Spatial Othering in a Suburban Community: Examining Housing Policy, Student Assignment Policy, and Special Education

• In Event: Residential, School, and Classroom Racial Stratification and Its Impacts on Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Using an interdisciplinary framework drawn from literature in special education, critical geography, and educational policy, this study investigates socio-spatial historicity of Woodland city.
The aim of this study is to understand how larger systemic structures work together to spatially other families and students of low-income backgrounds and of color. I used qualitative case study to analyze three units of analysis concurrently: city spatial policy and practice, school district’s student assignment policy, and special education practices. I found that driven by color-blind perspectives and cultural deficit thinking, housing policies and school policies form a strong nexus that put minority students and families, particularly those from low-income background as spatial other, enclaved in certain neighborhoods, school, and special education programs.

Author

• Dian Mawene, University of Wisconsin - Madison