In Esmeraldas, Ecuador, students of African descent make sense of racial identity and discrimination in multiple and contradictory ways as they negotiate the dominant discourse of national identity. In Ecuador two simultaneous processes shape the dominant discourse of national identity: racial mixture and the movement towards Whiteness. This study is based primarily on formal interviews and classroom and school site observations. In this article I focus on the relationship between educational practices at the national and local level and the perceptions and negotiations of students of African descent concerning racial identity and discrimination. I show that the racial and spatial topography of the nation of Ecuador is transposed onto the cultural landscape of the city of Esmeraldas. I show that the formal curriculum attempts to erase the significance of Black people and Blackness from the economic and social development of the nation, while racial discrimination is pervasive inside and outside of the classroom at the research site. Finally, I show that students of African descent often attempt to move towards Whiteness as they negotiate the dominant discourse of national identity. I conclude with a summary of my findings and suggest what the implications are for schooling in Esmeraldas, Ecuador and more broadly.

In this article I compare and contrast curricular, ceremonial and pedagogical practices with how students and teachers make sense of racial identity and discrimination at the Jaime Hurtado Academy in the city and province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, which is the only region of the nation where AfroEcuadorian people comprise a majority of the population. On the one hand, I found that schooling was structured as a regime of equality, where social science textbooks make invisible the concepts of race and Blackness while school ceremonies enforced membership to the nation. In addition, I demonstrate that pedagogical practices reinforce the notion of a culturally homogenous nation by providing little space for students to interrogate important issues in their lives. On the other hand, I show through an examination of how students and teachers make sense of racial identity and discrimination that race was a significant factor shaping teaching and learning at the research site and argue that schooling practices are implicated in this process by attempting to submerge racial and cultural differences.

hElEn mariE casEy's booklEt Portland's Compromise: the Colored School, 1867-1872 recounts the story of William Brown, an African-American resident of Portland, Oregon, and his role in the first and only case of official segregation of African-American children in Portland Public Schools (PPS) in 187. After unsuccessfully trying to enroll his children in one of Portland's only two public elementary schools, Brown appealed to the school board, including directors Josiah Failing, W.S. Ladd, and E.D. Shattuck. Again, his children were denied access. The board of directors explained their resistance to integrated schools by saying: "If we admit them [African-American children], then next year we will have no money to run the schools." According to Casey, the directors were "afraid to provoke the taxpayers and rouse their ire." 1 Rather than attempting such a politically "risky" effort, the school board eventually allocated $800-$75 more than it had offered prior to Brown's threat of a lawsuit-for a segregated school at the corner Southwest Fourth and Columbia. Twenty-six African-American students, twenty-one boys and five girls-many of whom had previously attempted to attend another public, or "free," school in Portland but had been denied-enrolled in the school. The continued existence of the "Colored School" was constantly in question at annual school meetings. Funding for the school was abolished in 1872, and the next year, thirty African-American children were admitted to the newly integrated PPS. Since Oregon acquired statehood in 1859, the relationship between African Americans and public education in the city of Portland has been complex and closely correlated to the broader racial dynamics of the city,

No abstract

In recent years, the policy and regulatory environment for intercity passenger rail in the United States has shifted dramatically. To support the resulting increase in intercity passenger rail planning activities, there is a need to understand the roles for passenger rail service in an intercity corridor, including who is using the service and how it is being used. Using on-board passenger survey data, this paper examines the role of the Hiawatha Service in the modal mix of the dense Milwaukee-Chicago intercity corridor. Primary trip purposes among Hiawatha Service travelers include personal trips, work commutes, and business trips. In the absence of the Hiawatha Service, more than 85 percent of passengers would travel via alternative travel modes. Consequently, it is estimated that the Hiawatha Service removes nearly 400,000 vehicles and 32 million vehicle-miles (51 million vehicle-km) traveled from the congested Milwaukee-Chicago corridor annually. As the nation moves forward with significant investment in intercity passenger rail, there are lessons to be learned from the Hiawatha Service, both for rail service planning and the formation of transportation policy. For rail planning, this research indicates that the proper service configurations can result in a variety of trip purposes being accommodated on the route; this raises additional challenges when considering service elements such as on-board amenities. From a policy perspective, these findings present a compelling argument for continued investment in intercity passenger rail because they demonstrate that the availability of high-quality passenger rail service in the right corridor can have meaningful impacts on highway congestion, regional economic development and job access, and air quality and greenhouse gas emissions.