Anatomy of a School Closure: A Multiproject Case Study

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium brings together research projects emerging from one case of school closure in Oakland, California. Led by community members who are current or former stakeholders in this site, each project is grounded in frameworks of neoliberal capitalism and racial justice. Participants will present empirical research and participant perspectives on the history and political-economy, discursive strategies, community organizing, and lived realities of a school closure case that took place within the context of a citywide teachers’ strike and a surging movement against district privatization. We will demonstrate how neoliberalism shapes both structural and discursive contexts for justice-oriented school reform, how it determines and limits political participation, and how stakeholders and researchers can meaningfully collaborate in the struggle for public schools.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 4: Policies, Mattering, and Praxis

Chair

• Kimberly L. Mayfield, Holy Names University

Papers

• Contextualizing School Closure: Neoliberal School Reform in Oakland - Nirali Jani, Holy Names University

• School Closure as a Neoliberal Strategy: Who Defines Racial Justice in Public Schools? - Rekia Jibrin, University of California - Berkeley; Alexander Mejia, Stanford University; Divya Farias, Oakland Unified School District

• Hand in Hand, Not Front and Back: Parents Organizing Against School Closure - Mona Trevino, community member; Adelaida Rios, Parent Advocate; Silvia Ornelas, Parent Advocate