Spatial Othering at the Municipal, School District, and School Levels: A Case From a Suburb

• In Event: Placing Housing at the Center Toward an Equitable Education System in the 21st Century

Abstract

Overview
This paper investigates how housing policies and practices, school district policies of attendance zones and special education as well as school disciplinary practice function as mechanisms to otherize racially and economically minoritized students and families in a demographically changing suburb in Wisconsin. Racial disproportionality affects all activity systems: students, families, schools, communities, and school districts (Gregory et al., 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to situate disproportionate representation of racially and economically minoritized students in special education and school discipline within the socio-spatial-historical contexts of racism that exist as a hotbed of American society as a whole. That involves examining systemic discrimination at community and school district level that set the climate of exclusionary practices. While scholars such as Artiles (1998; 2003), Tefera et al., 2017), and Waitoller and Annamma (2017) have provided theoretical foundations to probe into issues of contexts—social, historical, and spatial structures—policies, in the examination of racial disproportionality, empirical study in this particular focus is under-explored.

Theoretical Framework
This paper amalgamates structural theory (Anyon, 2009; Bonilla-Silva, 2015; Omi & Winant, 2015; Sullivan & Artiles, 2011), cultural-historical perspectives of racial disproportionality (Cole, 1996; Engestrom, 2016; Rogoff, 2003), and critical geography (Lefebvre, 1991; Soja, 2010;1996; Stazak, 2008; Said, 1979; Tuck & McKenzie, 2015) as umbrella frameworks. These theories focus on the racialized social system as the unit of analysis—as opposed to individuals’ actions and beliefs— as the basis of education inequities, including racial disproportionality (Anyon, 2009; Artiles, 1998; Bonilla-Silva, 2015; Sullivan & Artiles, 2011). These theories warrant social-spatial-historical analysis of racial disproportionality.

Method and Data
This paper presents an instrumental case study (Stake, 1995). Data is collected from interviews with parents, community members, school board members, and city officials. I also conducted extensive document analysis examining city documents including multiple comprehensive plans, school district meeting notes, particularly pertaining to the most recent changes in elementary school attendance zones. I also examined local and state newspapers discussing socio-spatial changes of Riverside. Data analysis was done using multi-leveled coding strategies. I segmented interview transcripts; conducted open coding (Corbin et al., 2015); created a codebook informed by existing literature and data (Miles & Huberman, 1994); and, lastly conducted focused coding (Corbin et al., 2015).

Findings
What seems to be a “natural space” at the community and school district level for racially and economically minoritized people is reflected in schools through special education programs and school disciplinary practices. There are overlapping narratives of race-class-space-dis/ability. It seems acceptable and natural for educators to lump together differences in racial/ethnic group, economic status, and students’ residential areas with assumptions about problematic behaviors, intelligence, and disability. Special education programs and school disciplinary practice legitimize the removal of students of color, particularly Black students, by way of suspension/expulsion, or label them with disability categories such as E/BD that require removal from a learning environment. Ingrained differences seem to become a natural part of the everyday “commonsense” that legitimizes fragmented society and as such reflect legacies of housing discrimination and neighborhood school segregation.

Author

• Dian Mawene, University of Wisconsin - Madison