Eliminate Racism in Pinecreek? Grassroots Influence on Local Education Policy

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Community Organizing for Educational Change

Abstract

To understand how community members within a segregated school district approach resegregation, I am conducting a sixteen-month-long ethnography using Participatory Action Research (PAR). This project’s goal is to examine key dynamics that intervene in school desegregation efforts in Pinecreek (pseudonym), a city that has undergone two school desegregation lawsuits. To explore the process of desegregation, I analyze the intersection of class, racial, and religious beliefs in the practices of civic engagement efforts in school reform. This research is driven by the following research questions: (1) How does community participation influence local education policy?; (2) How do civic engagement and efforts to desegregate converge?; (3) What are the motivating factors for individuals’ involvement in issues of local school segregation?

Author

• Kevin Winn