Showing papers in "International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education in 2011"
TL;DR: This article conceptualized ethnographic, qualitative, and social language research with marginalized and oppressed communities as humanizing research and provided evidence that such humanization is not only ethically necessary but also increases the validity of the truths we gain through research.
Abstract: In this article, I conceptualize ethnographic, qualitative, and social language research with marginalized and oppressed communities as humanizing research. Humanizing research is a methodological stance, which requires that our inquiries involve dialogic consciousness‐raising and the building of relationships of dignity and care for both researchers and participants. I offer evidence that such humanization is not only ethically necessary but also increases the validity of the truths we gain through research. Working from a 2006–2007 study of language, literacy, and difference in a multiethnic high school and youth community, I provide examples from fieldwork that led to research that attempted to humanize rather than colonize the youth I worked with. I draw on the work of others to extend a long line of methodological thinking in pursuit of representation and humanization in interpretive studies in schools and communities.
144 citations
TL;DR: The authors conducted interviews with 28 white first-generation, working-class students and found that about half expressed few feelings of marginality and appeared well integrated into campus life, while one quarter experienced persistent and debilitating marginality.
Abstract: While first‐generation college students are ‘at risk’, the majority do persist. Using in‐depth interviews with 28 white college students I ask: How do white, first‐generation, working‐class students understand their college experiences, especially in terms of their academic, social, and cultural adjustment? Moreover, what kinds of factors seem to help or hinder their adjustment to college life? I discovered three patterns of adjustment among these students: (1) about half expressed few feelings of marginality and appeared well integrated into campus life; (2) one quarter experienced persistent and debilitating marginality; and (3) another quarter overcame their feelings of marginality en route to becoming socially and academically engaged on campus, with some transforming their feelings of marginality into motivation for social change. I argue that these variations can be understood by looking at how working‐class students’ economic resources may function as an asset, while their whiteness may function al...
86 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that despite the regulation and containment of their bodies, queer street youth consistently create spaces of resistance that move them away from the tropes of infection, contamination, and deservedness that are inscripted onto the bodies of queer youth.
Abstract: In this ethnography of LGBTQ street youth, I argue that despite the regulation and containment of their bodies, queer street youth consistently create spaces of resistance that move them away from the tropes of infection, contamination, and deservedness that are inscripted onto the bodies of queer youth. Using the work of feminist philosopher Maria Lugones, this essay articulates a framework for resistance researchers – scholars who enact a “faithful witnessing” in solidarity with the communities they are describing, a movement away from the radical othering that often happens in social science research. It is in this positioning as a faithful witness that researchers can attend to the deconstruction of the discursive climates of deficit tropes that obscure the gestures and maneuvers of resistance. The tropes of contamination and irresponsibility intersect many of the experiences of LGBTQ street youth in ways that implicate not only LGBTQ street youth, but also other marginalized bodies.
65 citations
TL;DR: For Indigenous youth growing up in today's Canadian cities, summer, non-formal learning programs developed around outdoor and/or environmental education themes offer the chance for reconnecting with ancestral territories as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: For Indigenous youth growing up in today’s Canadian cities, summer, non-formal learning programs developed around outdoor and/or environmental education themes offer the chance for reconnecting with ancestral territories. While tenable, few interpretive studies focus on youths’ engagement with such learning. This paper offers an analysis of the effects of one such program, in the process examining how discourses of primitivism and authenticity in place-based learning practice (emphasizing Western-oriented outdoor and environmental education) serve to challenge rather than benefit urban Native youth. Instead of interpreting youths’ response as a direct affront to the hegemony of Western education, I make the case for seeing this in connection with a long history of resistance to assimilating practices and in keeping with Cree traditions of orality. Through their actions in the process of learning, these youth contribute something vital to contemporary place-making and a growing Indigenous resurgence on the...
57 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue the importance of including significant technologies in use as key qualitative research participants when studying today's digitally enhanced learning environments, and gather a set of eight heuristics to assist qualitative researchers in 'interviewing' technologies in-use (or other relevant objects), drawing on concrete examples from their own qualitative research projects.
