Review: Educating for Insurgency: The Roles of Young People in Schools of Poverty by Jay Gillen (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Agony of School Reform: Race, Class, and the Elusive Search for Social Justice
Educational Researcher, 2003
litical commitments of its change proponents. Some of these commitments provide the backdrop for the ideological interests that subvert social justice in education. Education and Democratic Theory and The Color School Reform provide a good pair for undertaking a critical study of school reform. They share common characteristics. First, both books represent an interdisciplinary approach to school reform. Fields is an emeritus professor of political science working with a philosopher of education, Feinberg. Henig et al. are political science scholars concerned with urban school reform (see also Henig, 2001; Stone et al., 2001). These collaborations suggest that research on educational change that cuts across traditional boundaries strengthens scholars’ ability to research persistent problems through intellectual partnerships. Second, both books represent empirical studies that are theoretically grounded. The first is an ethnographic analysis of a site-based reform in Ed City, with the authors engaging models of democracy from Rousseau to Sartre; the second is an ambitious study of the impact of reform on race relations in four Black-led cities—Washington, DC, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Detroit—mobilizing a framework they call “civic capacity.” Contrary to what researchers may expect, the fact that Blacks have reached positions of city leadership is not by itself sufficient to raise the educational achievement of Black students. Third, as already mentioned, both books confront the political aspects of reform, what I have called its ideological dimensions. I will review the books thematically. This review integrates them under the themes they share with respect to the centrality of power and ideology in education.
The American Educational System has an equity problem. Black and Brown students are still statistically not meeting the education standards as their non-black and brown counterparts. More and more students of color are targeted and fall between the cracks of the educational system. It has become imperative for schools, school districts, state governments, and the national government to begin to take a closer look at the American Educational system and reflect upon its inequalities. If the system is not considered equitable, what needs to be done to make it equitable? The responsibility for making a change in the national school system, is that of everyone. As W.E.B Du bois states "A System Cannot Fail those it was Never Meant to Protect." The system has failed our black and brown children and it is time to address the issue. The intent of the research is to explore the inequalities of the American Educational system and determine the need for change.
Struggling for educational equity in diverse communities: School reform as social movement
Journal of Educational Change, 2002
This paper argues that those seeking equity-focused educational reform have much to learn from social movements and grassroots political organizing. We explore how the knowledge, skills, strategies, and passionate narratives emanating from such noninstitutional change efforts can shed light on the difficulty of equity-focused education reform and provide equity reformers with an expanded repertoire of change strategies. We pursue our analysis using an "exemplary" case of reform at Wilson High School. The case data were collected as part of a four-year study documenting the college preparation experience of students of color in diverse, comprehensive high schools. We conclude that the logic and strategies employed in social and political movements-in contrast to those found in organizational change models-are more likely to expose, challenge, and if successful, disrupt the prevailing norms and politics of schooling inequality that frustrate equity-focused reforms. Without attention to these dynamics, such reforms are abandoned entirely or implemented in ways that actually replicate (perhaps in a different guise) the stratified status quo. We also conclude that those of us whose research focuses on equity reforms would be well advised to use social and political movements as lenses to more clearly view the course of these much advocated, but seldom achieved efforts.
Historically and currently, education discourse and policy are impacted by crisis rhetoric and utopian expectations for public education. Schools are failing, the narrative goes, but that failure is measured against a standard of success by all students without regard to the impact of socioeconomic conditions on student outcomes. Further, our educational approaches to children living in poverty are corrupted by deficit assumptions and practices as characterized by the workbooks and programs presented by Ruby Payne. Educational reform should be guided by a commitment to social reform and by a shift away from deficit perspectives and toward nuanced and realistic understandings of children living in poverty. The lives and education of children of color are disproportionately impacted by inequity and reduced practices, both reinforced by social assumptions driving educational discourse and policies that are doing more harm than good for an educational system designed to support free people. Keywords: accountability, crisis rhetoric, critical pedagogy, diversity poverty, utopian expectations
Baltimore Uprising: Empowering Pedagogy for Change
Baltimore Uprising created a shared experience for faculty and pre-service teachers to enter conversations about issues of race, privilege and equity. This manuscript describes the ways in which faculty in a Master of Arts in Teaching program developed a conceptual framework to address gaps in faculty and pre-service teacher abilities to talk about equity in communities and schools. The authors share strategies for (a) engaging pre-service teachers with examining their intersections of identities, (b) situating the self within educational contexts, (c) capitalizing on student cultural assets to inform the development of pedagogy, and (d) translating the conceptual framework into practice.
The Elephant in the Living Room: Racism in School Reform
1999
When serving economically disenfranchised African American children, school systems often unconsciously respond from a racist and class biased paradigm. Teachers often unconsciously operate from a framework of low expectations for these students' success. Society often supports the notion of students getting by with less because less is all the schools believe they can do. The Urban Atlanta Coalition Compact (UACC) is one current reform effort. As researchers engage with UACC schools that are struggling with ways to create better learning environments for African American children, they have observed that racism is a significant factor in the failure of schools to meet these students' academic needs. A 1997-99 research effort explored what could be done as a collaboration of schools and universities to remedy this situation. This paper discusses the early manifestations of racism encountered in the formation of the UACC project during its planning meetings with the steering committee, the boards of education, school leaders, parents, and other parties. Because of these experiences, part of the research was driven by the question of whether the prejudices, stereotypes, and misconceptions of well-intentioned educators sabotage educational reform efforts. The paper also explores reasons for the resistance of mainstream educators to discuss the impact of racist politics, economics, and educational theory on the school's capacity to teach all children. (Contains 33 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. S