“What the Real World in Schools is Like”: Urban Youth in Dialogue About Educational Inequality

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of a dialogue among urban youth about their educational condition, and the opportunities for learning and collaboration that ensue. The study is based on observations and interviews with eight students in a community-based program that supports the engagement of young people in school reform. Notably, the membership includes youth enrolled in both urban and suburban high schools. Findings reveal that the students capitalized on their dialogic inquiry process by constructing knowledge of educational disparity and forging coalitions across district lines. Implications include the possibilities for structuring and supporting students' social inquiry, and the potential for diverse, student-led dialogues to advance the cause of educational equality.

Merit in Meritocracy: Uncovering the Myth of Exceptionality and Self-Reliance Through the Voices of Urban Youth of Color

“…Urban communities have been described as “opportunity deserts,” as they lack the necessary organizational and individual-based empowerment resources that will help bridge teens of color toward successful futures. Youth living in urban communities often experience limited supportive structures both within the home and outside, with youth attending schools where the students vastly outnumber the teachers, and the teachers (whether perceived or otherwise) are viewed as uncaring and unsupportive (Taines, 2011). It is also important to note that because the teaching force in America’s schools are largely White, with middle-class backgrounds, students of color, as noted in our data, may not necessarily feel comfortable engaging staff in supportive relationships (Boucher & Helfenbein, 2015).…”

“…These beliefs of exceptionality in the United States, as well as misguided federal policies promulgating educational inequality, contribute to the limited effectiveness in educational reform (Berliner, 2013; Taines, 2011; Zirkel, 2005). Yet, ironically, neoliberal educational policy is sold as the bedrock of the American Dream and this belief is commonly perpetuated by the media and by U.S. leaders (Baldridge, 2016).…”

Intervening in Alienation

“…During the second year of the school activism program, the members of the School Accountability Project (SAP) developed a survey for local students with the purpose of identifying priorities for school change. In the process, the SAP members, who importantly attended both urban and suburban high schools, constructed knowledge of educational disparity (Taines, 2011). For example, Roland, who attended Odana in Gorham said, ''I learned that some schools have way more work than my school do .…”

Toward Participatory Communal Citizenship

“…The tremendous growth of Black African immigrants to the United States is a recent phenomenon emerging in part as a consequence of federal immigration policies such as the 1965 Immigration Act, which abolished national quotas and made migration legal from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and increased educational opportunities in the United States and economic and political instability in many African countries (Balogun, 2011). From 2001to 2010 African immigrants were granted lawful permanent residence. Many Toward Participatory Communal Citizenship obtained legal residency through refugee resettlement and asylum programs or the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which requires that immigrant populations possess at least a high school degree (Capps et al, 2011).…”