Abstract: This article argues the importance of including significant technologies‐in‐use as key qualitative research participants when studying today’s digitally enhanced learning environments. We gather a set of eight heuristics to assist qualitative researchers in ‘interviewing’ technologies‐in‐use (or other relevant objects), drawing on concrete examples from our own qualitative research projects. Our discussion is informed by Actor‐Network Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, as well as by the literatures of techno‐science, media ecology, and the philosophy of technology.
54 citations
TL;DR: Jackson and Mazzei as mentioned in this paper have published a book as mentioned in this paper, which is a collection of essays written by Alecia Y. Jackson and Lisa A. Mazzea, New York, Routledge, 2009, 248 pp., $45.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-415-44221-3; $150.00 (hardback), 978-1.
Abstract: edited by Alecia Y. Jackson and Lisa A. Mazzei, New York, Routledge, 2009, 248 pp., $45.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-415-44221-3; $150.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-44220-6 Jackson and Mazzei’s edite...
53 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a student, Kevin Gonzales, experiences his alternative education and raises questions about the role of alternative schools, while some alternative schools are viewed as "idealistic havens" or 'dumping grounds' or 'juvenile detention centers'.
Abstract: Although there are many alternative schools that strive for the successful education of their students, negative images of alternative schools persist. While some alternative schools are viewed as ‘idealistic havens’, many are viewed as ‘dumping grounds’ or ‘juvenile detention centers’. Employing narrative inquiry, this article interrogates how a student, Kevin Gonzales, experiences his alternative education and raises questions about the role of alternative schools. Kevin Gonzales’s story is presented in a literary form of biographical journal to provide a ‘metaphoric loft’ that helps us imagine other students like Kevin. This, in turn, provokes us to examine our current educational practice and (re)imagines ways in which alternative education can provide the best possible educational experiences for disenfranchised students who are increasingly underserved by the public education system.
52 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the unique role of the insider-researcher, or returning native, in an English secondary school and explored the methodological issues I faced during my research as a returning native.
Abstract: This paper outlines the methodological issues I faced during my research as a ‘returning native’ in an English secondary school. The empirical research took the form of a three‐year case study and used some ethnographic methods, as it comprised interviews carried out over a period of three academic years in the school in which I was once employed as a teacher. I was also given the opportunity to work in the school as a consultant in the lead‐up to and during its Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OfSTED) inspection. This enabled me to conduct interviews, observe, interact in informal conversations and participate in the inspection week. In this paper I explore the unique role of the insider‐researcher, or returning native. Not only was this a school in which I had previously worked, but actually participating in the inspection added new layers of complex loyalty.
39 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the possibilities and limitations of theories of youth resistance in educational research, and presented new and expanded theories for youth responses to injustices in schooling, including critical theory, political economy, decolonizing theory, queer theory, critical race theory, and educational discourses that borrow from criminal justice, health, and sociology.
Abstract: This special issue explores the possibilities and limitations of theories of youth resistance in educational research, and presents new and expanded theories of youth responses to injustices in schooling. Drawing from a range of discourses – including, but not limited to, critical theory, political economy, decolonizing theory, queer theory, critical race theory, and educational discourses that borrow from criminal justice, health, and sociology – the articles present research findings that complicate, extend, and sometimes explode current conceptualizations of youth resistance. Featuring qualitative studies in education that employ a diversity of methods, the articles solder empirical research to theory, providing on-the-ground examples of new or reclaimed theories of youth resistance in action.
39 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors put forth an introductory argument and evidence for school non-completion as a form of biopower, and school dropout to be considered a biopolitical youth resistance in the United States.
Abstract: This article will put forth an introductory argument and evidence for school non-completion as a form of biopower, and school dropout to be considered a form of biopolitical youth resistance in the United States (US) Beginning with a brief overview of the empirical relationship of education to health and current graduation rates in the United States, the first section then intertwines these data to elucidate a framework of education as a form of biopower Using focus groups (n = 6) and a cognitive mapping method called X-ray maps, this qualitative, youth participatory action research (YPAR) study of twenty-two (22) youth ages 14–19 in New York City investigated the ways in which schooling is embodied Its findings reveal what education policy is doing to the body, how and in what ways youth resist these forces The last section puts forth a theory for considering dropout as a form of biopolitical youth resistance
38 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore and describe characteristics of a research intensive university education department in the UK through the accounts of five academics, with the aim of contributing to our knowledge about academic labour.
