Felecia M. Briscoe

ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION A Conflict Between Landed Interests and Democratic Ideals

This case study researches the degree to which the location and services offered by a multicampus university, geographically situated consistent with the commercial principles of a large mass-market enterprise, facilitate access for educationally underserved groups. First, the necessity of democratizing educational access to an underprivileged population is contrasted against real estate market forces that regularly influence the positioning of such large municipal infrastructure to the detriment of the target population. Based on the site selected for the main campus and the degree of educational services offered by the later establishment of a branch campus, the costs of access for both privileged and underprivileged groups are compared, illustrating the continuing institutional marginalization of the underprivileged in the face of repeated attempts to equitably serve this population.

Racism? Administrative and Community Perspectives in Data-Driven Decision Making: Systemic Perspectives versus Technical-Rational Perspectives.

This case study describes tensions that became apparent between community members and school administrators after a proposal to close a historically African American public high school in a large urban Southwestern city. When members of the city’s longstanding African American community responded with outrage, the school district’s senior administration backed away from their proposal to close the school, despite making what it felt was a “neutral” and technical-rational decision. However, the local community interpreted this move as the historical continuation of racist behaviors and policies that had been experienced by the community over a period of several decades. Critical race theory (CRT) allows for an analysis regarding the nature of these beliefs about race and indicates the need for school administrators to engage the realities of the community members they serve, rather than merely enacting technical-rational administrative behaviors that serve to continue regimes of marginalization and oppression.

School Leaders' Discursive Constructions of Low-Income and Minority Families Identities: A Marketplace Racism/Classism

Informed by Foucaults analytics of power, this critical discourse analysis focuses upon the discursive construction of minority and low-income family identities, primarily using text from interviews of Texas school leaders within the neoliberal context of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Qualitative content analysis was used to discover whether the discourses of school leaders, through their construction of minority and low-income family identities, supported or countered ideologies of racism and/or classism. The analysis revealed that school leaders discourses both support and counter classism and racism. The themes of the dominant discourse were congruent with marketplace ideological presumptions of choice, individualism, meritocracy, and a level playing field. Induced by multiple power/knowledge relations, the dominant discourse of school leaders constructed deficit identities for low-income and minority families. There was also a counter discourse, drawing from a subordinated discourse of systemic inequities and social justice, that contested and resisted the construction of deficit identities for traditionally underprivileged families. Intertextuality between the dominant and counter discourses of school leaders and leading educational leadership journals was also found.

“They make you invisible”: Negotiating Power at the Academic Intersections of Ethnicity, Gender, and Class

This Foucauldian case study examines the academic conflicts of Mexican American women and girls, how they negotiate those conflicts, and the identity effects of their negotiations. It extends Gloria Anzaldúas (1999) work and builds upon those who have studied the schooling experiences of Mexican American women and girls. Similar conflicts for these women are found at all academic levels. The negotiation of these conflicts affected the identity of academia (transformation and reproduction) and the women (hybridization and colonization).

‘That racism thing’: a critical race discourse analysis of a conflict over the proposed closure of a black high school

Using critical race discourse analysis, this study examines descriptions of a heated controversy over the proposed closure of the only primarily black high school in a large urban city. Participants included community members and the district and school leaders who were key in the controversy. Based on Foucault’s analysis of power we looked for conflicts in the narratives of the participants in their description of the controversy. Four strands of discursive conflict emerged: the purpose of school; the relationship of school and community; communication; and the issue of racism. Taking these four strands together, the themes found in the discourse of the community members enacted an emancipatory knowledge paradigm, while the themes found in the discourse of the administrators enacted a technical-rational, instrumental paradigm of knowledge.

Anarchist, Neoliberal, & Democratic Decision-Making: Deepening the Joy in Learning and Teaching

Using a critical postmodern framework, this article analyzes the relationship of the decision-making processes of anarchism and neoliberalism to that of deep democracy. Anarchist processes are found to share common core principals with deep democracy; but neoliberal processes are found to be antithetical to deep democracy. To increase the joy in learning and teaching, based upon this analysis, practical anarchist guidelines for school decision-making are suggested.

The Biggest Problem: School Leaders' Covert Construction of Latino ELL Families--Institutional Racism in a Neoliberal Schooling Context.

This critical discourse analysis focuses upon the discursive construction of Latino English language learners (ELL) identity within a Texas neoliberal schooling context. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine the construction of Latino ELL identities in the discourses of Texas school leaders practicing under the aegis of neoliberal schooling. Important to this construction was the context of the discourse. School leaders’ discourse was colorblind and largely silent about both ELL status and ethnicity/race. Instead the dominant Discourse constructed economically disadvantaged families as deficit. However, in the discursive context Latino ELL families were disproportionately economically disadvantaged; thus, they were covertly constructed as deficient. The covert nature of the deficit construction makes it difficult to identify and thus resist. Given the other negative effects of neoliberal policies and practices, the implication of these findings is that neoliberal school policies are a manifestation of institutional racism, as they induce multiple forms of covert oppression for Latino ELLs. Yet the data also revealed a counter-Discourse that contested and resisted deficit low-income families, and therefore deficit Latino ELL identities, by drawing from a subordinated discourse of systemic inequities and social justice.

What We Can Do Right Now: What Needs Further Research?

Abstract This chapter sums up the previous chapters beginning with personal life stories of how school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) disastrously affects the lives of students, most especially African American youth, Chicano youth, working-class students, and those with disabilities. From there we moved to the institutional level where the authors described factors in schools that contribute to the STPP. Also at the institutional level, contributing authors critically examined current approaches in schools, which were designed to help dismantle the STPP. Finally, from policy prospective the contributing authors explained how some existing policies could be used differently to disrupt the STPP. After each summary, we present bullet points suggesting what we (school stakeholders – leaders, faculty, etc., and policy makers) can do right now to disrupt the STPP.

“This Is Your Worth”: Is the Catholic School Advantage in Urban Catholic Schools’ College Culture Disappearing in a Neoliberal Era?

This ethnographic study of an urban Catholic high school examines its college culture, particular in regard to the Catholic School Advantage (CSA). We collected and critically analyzed multiple forms of data (archival, interviews, observations) at St. Peters High School (SPH) and its adjoining parish. We found a caring and holistic approach to teaching that is integral to the CSA. However, in regard to the college-going habitus, we found that neoliberal values had largely displaced earlier Catholic social values that related to the CSA. Thus, the college-going habitus was dominated by neoliberal economic values (including the worth of individual students and SPH) but largely silent about the social, academic, or spiritual values of students or institutions of higher education. We conclude that such a college-going habitus is likely not only to result in students’ high rate of college enrollment but also to jeopardize their ability to remain enrolled until they graduate.