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- All Subjects: Educational philosophy
- Creators: Blumenfeld-Jones, Donald
Description
This study enters on the heels of a trend of public school closures across the United States. Using qualitative methods, the study concerns the curriculum experiences of six African American students attending a majority-white high school in a white, middle-class community in the Midwest, one year after the closure of their predominantly Black high school in their hometown.
The study draws from Michel Foucault’s philosophy on care of the self as an analytical tool to look at students’ care of the ‘racialized’ self, or more specifically, how African American students are forming a ‘self’ in a majority-white school in relation to the ways they are being racialized. Background of the schools and a description of the conditions under which the school change occurred are provided for context. Data collection involved conducting life history interviews with students, observing students in their classes, and shadowing students throughout their school day.
Findings show that African American student-participants are contending with what they describe as a “them”/“us” racial, cultural, and class divide that is operationalized through the curriculum. Students are in a struggle to negotiate how they are perceived and categorized as ‘racialized’ bodies through the curriculum, and, their own perceptions of these racializations. In this struggle, students enact self-practices to make maneuvers within curriculum spaces. A student can accept how the curriculum attempts to constitute her/him as a subject, resist this subjectification, or perform any combination of both accepting and resisting. In this way, a curriculum, with its distinctive and potentially polarizing boundaries, becomes a negotiated and contested space. And, because this curricular space is internally contradictory, a student, in relation to it, may practice versions of a ‘self’ (multiple ‘selves’) that are contradictory. Findings illuminate that in this complex process of self-making, African American students are producing a curriculum of self-formation that teaches others how they want to be perceived.
The study draws from Michel Foucault’s philosophy on care of the self as an analytical tool to look at students’ care of the ‘racialized’ self, or more specifically, how African American students are forming a ‘self’ in a majority-white school in relation to the ways they are being racialized. Background of the schools and a description of the conditions under which the school change occurred are provided for context. Data collection involved conducting life history interviews with students, observing students in their classes, and shadowing students throughout their school day.
Findings show that African American student-participants are contending with what they describe as a “them”/“us” racial, cultural, and class divide that is operationalized through the curriculum. Students are in a struggle to negotiate how they are perceived and categorized as ‘racialized’ bodies through the curriculum, and, their own perceptions of these racializations. In this struggle, students enact self-practices to make maneuvers within curriculum spaces. A student can accept how the curriculum attempts to constitute her/him as a subject, resist this subjectification, or perform any combination of both accepting and resisting. In this way, a curriculum, with its distinctive and potentially polarizing boundaries, becomes a negotiated and contested space. And, because this curricular space is internally contradictory, a student, in relation to it, may practice versions of a ‘self’ (multiple ‘selves’) that are contradictory. Findings illuminate that in this complex process of self-making, African American students are producing a curriculum of self-formation that teaches others how they want to be perceived.
ContributorsLevin, Stacey S (Author) / Blumenfeld-Jones, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, David Lee (Committee member) / Sandlin, Jennifer A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Academic tracking has long been a subject of debate due to its potential impact on educational equity, with students who are tracked highly receiving a higher quality
education in comparison to students tracked lowly. These disparities in education quality
may be affecting students’ outcomes, as it has been demonstrated that the short-term
academic outcomes of students, such as their grades, tend to be affected by their
academic track positioning. This dissertation builds upon these previous findings by
utilizing a subsample of 20,584 students from the High School Longitudinal Study (2009)
to examine the relation between academic track positioning and post-secondary education
attendance, program length, college major, and expected future job. Additionally, the
relation between academic tracking and each of these outcomes was also assessed using
mediation, with potential mediators including education aspiration, expectations, and
academic self-efficacy. Findings suggest that academic track positioning in math and
science are influential in students’ post-secondary and career outcomes, with students
who are positioned highly in either subject having greater post-secondary attendance,
program length, higher representation in STEM college majors, and expectations for
future jobs in STEM fields in comparison to students tracked lowly. Additionally,
education aspirations and expectations mediated the relations between math academic
track positioning and each of the outcomes, although the effects were small in size.
Educators should consider exploring avenues for improving education quality in low
academic tracks.
ContributorsWoods, Kenton Bentley (Author) / Hanish, Laura (Thesis advisor) / DeLay, Dawn (Committee member) / Martin, Carol (Committee member) / Jager, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023