Abstract: Our knowledge of research cultures in university education departments is still evolving, particularly in connection with the departments which have achieved a high ranking in the UK government's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and also the conditions under which ‘knowledge workers’ operate are under‐researched, although this is beginning to change. The purpose of this empirical study is to explore and describe characteristics of a research‐intensive university education department in the UK through the accounts of five academics, with the aim of contributing to our knowledge about academic labour. Social anthropological and historical notions are utilised to illuminate and theorise their accounts. The analysis conceptually recasts Halsey's thesis about the decline of academic autonomy through the prism of feudalism. It is conjectured, using ethnographic analogy, that contemporary academics are akin to a twenty‐first century peasantry in a feudal order where academic freedom to pursue independent rese...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, and cosmopolitanism as an approach to research/practice that addresses full participation of youth in an urban physics classroom.
Abstract: This article describes, and then applies a newly developed framework for classroom citizenship as an entry point into addressing social justice issues in urban science classrooms. The author provides in‐depth descriptions of cogenerative dialogues, coteaching, and cosmopolitanism (3Cs), and presents this triad of tools as an approach to research/practice that addresses full participation of youth in an urban physics classroom. By describing the 3Cs, in an urban classroom, the author presents under‐discussed issues that inhibit urban youth from fully participating in urban science classrooms, as an inhibitor to social justice within the classroom.
TL;DR: The authors discusses Greek-Cypriot teachers' perceptions of the integration of immigrant children in a Greek Cypriot public primary school through the framework of difference-blindness, and shows that despite their good intentions, teachers utilized a difference−blind ideology to rationalize practices of social exclusion of non-cypriot students in what was considered an 'integrated' school environment.
Abstract: Increasingly social scientists, including education theorists, find themselves having to fight an almost invisible racism that is masked by the racist undertones of the dominant discourse and practice of colorblindness. A continuous emphasis on colorblindness gives precedence to the role of race, diverting attention away from other forms of discrimination which can become the basis for exclusion. I would argue that for such acts of marginalization, difference‐blindness may have more explanatory power. This paper discusses Greek‐Cypriot teachers’ perceptions of the integration of immigrant children in a Greek‐Cypriot public primary school through the framework of difference‐blindness. The discussion shows that despite their good intentions, teachers utilized a difference‐blind ideology to rationalize practices of social exclusion of non‐Cypriot students in what was considered an ‘integrated’ school environment.
TL;DR: This article identified five distinctive types of power dynamics -oppression, silencing, controlling, inertia, and micro-aggressions from the most overt to more subtle and covert forms.
Abstract: This article focuses on the nature of power dynamics that faculty and staff grassroots leaders encounter as they attempt to create change. I identified five distinctive types of power dynamics – oppression, silencing, controlling, inertia, and micro‐aggressions from the most overt to more subtle and covert forms. Staff experience multiple forms of power dynamics that are extremely difficult to overcome; faculty experience less intense forms of power dynamics. The severe forms of oppression and silencing that staff face lead to turnover and lack of leadership for initiatives, and impact the resiliency of individuals involved in change. I also describe ways that grassroots leaders navigate power dynamics through networks, accountability structures, or flying under the radar.
TL;DR: The authors explores youth resistance to urban public high schools that both inadvertently and by design push out students before graduation, and describes how youth experience the institutional production of school non-completion as a dialectic of humiliating ironies and dangerous dignities.
Abstract: This article explores youth resistance to urban public high schools that both inadvertently and by design push out students before graduation. The author details how youth experience the institutional production of school non-completion as a dialectic of humiliating ironies and dangerous dignities, a dialectic of school pushout. The author describes how some youth position themselves in ways that are dangerous to the institution of schooling, and, at the same time, their own school careers.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on negative news articles about teachers and teaching and find that complex and contradictory moral categories of teachers are assembled within and through the text, and then zoom out to consider the potentially detrimental effects of such public discourses on teachers and the teaching profession.
