Schools as a Borderland: Navigating Citizenship, Surveillance, and Ideological Violence

• In Event: Fugitive Spaces and Geographies of Spatial Justice throughout Social Contexts of Education

Abstract

Public schools in the United States function as “soft borderlands,” where racialized surveillance, ideological enforcement, and curriculum regulation delineate belonging. This study argues that public education is not only a site of learning, but also a mechanism of border enforcement, where race, citizenship, and ideology are policed. Grounded in LatCrit theory and decolonial thought, the research examines how policy maintains ideological and racial boundaries. Drawing on Anzaldúa, Delgado Bernal, Maldonado-Torres, and Mignolo, we analyze how coloniality, whiteness, and legal exclusion shape schooling practices that constrain Latine identity and knowledge. Through policy analysis and educator testimonios, findings reveal how schools discipline belonging and reinforce settler colonial logics, while also highlighting acts of resistance and reimagination.

Authors

• Tracie Trinidad, Aurora Public Schools

• Paulina Lerma, Denver Public Schools