Counter-Narratives of a System: The Schooling in San Antonio Oral History Project

• In Event: Embracing Authentic Cariño and Community Cultural Wealth in School-University Partnerships

Abstract

Project Overview:
The Schooling in San Antonio Oral History Project was launched in the spring of 2024, following the San Antonio Independent School District’s announcement of its “right-sizing” policy, which resulted in the permanent closure of 15 schools in May 2024. Conducted in partnership with the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life, the Special Collections Archive at Trinity University, an undergraduate course, a high school cohort, and nineteen narrators, this project aims to explore the impacts of these closures through oral histories. This presentation will detail the methodology of the project, including training, analysis, and archiving, and will feature clips of stories that offer insight into the educational landscape from lived experiences.
Context:
San Antonio, noted for its rapid population growth and property investment potential, faces a paradox: while the city expands, neighborhood schools in the urban core are experiencing declining enrollments. Over the past two years, more than twenty schools in economically disadvantaged districts have closed. Historically, these communities have been affected by school funding schemes tied to property wealth, housing, and segregation (Drennon, 2005). Additionally, gentrification and the rise of charter schools in the past fifteen years have further exacerbated the decline of neighborhood schools by drawing students away (Lippman, 2017; Phillips, 2023).
School closures are driven by a data-centric logic that prioritizes quantitative measures of test scores and attendance over the lived experiences of students and communities. This issue is compounded by the fact that school district boundaries have been shaped by racial and economic segregation, reinforcing spatial injustice (Tieken et al., 2019) and limiting the equitable distribution of opportunities. While the dominant narrative of urban school success or failure is framed through a neoliberal logic of school accountability (Ambrosio, 2013), recent closures reveal how a funding model based on enrollment and average daily attendance positions schools as central to the shaping of cities (Bierbaum, 2021). This model perpetuates the discourse of “good” and “bad” neighborhoods (Candipan, 2020).
Contribution to Scholarship:
Dolores Diego Bernal (1998, 2020) has highlighted the value of oral history methodologies in educational research, particularly for capturing the lived experiences of marginalized communities. This approach addresses historiographical gaps and expands the “epistemological boundaries” of academic research. Educational policy has often been shaped by quantitative measures of school success and failure, which entrench a landscape of inequality through accountability and enrollment metrics. This paper argues that oral history provides a nuanced, granular perspective on neighborhoods, challenging the dominant neoliberal discourse on school success and failure. By offering a counter-narrative to the prevailing school district narratives, this work contributes to a broader conversation on educational equity and underscores the importance of qualitative analysis in understanding the reproduction of inequality in urban communities.

Author

• Habiba Noor, Trinity University