52.036 - Identities of School(ing) in Urban Contexts

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Current federal policy and local neo-liberal practices threaten the very existence of a purely public educational system, and the promise of an equitable democratic society. Partly at the root of such a concern lies the identity of schooling in contemporary America, and its relationship to the social categories of race, class, and gender. Despite questioning the logic of school choice as a reform strategy, unique specialized schools have increasingly emerged with the explicit goal of cultivating positive race and gender identities, as well as engage social equity issues. Session papers will examine the identities of students and schools, and what various institutional types offer, represent, or challenge vis-à-vis the promise of a high quality public education that advances educational opportunity.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 2: Studies of diversity and variation with social contexts of education

Chair

• Cheryl E. Jones-Walker, University of San Francisco

Papers

• Social Identities of Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools - Cheryl E. Jones-Walker, University of San Francisco

• Fifth-Grade Black Boys' Identities in a Single-Sex School for Boys of Color - Joseph D. Nelson, Swarthmore College

• More Than Curriculum: Developing a Racially Just School Culture - Anita Chikkatur, Carleton College Northfield

• "Gay Is Not My Culture!" Critical Perspectives on Homophobic Identities Among Second-Generation Caribbean Boys in a New York City Public School - Derron Wallace, Brandeis University

Discussant

• Katherine Schultz, University of Colorado Boulder