Making the Periphery the Core: Possibilities and Challenges in Public Education

• In Event: 63.061 - Changing the Grammar of Schooling? An Examination of Reform

Abstract

Theoretical Framework

It has been widely observed that the “grammar of schooling” (Tyack & Cuban, 1995) is a powerful and unchanging feature of American schools. Key features of this grammar include age-graded classrooms, separation of classes by academic discipline, pen-and-paper assessments, teacher autonomy, and tracking. In this paper, we argue that there is a “second grammar” in the “peripheral” contexts of secondary schools—extracurriculars, clubs, and electives—which has been overlooked. We also explore what happens when one network of project-based schools seeks to move the qualities of these peripheral spaces into core academic instruction.

Methods & Data Sources

This paper draws on a long-term ethnographic study which entailed 750 hours of observations and 300 interviews conducted over a 6-year period at 30 highly varied American high schools. Data sources include fieldnotes, interview transcripts, artifacts of student and teacher work, and analytic memos. At “Dewey High,” the school featured in the second portion of the paper, researchers served as participant observers for more than 8 weeks total and interviewed more than 35 teachers, students, parents and administrators. Data was coded iteratively, with multiple rounds of open coding followed by multiple rounds of focused coding (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 2011).

Findings

In the first part of our paper, we draw on two extended case studies: one of a theater production in an affluent suburban school, and one of the debate team in high-poverty urban school. These spaces achieve depth, we argue, by embracing a different pedagogical “grammar” than that of most conventional classrooms: a grammar which emphasizes purpose and choice, which cultivates community and interdependent roles, and which draws on powerful traditions of apprenticeship and “whole game” learning (Perkins, 2009).

In the second portion of the paper, we examine the work of a highly successful network of schools whose design is rooted in the conviction that all classrooms should combine elements of peripheral contexts (such as hands-on learning and apprenticeships) with elements of liberal arts education (such as foundational knowledge in the arts and sciences). We pay particular attention to the challenges which come with sustaining this model, focusing on the fact that administrators report that they constantly are contending with pressures to “regress to the mean.” Externally, they have had to contend with assessments which are not aligned with their mission; they have had to manage and educate their charter authorizers about their distinctive mission; and they have had to manage high-SES parents who want AP courses. Internally, they have had to foster a collective identity that emphasizes what is different about their approach.

Scholarly Significance

Our research suggests that educators seeking to transform high schools into more consistently vital learning communities could learn a great deal by attending to the “second grammar” of peripheral contexts. As the case of Dewey High suggests, however, maintaining a different grammar of schooling is an ongoing process rather than an achieved state—and this process is one which entails both continually buffering external pressures and managing complex internal dynamics.

Authors

• Jal David Mehta, Harvard University

• Sarah Melanie Fine, University of California, San Diego