“American Dream Is a Lie”: New Scholarship on the Cultural (Re)production of “Success” and “Failure”

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 17

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

The panel examines how neoliberal ideology as symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1977) shapes the K-12 experiences and social identities of marginalized students across social contexts, from school to home, and community. It discusses the ways in which neoliberal ideology and policies become embodied and enacted, (re)producing social categories, and shaping students' and families' behaviors, relationships and social positions in relation to the public education system. We offer alternative views on the cultural production of “success,” “failure,” and conceptualize discourses of struggle as human struggles and action in response to racialized social norms and structures that are hidden by the ideology of the marketplace, competition, and choice.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 5: Macro-analysis of the social contexts of teaching and learning

Chairs

• Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Rutgers University

• Jessie Curtis, Rutgers University

Papers

• "I Wasn't American 'Enough'": Education Policy as Cultural Imperialism - Jessie Curtis, Rutgers University

• Learning to "Echar Ganas en la Escuela" (Try Hard in School) - Meredith McConnochie, University of Saint Joseph

• Subtractive Education as a Form of Symbolic Violence: The Case of College Developmental Writing Students - Rosemary G Carolan, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway

• "An Asian Without A's Is a Sin": "Smart Asians" and Their Racialized School Experience - Shelley Yi-Jung Wu, Rutgers University