No Room but for Resistance

• In Event: Educational Trajectories: Effects of Social Class and “Significant Others”

Abstract

This study provides an alternative explanation for why students resist school. Previous studies have argued that low-income and minority students display an “oppositional culture” because they do not see the future rewards of schooling and associate academic success with “acting white.” More recent studies have challenged this explanation, and argued that students’ oppositional behaviors can be explained by low basic skills. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork at a No Excuses school, this paper argues that students in highly structured environments resist school as a way to show leadership and act as adults. This study adds to our understanding of a prominent school reform model, and focuses attention on how teachers and schools may contribute to student resistance.

Author

• Joanne Wang Golann, Princeton University