Unleashing the Unpopular: School Cultures Transgressing Normative Hegemony

• In Event: Roundtable Session 57
  In Roundtable Session: Transgressive and Transformative School Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the transgressive (and unpopular) practices embodied in the discourses of three unique small public urban charter schools that choose to practice much differently than most traditional and charter public schools—engaging in pedagogies of farce, love, and social critique. Within the schools in this study, these are places where more humane, culturally relevant, and unpopular pedagogies shape and reshape interactions between educators and resistant marginalized youth creating both liberating and problematic potentials. We ask: (1) to what extent does carnival-like school cultures result in more generative experiences for marginalized youth? (2) Can school cultures function as transgressive and compliant? (3) Are such spaces sustainable?

Authors

• Tracey Pyscher, Metropolitan State University

• Anne Crampton, University of Minnesota

• Maggie Struck, University of Minnesota