Circles of Support: towards a liberatory pedagogy for community education

Abstract

First I would like to thank the community organizers, school officials, allies, and especially the participant families that shared their experiences with me. Their commitment to creating a more just society formed the backbone of this study. I am indebted to the faculty, staff, and students at Dowling Catholic High School for their unwavering support. Thank you Dr. Jim Dowdle for encouraging me to pursue this degree; you've inspired me become a better teacher. My dissertation committee was simply amazing. I want to specifically thank Katherine Richardson Bruna for her friendship as well as for all our conversations about negotiating our postmodern selves, Beth Herbel-Eisenmann for introducing me to discourse analysis in a way that helped me make sense of the complex interactions I observed at weekly meetings, and to Leslie Rebecca Bloom for never lowering her expectations. Leslie not only taught me about how to conduct good qualitative research, she taught me about what it means to stand for social justice. For that I am eternally grateful. I would not have completed this dissertation without the love and support of my family. Mom and dad, thank you for always believing in me and loving me unconditionally. Perhaps my biggest fan and steadfast supporter is my grandmother, Laura Timm. We made it grandma! I wish Grandpa could have read this, but I know he's with me and proud. Finally, and I saved the best for last, thank you to my wonderful wife and partner Andrea. No one in this world has taught me more about justice, love, peace, and happiness than you. I am a better father and human being because I am fortunate enough to stand beside you. I dedicate this dissertation to my children, Bailey, Sydney, Gracey, and Lilly. The four of you are gold to me. dominant discourse said about the poor: they did not lack personal responsibility, they worked hard, and they desired self-sufficiency. Stories like Chris Gardner's are presented as exemplars, reminding us that if you work hard enough you can make it. Stories like Gardner's, however, are the exception, not the rule. The means are not the exception: there are millions of hard-working people living in poverty doing everything they can to get ahead. The ends, however, are the exception. Working hard does not always, or even usually, bring family sustainability (Hawkins, 2005; Rank, 2001, 2004). While the language of welfare reform legislation and the images immortalized on the big screen lead us to believe that poor people working hard are the exception, but the success of those who do is the rule, I watched two dozen families for three years struggle to provide for their families. Not one family left poverty. Seeing The Pursuit of Happyness influenced the way I approached writing this dissertation. It not only compelled me work harder to clearly articulate the ways families living in poverty defied dominant stereotypes and generalizations, it also helped me re-focus on the unique relationship between COS and the local public school district. Schoolcommunity partnerships...