Race as a Fundamental Aspect of Social Ecology in Schools

• In Event: Cultural-Ecological Frameworks for Understanding and Impacting Opportunity to Learn

Abstract

Scholars that utilize a cultural-ecological frame highlight the important ways that various layers of social and cultural context influence learning and development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998; Cole, 1996; Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003; Nasir, Rosebery, Warren, & Lee, 2006; Weisner, 2002). This perspective views learning and development as inherently cultural, in that they occur within socially and culturally designed activities, involve interaction with others, require engagement with cultural artifacts and tools, and exist to meet culturally-determine goals (Nasir & Hand, 2006; Saxe, 1999). In the United States race is a key determinant for social positioning and experience, yet how we think about race from an ecological perspective is less well theorized (Nasir & Bang, 2012). In this paper, we explore that various ways that race is a fundamental aspect of the social ecology of schools, drawing on data from a case study project of elementary, middle and high schools in Oakland, Ca. The case studies involved intensive study utilizing observations, interviews, and focus groups at each of 4 school sites, chosen as sites with were relatively successful for African American learners. We focus on the ways that race and social class was a salient aspect of school life at each level, but took shape differently in each unique social ecology. At the elementary school level, the school community was centered around a collective mission to create a safe environment and a kind of protection from racialized harm in the form of positive racial socialization experiences. At the middle school level, there was also a focus on safety and supporting students in navigating a neighborhood were there were significant challenges, and lessons were organized in culturally-relevant ways that provided points of entry for the specific racialized and classed student population. At the high school level, tensions arose around racial stratification with respect to access to rigorous instruction across different small learning communities within the school, and administrators were wrestling with how best to address these tensions, and in doing so, how best to undermine white privilege. We also examine how each school attended to the developmental, learning, and identity needs of their students within the particular ecology (taking into account the geographic area, social class of students, racial identity needs, societal narratives about Black and Brown students, and school and district resources, and possibilities for community partnerships). Thus, the schools that we studied enacted an ecological perspective that attended to race and social class in a range of ways. Findings have implications for how we theorize and study the ecological, cultural, and racialized nature of learning environments, and the affordances and constraints these environments provide for identity and learning.

Authors

• Nailah Suad Nasir, University of California - Berkeley

• Maxine Ramona McKinney de Royston, University of Pittsburgh