Subtractive Education as a Form of Symbolic Violence: The Case of College Developmental Writing Students

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

Abstract

Objective: Forty percent of first-year college students, referred to variously as “developmental,” “at-risk,” or “underprepared,” are placed into remedial courses (Attewell et al., 2006). Why and how did the public school system fail to prepare these students for higher education? The study sheds light on the question by examining the literacy practices of college students who have tested into a remedial English course. The study finds public education has exerted symbolic violence on these marginalized students in their K-to-12 experiences, shaping their academic trajectories into early adulthood.

Conceptual Framework: The framework that supports this study is Bourdieu’s (1977) theory of practice, specifically his concept of symbolic violence, which he defines as “the gentle, invisible form of violence … never recognized as such … exercised in the form of a protective authority” (pp. 192-193).

Modes of Inquiry and Data: The focal participants included two 1.5 generation and three second-generation immigrant students in three higher education institutions. Data collection was longitudinal, extending over ten months; sources included semi-structured interviews, observations of participants in classes and out-of-school activities, social media, and collection of in-school and out-of-school documents. Using a grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006) with an “ethnographic perspective” (Street, 2012, p. 39), this study included analysis of each segment of data, followed by an examination of the categories and creation of links and relationships, resulting in the development of emergent themes. By analyzing literacy practices, this study highlights the complexity of how social contexts, identities, and power intertwine.

Conclusions and Significance: The neoliberal ideology of the public educational system, further concretized in NCLB, exerted symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1977) on study participants as young children by subjecting them to subtractive language education (Valenzuela, 1999) through English immersion programs, as well as placement into remediation based on deficit views of multilingual students. This symbolic violence on study participants resulted in academic identities characterized by a negative regard for their own abilities. Participants accepted the legitimacy of the judgment of the education system and tended to blame themselves, their lack of ability or insufficient effort, rather than deficiencies in the system, for difficulties they faced. Furthermore, this negative identity continued into college; for example, when a participant’s only line in his group’s final presentation was eliminated, he received a C for the course. He explained later, “If I were more interested in it, I would have gotten an A but I honestly didn’t try hard enough.” Evidently, this student viewed remedial placement or poor grades in college as a reflection of a personal shortcoming, rather than the deficit approach of the institution.

This study calls upon educators and policymakers, in both K-to-12 and higher education settings, to recognize the symbolic violence that is perpetrated on marginalized students and, rather than discounting their diversity, create positive instructional approaches that celebrate rather than punish difference.

Author

• Rosemary G Carolan, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway