Poverty and Student Homelessness in a Growing Suburb: Sense-Making Among School and Community Leaders

• In Event: 60.019 - How School Leaders and Communities Support Highly Mobile and Homeless Students and Families

Abstract

There is a dearth of education research on suburban homelessness. The purpose of this study is to learn how school and community leaders in a rapidly growing suburb make sense of rising poverty and homelessness. Drawing from 34 semi-structured interviews with school and community leaders, as well as observation, district/community data, and artifacts, I present a typology of four sensemaking narratives: the Old Boys’ Club, Rainmakers, Procrastinators, and Magnets. I suggest that leaders constructed distinct and racialized accounts of their suburb that were used to rationalize and justify their actions around poverty and homelessness. These narratives shaped educational opportunities for homeless and highly mobile families in unique ways. Implications for theory, practice, and research are discussed.

Author

• Alexandra E. Pavlakis, Southern Methodist University