Curriculum, Stories, and Place: Narrative Inquiry Into Schools and Gentrification

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Place Consciousness in Curriculum and Praxis (Table 2)

Abstract

Rapid gentrification in Southwest Atlanta, historically marked by segregation in both policy and practice, has contributed to massive shifts in the way people live, relate, and make meaning. This study collected narratives from community members, teachers, and school staff, and examined emergent stories about gentrification’s impact on schools as relational and structural mediators in community. Narratives from school workers revealed experiences of liminal spaces, places, and the unknown, as some neighborhoods are already gentrified and others are in the process. Similarly, participants spoke to the permeable borders between school and the community as offering both opportunity and challenge. The authors suggest that urban policy functions as a curriculum—teaching communities lessons about their place in a rapidly changing landscape.

Authors

• Robert J. Helfenbein, Mercer University
  Presenting Author

• Hannah M. Edber, Mercer University
  Presenting Author