White, Illiberal, and Sustained: Identifying Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies in a Rural Religious Community

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Representation and Resources in Rural Places (Table 8)

Abstract

The Amish and Old Order Mennonites in the United States are permitted to end compulsory schooling for their children at age 14. In public schools that maintain a majority of Amish children, like those at the center of this paper’s study, educators experience a challenge in preparing students for open futures while sustaining the family’s and community’s specified career and educational goals. The author identifies a particular agreement between educators and community reminiscent of Django Paris’s “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies” framework (2012), albeit one applied to a White religious minority. The author examines the philosophical argument for supporting an illiberal community within a public structure, and how race, religion, gender, and political power play into this potentially precarious agreement.

Author

• Ryan H. Ozar, The College of Wooster
  Presenting Author