"Humanizing" for Whom? Community Schools, Black Youth, and the Meaning-Making of Educational Leaders 

• In Event: Education as a "Plantation Public Good": Responses, Reforms, and Refusals of Schooling and Education in an Antiblack World

Abstract

Overview: Full-service community schools are increasingly implemented across the nation as a means to assist school leaders in countering deficit narratives, acknowledging the agency and assets of youth and families (Green, 2015; Green & Gooden, 2014; Heers, Van Klaveren, Groot, & Brink, 2015; Miller & Hafner, 2005; Trujillo, Hernández, Jarrell, & Kissell, 2014). However, few community school studies grapple with the tension between the “humanizing” ideals of community schooling and the everyday antiBlack violence youth experience within schools and communities.This is despite the central role AntiBlackness and meaning-making play in shaping school processes and practices (Lewis & Diamond, 2015), particularly from the individuals charged with leading the development of these initiatives (Abrams and Gibbs, 2000; Voyle, 2012). To fill this gap, this study asks:
1. how do community school leaders (district administration, school staff, community partners and parents) make meaning of and frame the experiences of Black youth within and outside of school?  

Author

• Gwendolyn Baxley, University at Buffalo - SUNY