Reading Between the Lines: Radical Possibilities in the Safe and Supportive Schools Act

• In Event: 46.085 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 46.085-7 - Disciplining From Washington: Analyses of Federal Policy

Abstract

In this paper I conduct a comprehensive textual analysis of Minnesota’s 2013 proposal for the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act, also known as the anti-bullying act. The purpose of this analysis is to discover the ways the act goes beyond constraining individual behaviors to enable broad social change. The act not only requires the prevention of bullying, it also requires the establishment of a safe and supportive school climate. Utilizing Van Leeuwen’s concept of language as a recontextualization of social practice, I coded the language in the act to isolate the actions that would be mandated by this act, as well as actors who were charged with carrying out those actions and the resources they were charged with using.

Author

• Shannon Dahmes, University of Minnesota