Pedagogy, Policy, and the Privatized City: Stories of Dispossession and Defiance from New Orleans

Pedagogy, Policy, and the Privatized City: Stories of Dispossession and Defiance from New Orleans

by Kristen L. Buras
Pedagogy, Policy, and the Privatized City: Stories of Dispossession and Defiance from New Orleans

Pedagogy, Policy, and the Privatized City: Stories of Dispossession and Defiance from New Orleans

by Kristen L. Buras

Paperback

$30.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Usually ships within 6 days
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

In cities across the nation, communities of color find themselves resisting state disinvestment and the politics of dispossession. Students at the Center—a writing initiative based in several New Orleans high schools—takes on this struggle through a close examination of race and schools. This book builds on the powerful stories of marginalized youth and their teachers, who contest the policies that are destructive to their communities: decentralization, charter schools, market-based educational choice, teachers union-busting, mixed-income housing, and urban redevelopment. Striking commentaries from the foremost scholars of the day explore the wider implications of these stories for pedagogy and educational policy in schools across the United States and the globe. Most importantly, this book reveals what must be done to challenge oppressive conditions and democratize our schools by troubling the vision of city elites who seek to elide students’ histories, privatize their schools, and reinvent their neighborhoods.

Contributors include Michael W. Apple, Wayne Au, Adrienne D. Dixson, Maisha T. Fisher, Joyce E. King, Pauline Lipman, and Vanessa Siddle Walker.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780807750896
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Publication date: 05/01/2010
Series: 0
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kristen L. Buras is assistant professor of urban education and reform at Emory University. Jim Randels is a veteran public school teacher, founder of Students at the Center, and executive vice president of United Teachers of New Orleans. Kalamu ya Salaam is a writer and producer who co-directs Students at the Center, including its digital media work through Neo-Griot Productions.

Table of Contents

Forward! On the Freedom Dreams of Young Race Rebels Robin D. G. Kelley xi

Introduction 1

Counterstories on Pedagogy and Policy Making: Coming of Age in the Privatized City Kristen L. Buras 1

Scorching the Earth Isn't the Way: New Orleans Before and After Jim Randels Kalamu ya Salaam 15

1 "We have to Tell our Story": Neo-Griots, Schooling, and the Legacy of Racial Resistance in the other south Kristen L. Buras 17

2 Students at the Center: The Word, The River, and Education for Liberation 46

Opening Reflection

Forming a Mighty River Kristen L. Buras 46

Beginnings

It's the Working Conditions, Not the Teachers Jim Randels 50

The Power to Tell Our Stories

Speaking Out

Rain Ashley Jones 53

"Just Fill Me Up" Demetria White 56

The Stories in Me Gabrielle Turner 57

Commentary

Making Sense of Race Through Counter-Storytelling as Pedagogy Adrienne D. Dixson 59

Education for Liberation Rather Than Exploitation

Speaking Out

We Stand by Our Students Kalamu ya Salaam 65

Commentary

Soldiering On: Black Literate Lives Past and Present Maisha T. Fisher 72

Closing Reflection

Toward a Critical Reading of the Privatized City Kristen L. Buras 76

3 Race and Reform in the Privatized City 78

Opening Reflection

Capitalist Dreams Kristen L. Buras 78

State Abandonment and the Privatization of Education

Speaking Out

Forgotten by Our Government Deborah Carey 83

Worse Than Those Six Days Maria Hernandez 85

Does Anybody Know? Katrena Jackson-Ndang 87

Commentary

Making Schools "Right" Again: Whose Choice Is the Education Market? Michael W. Apple 88

Forceful Expulsion and the Exclusive Right to Home

Speaking Out

Missing Project Tyeasha Green 93

Who's Holding the Gun? Vinnessia Shelbia 94

Commentary

Racial Reform on Chicago's Home Front Pauline Lipman 95

Suppression of Veteran Teachers' Labor

Speaking Out

Passing on a Torch Jim Randels 101

I Don't Want to Go to That School Kirsten Theodore 103

Commentary

African American Teachers in the Old South and the New Vanessa Siddle Walker 104

Poetic Declaration of Rights to the City

Wake Up Damien Theodore 109

Closing Reflection

"I've Been Scarred and Battered": Warnings from Harlem, Washington, DC, and Beyond Kristen L. Buras 111

4 Putting all Students at the Center: Charting an Agenda for Urban Educational Transformation 114

Opening Reflection

From Capitalist Dreams to Freedom Dreams Kristen L. Buras 114

Challenging the Suppression of Identity and Knowledge

Speaking Out

No Black History in School Bruce Coleman 119

Breaking Free of Our Muted Existence Erica DeCuir 122

Commentary

Mis-Education or the Development of Critical Race Consciousness: Curriculum as Heritage Knowledge Joyce E. King 126

Demanding Rights to the Educational Commons

Speaking Out

Honoring Community Ashley Jones 131

Rebuilding New Orleans, Redoing Education Christopher Burton 133

The Story of Z: Lessons for Teachers and Educational Policy Makers Jim Randels 136

Commentary

Redesigning Urban Schools as Communities: A Grassroots Movement for Change Wayne Au 138

Closing Reflection

What's at Stake If We Don't Wake Up Kristen L. Buras 142

Conclusion 145

Schools, Cities, and Accumulation by Dispossession: A Word on the Indisposable Instruments of Liberation Kristen L. Buras 145

Contesting the Politics of Disposability Through Culture and Pedagogy

Speaking Out

Salvaging Our Culture and Our Schools Kalamu ya Salaam 153

I Would Not Throw It Out for Anything Jenna Dominique Hill 157

Afterword

Whiteness and New Orleans: Racio-Economic Analysis and the Politics of Urban Space Zeus Leonardo 159

References 163

About the Contributors 177

Index 183

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book is more than a compelling, inspiring read. It is one of the most radical works of collaboration I’ve seen (in the last four decades).”
—From the Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley, University of Southern California


“In this powerfully written book, Buras skillfully weaves poetry with theoretically sophisticated analysis and contributors provide remarkably rich data. Together they affirm the pedagogical significance of critical race counter-storytelling for urban youth of color.”
—Tara J. Yosso, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Critical Race Counterstories Along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline


“In education the neoliberal onslaught of racialized ‘smash and grab’ privatization accelerates unabated, with broad-based global pillaging of the public sector. This book could not be a more timely and valuable example to inspire the critical consciousness necessary to take back public schools.”—Kenneth J. Saltman, Associate Professor, DePaul University and author of Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews