Gentrification and School Choice Fragmenting Communities: The Potential for Solidarity

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Fragmentation and Disorientation: Navigating Racism in School and Higher Education Space

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the effects of gentrification and school-choice policies in a largely Latinx and African-American neighborhood in a Western city. I analyze the local battle for educational control as I draw from CRT frameworks and Lipsitz’s (2007) racialization of space to understand how school-choice and gentrification affect community agency in education. I argue that these factors fragment communities, create tensions in visions for local education, and divide racial groups. Moreover, I draw from the black-white binary and Mill’s (1997) racial contract to explore how ideological forces create obstacles to the creation of solidarity among racial groups and how these frameworks can provide tools to foment solidarity across racial groups to gain control over educational opportunities in their schools.

Author

• Ana Julia Contreras, University of Colorado - Boulder