Democratic Possibilities for Student Voice within Schools Undergoing Reform: A Student Counterpublic Case Study

• In Event: Roundtable Session 35
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Voice in Educational Justice

Abstract

Public schools failing to meet accountability standards have been shut down, taken over by charter organizations, or have undergone reconstitution. In order to challenge deficit views of students as passive and complacent under a context of schooling dictated by accountability sanctions, this paper uses counterpublic theory to examine students as stakeholders in the process and out comes of education reforms. Through the case study of a student counterpublic at an urban high school under the threat of reconstitution, this article draws on interview data from former students to demonstrates how students act within a realm of non-deliberative power and create their own spaces for deliberation and collective action. This is an example of how students might be partners in shaping reform through democratic action rather than simply being objects of reform.

Author

• Claudia Diera, University of California - Los Angeles