From Backpacks to Bathrooms: Everyday Forms of Resistance to a High School Cell Phone Ban

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2. Surveillance and Resistance in Schools

Abstract

This paper considers how high school students engage in acts of resistance to the newly implemented New York State “bell-to-bell” cell phone ban. Existing research on this topic is limited, but a notable Swedish study indicates that students use a variety of tactics to contest mobile phone bans, including using their phones surreptitiously and handing in empty phone cases at the beginning of class (Magnusson et al. 2023). My research addresses this gap in the literature, and contributes to our understanding of how students employ everyday forms of resistance. Combining ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews at a rural public high school in Western New York, I find that students participate in three distinct forms of resistance — (1) keeping their cell phones in their clothes pockets or backpacks; (2) wearing their headphones to class; and (3) using their cell phones in the bathroom during the school day. These findings suggest that students utilize everyday acts of resistance to contest the restrictions imposed by the “bell-to-bell” cell phone ban. This work broadens our knowledge of how students engage in covert forms of resistance, challenging narratives that students are passive recipients of policy.

Author

• Ashley Lynn Quinlan, Syracuse University