‘Isn’t that what “those kids” need?’ Urban schools and the master narrative of the ‘tough, urban principal’

Zirkel, Sabrina; Bailey, Fatima; Bathey, Shrimathi; Hawley, Rebecca; Lewis, Unity; Long, Debbi; Pollack, Terry M.; Roberts, Zachary; Stroud, Regina Stanback; Winful, Audrey

doi:10.1080/13613324.2010.519973

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Structure is more necessary for 'urban children', whereas 'you can be a lot more relaxed and free and easy in a nice, leafy middle-class area …' This neo-imperial stance regards urban children as in need of civilising to become happier subjects (Ahmed 2010). The 'tough, urban principal' performs this task, while test results protect institutions from critique about their methods (Zirkel et al 2011). …”

Section: Living Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heroic heads, mobility mythologies and the power of ambiguity

Kulz

2015

British Journal of Sociology of Education

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This paper explores how the contradictions of neoliberal education reform and its companion, the self-made aspirational subject, are embodied by Sir Michael Wilshaw, former headteacher of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London, through his leadership practices. Wilshaw creates powerful mobility and morality tales that pave over the contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the academies programme and Mossbourne's approach. Drawing on a larger study of Mossbourne, the paper focuses on how raced and classed pathological discourses are mobilised and inverted both by Wilshaw and policy rhetoric, cultivating compliance through a belief in the aspirational subject capable of transcending social structures. The paper argues that neoliberal academy reforms are not about autonomy, but the imperative to comply with centralised policy demands at the expense of democratic participation and accountability.

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Section: Living Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heroic heads, mobility mythologies and the power of ambiguity

Kulz

2015

British Journal of Sociology of Education

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“…It is striking that in anonymous settings such as on‐line comment boards, many commenters felt very comfortable describing Chinese and other Asian Americans in very harsh, negative terms and using deeply troubling language and stereotypes to make their points. Zirkel (Zirkel et al, 2011; Zirkel & Pollack, 2011) has found a similar pattern in other contexts—on‐line, anonymous forums provide an opportunity for many (often European Americans) to express a racial rage and maliciousness that is otherwise hidden in much of modern life.…”

Section: Our Case Study In the Context Of World Migrationmentioning

confidence: 76%

One Hundred and Fifty Years of “The Chinese Question”: An Intergroup Relations Perspective on Immigration and Globalization

Shimpi

Zirkel

2012

Journal of Social Issues

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Increased migration is, in many ways, the sine qua non of globalization. In this manuscript, we examine the single case of Chinese American immigration in the United States over a 150‐year period to explore how race and interracial attitudes shape immigrant–host relations in very deep ways. We find remarkably little change in the valence of these conversations or even in the precise content of the depictions of Chinese Americans over time. A detailed analysis of depictions and conversations about Chinese Americans in a variety of contexts finds that European Americans in the United States often describe them as: (1) self‐segregating, (2) lacking loyalty to the United States, and (3) hardworking and successful, but simultaneously lacking in “humanity.” We highlight the way such depictions ignore any attention to basic facts; we use these data to discuss the ways that race and interracial interaction form the core of immigrant–host relations; and we use this case study to highlight how race shapes immigrant–host relations around the globe.

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“…These communicative exchanges map onto the body of recent scholarship on how white, middle-class teachers in inner-city schools often unconsciously naturalize and pathologize the differences between themselves and their non-white students, thereby racially re-inscribing the students as ‘other’ and inferior (Picower 2009; Young 2009; Ullucci 2011; Yoon 2012). However, the privileging of whiteness through racial ‘othering’ is not exclusive to white staff in either the interviews or other studies of Oakland schools (Zirkel et al 2011). Rather, according to the youth, ‘ghetto’ teachers were defined by their intent to simply manage student bodies and ‘keep them busy’ – thus creating a subtractive experience devoid of genuine care for and education of their charges (Valenzuela 1999).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Hella ghetto!’: (dis)locating race and class consciousness in youth discourses of ghetto spaces, subjects and schools

Sung

2013

Race Ethnicity and Education

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Based on analysis of interviews conducted during 2008-2009 in Oakland, California, this paper examines how narratives of inner-city youth reinforce and destabilize mainstream conceptions of ‘ghetto.’ The paper demonstrates that inner-city youth discourses regarding ‘ghetto’ spaces, subjects and schools often exemplify a consciousness informed by both counter-hegemonic insights and internalized psychological trauma. In other words, the interviewed youth reconstitute the term ‘ghetto’ to signify structural and cultural processes of dislocation occurring in their neighborhood through narratives characterized by contradiction. This finding is significant because it questions how to analyze non-white narratives and offers ‘dislocated consciousness’ as an interpretive lens grounded in the contradictions of subaltern consciousness theorized by W.E.B. Dubois, Frantz Fanon and Antonio Gramsci. By developing the concept of ‘dislocation’ to illuminate how such youth negotiate, resist and internalize the material and ideological structures that condition their existence, this study contributes to the existing literature on race and class consciousness of urban youth. The paper concludes by exploring how strategies urban youth utilize to come to terms with their lives can provide new understandings of urban communities and schooling.

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‘Isn’t that what “those kids” need?’ Urban schools and the master narrative of the ‘tough, urban principal’

Cited by 18 publications

References 14 publications

Heroic heads, mobility mythologies and the power of ambiguity

Heroic heads, mobility mythologies and the power of ambiguity

One Hundred and Fifty Years of “The Chinese Question”: An Intergroup Relations Perspective on Immigration and Globalization

‘Hella ghetto!’: (dis)locating race and class consciousness in youth discourses of ghetto spaces, subjects and schools

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