Opportunity Gaps in Society and Schools

• In Event: Interrogating Opportunity Gaps: The Role of Educational Research in Consequential Truths, Justices, and Equity

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVES. Education does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is an institution that influences and is influenced by other social institutions, such as healthcare, economics, law, politics, and religion. Yet, the ways in which education research is conducted, presented and published seems to suggest otherwise. This study takes comprehensive aim at how institutions interact to create social justice issues such as the school-to-prison pipeline. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK. The author employs Milner’s (2020) Opportunity Gap Explanatory Framework (OGEF) as a lens to understand the mechanisms of the school-to-prison pipeline, both inside and outside of education spaces. The OGEF provides the opportunity to thread the needle between important sociological concepts such as color blind policies and practices, the myth of meritocracy, and deficit thinking across systems and structures. Equally important, it aims to contextualize education spaces and issues (e.g., the school-to-prison pipeline) and reorient the conversation so that the focus shifts to overlooked or underutilized assets that can be used to solve the social issue at hand. METHODS. Qualitative methods were used, including in-depth, semi-structured interviews in one-on-one and focus group contexts. Approximately 25 interviews were conducted, with the majority of interviews taking place via Zoom. In-person interviews were conducted when possible and recorded via the Otter application. Interviews lasted between approximately 30 and 90 minutes in length, with variation being due to the time restraints or flexibilities of participants. Context observations and document analysis was also conducted, with a particular focus on individuals and organizations situated or working in the 37208 community in North Nashville, known for having the highest incarceration rate in the nation per capita (Brookings,2018 ). This community served as the ideal space for the research project, for the assets and findings uncovered here could serve as helpful for similar communities -- what Gloria Ladson Billings refers to as the “educationally indebted” communities. FINDINGS. Preliminary findings suggest that individuals in educationally indebted communities (Ladson-Billings, 2006) possess the knowledge and capabilities to solve their own social issues (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993). People of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, ages, and years of experience working in social justice are seeing success in getting policies and practices evaluated and changed inside schools and across communities. SCHOLARLY SIGNIFICANCE. Social justice research is at its best when it creates a platform that elevates the experts that currently exist within problematized communities. Sharing the results of this study could benefit the field of social justice research by putting the focus on individuals within communities -- specifically, using institutional and governmental resources to support their vision for bettering their communities.

Author

• Bryant O. Best, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author