el, a formerly-incarcerated African American man who participated in self-education in prison as both a student and a teacher. Framing our work with reality pedagogy, we contend that understanding the traditions of self-education in prison can provide clues for teacher education programs committed to acknowledging and building upon their students' realities. We suggest the flow of knowledge from prisons to schools as the prison-to-school pipeline and conclude with recommendations for pedagogy and policy.
Drawing upon the authors’ experiences working in schools as teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and community members, this study utilizes a Critical Race Theory of education in examining the school-to-prison pipeline for black male students. In doing so, the authors highlight the particular role educators play in the school-to-prison pipeline, focusing particularly on how dispositions toward black males influence educator practices. Recommendations and future directions are provided on how education preparation programs can play a critical role in the transformation of black male schooling.
The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control, 2018
The anchoring weight of slavery continues to ground schools by design and implementation, 151 years after the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. Empirical literature is rife with evidence that Black and Brown youth are penalized more frequently and with greater harshness than their white, suburban counterparts for the same offenses (Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010; Welch & Payne, 2010), to the point where Triplett, Allen, and Lewis (2014) describe this phenomenon as a civil rights issue. The authors examine how a constellation of school-sanctioned discipline policies have connected the legacy of slavery with punishment. In order to curb burgeoning suspension rates that disproportionately target Black youth, schools and grassroots organizations have adopted various tiers of Restorative Justice (RJ). This article draws upon existing theoretical frameworks of Restorative Justice to discuss new approaches and directions, as well as the limitations of its hyper-individualized applications in K-12 schools. Finally, the authors assess two case studies that aim to transform schools and community engagement by refocusing restorative philosophy on the ecological conditions of student contexts, rather than the presumed intrapsychic symptoms habitually ascribed to youth behavior and Black culture.
Breaking the Cycle of Incarceration: A Young Black Male's Journey from Probation to Self-Advocacy
2017
The prison-industrial complex penetrates the public sphere through enhanced and militarized police presence in poor neighborhoods, thereby playing a key role in mass incarceration, and intersects with public schools via zero-tolerance policies that push students out. The purpose of this article is to examine how the Juvenile Justice System (JJS) impacts the educational experiences of Black males. Specifically, we present a case study of Malcolm, a multiracial (Black, Latino, and Native American) male who had been part of the JJS for the last five years. We articulate Malcolm’s schooling and JJS experiences to discuss how the prison industrial complex and school-to-prison pipeline intersect to push marginalized youth of color out of schools. We conclude by listing a set of recommendations in which Malcolm provides key strategies to reform the JJS and school-to-prison pipeline.
The Disestablishment of African American Male Compliant Ambiguity: A Prison Pipeline Essay
Intersections: Critical Issues in Education, 2017
There is an apex to each day, a climax, where a decision is made, and a falling action is the result of that decision. Recommendations to combat the never-ending struggle of my invisibility are derived from culturally relevant and culturally responsive frameworks, resiliency frameworks, and ethical caring frameworks. Without systemic reform in local educational settings that includes local teachers, administrators, parents, and students providing new conceptual frameworks for learner and teacher efficacy, the African American male learner will persistently encounter crucial conflicts throughout the School to Prison pipeline while entering a space that has been rendered invisible due to the focus on policy that perpetuates the pipeline. This essay shows that every day when African American boys enter the pipeline, we are faced with two distinct conflicts—
Villanova law review, 2017
His work focuses on examining levels of resilience and exposure to structural violence in street identified Black populations. Also, Dr. Payne developed Street PAR methodology to train street identified Black people to do research and activism in and with street identified communities. ** Tara M. Brown is an assistant professor of education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a doctorate degree in education from Harvard University and is the recipient of a Spencer Research Fellowship and a Jacobs Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. Tara is a former classroom teacher in secondary alternative education. Her research focuses on the experiences of lowincome adolescents and young adults of color served by urban schools, particularly as related to disciplinary exclusion and high school non-completion. She specializes in qualitative, community-based, participatory, and action research methodologies.
The SCHOOL-TO- PRISON PIPELINE: EXPANDING OUR DISCUSSION TO INCLUDE BLACK GIRLS
The African American Policy Forum has long articulated the critical need to incorporate a gender analysis in addressing the contemporary legacies of racial exclusion. Recent initiatives that have addressed the vulnerabilities that contribute to both the exclusionary discipline and over-incarceration of Black boys and men reflect this awareness. Building on the growing literature and interventions that have developed to address what is widely framed as the "school to prison pipeline" for boys, this Report addresses dimensions of girls' vulnerability that are frequently obscured by their relative absence from this conversation. The Report acknowledges that both while boys and girls face particular vulnerabilities that contribute to the growth in their criminal supervision, the differences between them make a difference in shaping the frameworks and interventions capture the problem.