Smartness as Capital: Understanding and Disrupting Dominant Achievement Ideology

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 40
  In Roundtable Session: Neoliberal Forces on Families, Eco-Justice, and Formations of Smartness

Abstract

The dominant discourses of academic achievement rely heavily on the concept of smartness, as it is a representation of ability and worthiness, and centers a construction of smartness informed by white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.
The current paper seeks to theoretically explore the symbolic power behind the ideological construction of smartness and its role in dominant achievement ideology. Utilizing a reflexive lens informed by french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1977; 1986; 1989), I aim to explore smartness by building on the works of educational researcher Beth Hatt (2007; 2011; 2012), along with Zeus Leonardo and Alicia Broderick’s (2011) work on smartness as property, and offer a counterhegemonic framework shaped by Tara Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth model.

Author

• Christina Marie Chaise, Institute for Urban and Minority Education - Teachers College - Columbia University