Schools Where Adolescents Can Thrive: Bringing the Periphery Into the Center

• In Event: The New Science of Adolescence: Integrating Socio-Emotional and Academic Development in Research, Practice, and Policy

Abstract

Theoretical Framework

It has been widely observed that the “grammar of schooling” (Tyack & Cuban, 1995) is a powerful and unchanging feature of American schools. Key features of this grammar include age-graded classrooms, separation of classes by academic discipline, pen-and-paper assessments, and tracking. This grammar, scholars have argued, is a major factor which inhibits efforts to transform schools into more student-centered places.

In this paper, we draw on evidence from a long-term ethnographic study to argue that what is missing from these accounts is that American high schools long have hosted a second grammar which coexists with the first: the grammar of electives, clubs, and extracurriculars. These “peripheral” spaces, our research suggests, are often more conducive to identity development and powerful learning than core academic classes. Their success suggests a possible path for transforming high schools into places where social-emotional development and intellectual engagement serve as mutually supportive priorities.

Methods & Data Sources

This paper draws on an ethnographic study which entailed 750 hours of observations and 300 interviews conducted over a 6-year period at 30 highly varied American high schools. Data sources include fieldnotes, interview and focus group transcripts, artifacts of student and teacher work, and analytic memos. Data was coded iteratively, with multiple rounds of open coding followed by rounds of focused coding. Members checks, peer debriefings, and triangulation among data sources served as mechanisms by which to establish authenticity (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 2011).

Findings

In the first portion of the paper, we draw on an extended case study of a theater production in a large suburban high school. This space achieves depth, we argue, by embracing a different grammar than that of most conventional classrooms: a grammar which emphasizes purpose and choice, which cultivates community and interdependent roles, and which draws on powerful traditions of apprenticeship and “whole game” learning (Perkins, 2009). This grammar, we argue, is highly aligned to what the learning sciences suggest about the interrelationships between identity development, cognitive development, and social-emotional learning in adolescence (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018).

In the second portion of the paper, we examine the work of a network of urban high schools whose design is rooted in the conviction that all classrooms should combine elements of peripheral contexts (such as hands-on learning and apprenticeships) with elements of liberal arts education (such as foundational knowledge in the arts and sciences). We focus on the challenges which come with sustaining this model, focusing on the fact that despite high levels of student belongingness and intellectual engagement, administrators report constantly contending with community pressures to “regress to the mean.”

Scholarly Significance

Our research suggests that educators seeking to transform high schools into more vital learning communities for adolescents could learn a great deal by attending to the grammar of peripheral contexts. As the second case described above suggests, however, maintaining a different grammar of schooling is an ongoing process rather than an achieved state—and this process is one which entails continually buffering external pressures.

Authors

• Sarah Melanie Fine, University of California, San Diego

• Jal David Mehta, Harvard University