More Than Curriculum: Developing a Racially Just School Culture

• In Event: 52.036 - Identities of School(ing) in Urban Contexts

Abstract

Drawing on data collected during a year-long ethnographic study at a public, charter, urban middle school in the Midwest, this paper argues that a focus on identity and social justice in a school’s curriculum does not always lead to just outcomes in terms of educational achievement and disciplinary patterns. Data examined include field notes from eleven months of participant-observation, transcripts of forty semi-structured interviews with staff members and students, and curricular documents.

Founded in 2008, the school focuses on developing students’ interdisciplinary skills and content knowledge across various subject areas. The school has had success creating interdisciplinary Language Arts and Social Studies classes, but has struggled to do the same with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects. The school’s website explains its “girl focused” aspect stems from research showing that many girls in “traditional co-ed school setting[s]” lose their interest in STEM fields and physical activity. (As a publicly funded charter school, the school cannot deny admission on the basis of gender.) The middle school has a racially diverse student population that is described as 50% students of color (25% African American). In contrast, the staff, especially the licensed classroom teachers, almost all identify as White and middle-class.

The teachers are expected to develop curriculum based on inquiry-based learning, constructive theories of teaching and learning, and theories that focus on critical examination of race, class, and gender. Teachers’ interest in developing their curriculum from a social justice perspective was evident in various curricular units observed. For example, 7th and 8th graders learned about the American Revolutionary War through the perspective of an enslaved girl of African descent by reading and discussing Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains, in their LASS class. A unit in the 5th and 6th grade LASS class examined critically the Taino genocide perpetrated by Christopher Columbus.

While the staff talked in interviews and in staff meetings about wanting to create and maintain an anti-racist and feminist context through their curriculum and their disciplinary and other practices, they struggled with some of the same problems as many urban schools. For example, during the 2011-2012 school year, 90% of the students who were suspended were African American. This kind of racial discrepancy in who is disciplined is unfortunately not uncommon in schools with racially diverse student populations (Losen & Skiba, 2010; Skiba et al., 2011).

Drawing on previous educational research on identity and schooling (e.g. Kumashiro 2002), this paper proposes that developing and implementing identity- and social justice-focused curriculum is not enough to create more socially just educational spaces, experiences, and outcomes. Students and staff also need the resources and skills to discuss honestly how their own identities impact their teaching and learning of curricular content as well as shape how disciplinary policies are constructed, implemented, and understood. Additionally, teachers and students should be encouraged to develop the qualitative research skills to investigate and understand more effectively how culture matters in their experiences and to make changes in curriculum and school culture grounded in their daily realities.

Author

• Anita Chikkatur, Carleton College Northfield