Reproducing or Challenging Power in the Questions We Ask and the Methods We Use: A Framework for Activist Research in Urban Education

Competing Paradigms of Educational Justice: Parent Organizing for Educational Equity in a Neoliberal Reform Context

“…These social identities marked me as an outsider in Alianza, and conferred a position of power on multiple axes. I entered into the research with an awareness of how power relations inevitably shape research processes and products (e.g., see Nygreen, 2006Nygreen, , 2009. It was important to me, from a politicalethical standpoint, that I had established a relationship of trust with Lidia prior to initiating the research, and that we both expressed a commitment to naming and addressing issues of power in the research process.…”

“…By organizing parents to demand better schools for their children-and the resources to make them a reality-grassroots organizing offers a bottom-up approach to school change that contrasts with the more prevalent top-down technocratic approach. Advocates of grassroots parent organizing argue that educational inequity is as much, if not more, a political issue than a technical one, and therefore, must be resisted by building political power and making political demands rather than applying the technocratic knowledge of socially recognized experts or corporate elites (e.g., Anyon, 2005;Nygreen, 2006;Oakes & Rogers, 2006;Warren, 2014). 1 I examine one such parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district on the West Coast.…”

From Classmates to Inmates: An Integrated Approach to Break the School-to-Prison Pipeline

“…Most of the research on the educational outcomes of these historically disenfranchised groups assumes a deficit-based perspective (Nygreen, 2006). Specifically, Bourdieu (1977) contended that an individual's life experiences are generally predetermined by the family's socioeconomic and intellectual background.…”

“…Along this vein, educational philosophy and how it subsequently informs practice, generally mirrors the beliefs and norms set forth by the mainstream culture. According to Harry and Klinger (2006) and Nygreen (2006), when communities of color and/or those with a disability status are discussed in the literature, as well as in schools, it is often from a deficit-based perspective and with a passive voice. Specifically, these communities are theorized about, by others outside of their cultures, who in turn use their own cultural perspective as the norm against which all others should be measured or compared.…”

Peers as an Academic Resource: An Investigation of an Afterschool Program to Socialize At-risk Students with Disabilities into Greater Academic Engagement

“…Family factors have also been the focus of research in an attempt to find the reasons why some students drop out of school (Nygreen, 2006). Low socioeconomic standing is among the strongest predictors of school drop out.…”