The Inadvertent Consequences of Curricular Reform in Urban Schools That Cursorily Appropriates Social Justice Frameworks

• In Event: The Critical Importance of Race and Racialization When Considering How People Learn, What Should Be Taught and By Whom, and to What Ends

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
Curricular reform projects are often implemented in urban schools with the intention of improving the current learning conditions and the future life opportunities of youth of color. Through an analysis of the discourses used by members within one such project, this paper explores the inadvertent effects of well-intentioned but cursory appropriations of social justice oriented frameworks that do not interrogate class and race positions.

Theoretical framework
Influential social-justice oriented frameworks have emphasized concepts such as culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), youth participatory action research (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008), and fluency with the culture of power (Delpit, 1995). However, within a larger ideological context in which youth of color are either viewed through a lens of deficit (Valencia & Solorzano, 1997) or through a lens of well-intentioned but academically counterproductive sympathy (Delpit, 1995), the appropriations of these frameworks often have problematic consequences.

Methods & Data Sources
This paper examines the discourses about curriculum development in a university-supported innovative STEM program for students to learn about the collection, analysis, representation, and implications of new forms of digital data. The primary data source for this study is my notes from the initial planning and ongoing development of the project, which I took in my role as an educational researcher and collaborator in the project. The rationale for the curricular choices, which sought to effect change in the schooling experiences of urban youth of color, were identified through Wetherell & Potter’s (1992) approach to discourse analysis that attends closely to ideology. Observations and video-recordings of four classrooms in which the six-week curriculum was implemented, and student work and interviews from these classes were used to extrapolate how these ideological rationales implicitly and explicitly shaped the curriculum.

Substantiated Conclusions
The full paper elaborates on the underlying classed and raced assumptions and consequences of seven ideological rationales that were evident in the curriculum’s planning and ongoing development. These rationales include assumptions that the curriculum would:
1. Provide knowledge and skills that youth will require in the future job market.
2. Transcend “traditional” content as it reflects what STEM professionals do in “real-life.”
3. Engage students because it builds on issues to that relevant to youth and communities of color.
4. Engage students because it allows them to apply their knowledge to real-world problems.
5. Provide knowledge for students to be active democratic participants.
6. Give urban youth of color access to “high status” knowledge.
7. Democratize STEM knowledge.
The paper explores how these rationales for curricular decisions were often contradictory from a social justice perspective. As superficial appropriations of more elaborated frameworks, these rationales had problematic consequences for urban youth of color. For instance, the notion of democratizing STEM justified students’ lack of mastery over discipline-based knowledge and discourses and overlooked the institutional consequences of ignoring gatekeeping skills and practices.

Significance
The findings from this study force a critical examination of the assumptions made by developers of innovative curriculum for the intended purpose of addressing inequities faced by urban youth of color.

Authors

• Thomas M. Philip, University of California - Los Angeles

• Janet Rocha, University of California - Los Angeles

• Maria C. Olivares Pasillas, University of California - Los Angeles