Abstract: The media regularly present negative news articles about teachers and teaching. This paper focuses particularly on one such news article. Using reflective analytic practices, first we zoom in to conduct a detailed analysis of the text. We find that complex and contradictory moral categories of teachers are assembled within and through the text. We then zoom out to consider the potentially detrimental effects of such public discourses on teachers and the teaching profession. We make visible the dominant discourses in this text, illuminating some of the societal issues and practices that are textually constituted within this and other news articles about teachers. We provide evidence of a public discourse that might be contributing towards continuing concerns and negative public opinion regarding teacher quality and schooling standards. We argue that such news articles may well work to influence public opinion regarding declining teacher quality and standards, and views of public schools as being in crisis,...
TL;DR: The authors examine the significance of oppositional behavior as a form of resistance in "new times" characterized by increased unemployment, zero tolerance school discipline, and racialized mass incarceration, and demonstrate that students are aware of the need for credentials and desire to stay out of prison Nevertheless, alienated students implicitly seek numerous social and psychological benefits from being in prison.
Abstract: Early resistance theorists analyzed working class students’ oppositional behavior at a time of high availability of viable jobs in manufacturing They argued that oppositional behavior constituted a rejection of middle class culture motivated by an implicit understanding of the myth of meritocracy But times have changed This paper seeks to examine the significance of oppositional behavior as a form of resistance in “new times” characterized by increased unemployment, zero tolerance school discipline, and racialized mass incarceration Drawing on ethnographic data from the study of disciplinary practices, critical theories of resistance, and the social psychological concepts of Goffman, the author demonstrates that oppositional behavior today does not necessarily represent a rejection of schooling or middle class culture Instead, students are aware of the need for credentials and desire to stay out of prison Nevertheless, alienated students implicitly seek numerous social and psychological benefits thr
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a study where 20 seventh grade students in an inner-city school in Western Canada were asked to produce photo essays about living with racism, classism or sexism.
Abstract: This study, situated in an inner‐city school in Western Canada, involved 20 seventh graders producing photo essays about living with racism, classism, or sexism. Two questions guided the study: (1) How do students working with a critical pedagogue conceptualize their own experiences with race, class, and gender in ways that either interrupt or reinscribe dominant mainstream curricular narratives?; and (2) To what extent can visual methods serve to open up and expand researchers’ understanding of students’ conceptions of their lived experiences in the context of a critical pedagogy classroom? This study drew upon critical pedagogy, critical multicultural education, and visual methodology. Issues of societal curriculum and identity were central to this work. Students’ photo essays not only revealed some patterns of mainstream discourses related to race, class, and gender, but also revealed some very sophisticated understandings of how social issues play out in institutional systems.
TL;DR: The authors explored how a/r/tographers live among students and teachers and how they become creatively immersed in the wholeness of the classroom experience as a result, in contrast to their initial intentions of using ethnographic techniques and qualitative methods.
Abstract: In this article, we explore how we live among students and teachers as a/r/tographers and how we become creatively immersed in the wholeness of the classroom experience as a result. This is in contrast to our initial intentions of using ethnographic techniques and qualitative methods. As we began our project, it became apparent that another lens would be more appropriate for our study: this lens was a/r/tography. Exploring our research processes and practices as relational acts and ruminating on our ways of being in the academy as a/r/tographers, we explore the liminal spaces between the use of a/r/tography as practice‐based research and the use of ethnographic techniques, as qualitative research, and consider how shifting amid these realms can re/shape research in new and innovative ways.
TL;DR: The authors presented a case study of the relations between a first-grade student with significant disabilities and a peer student, Andrea, using disability studies, narrative theory, and sociocultural theory to offer an interpretation that directs attention to the forms of teacher mediation available to peer students.
Abstract: Mainstream research in the education of students with significant disabilities, which seeks to improve the ways these students can participate successfully in general education settings, has established the importance of teachers and classroom contexts in mediating relations between students with significant disabilities and their peers in the classroom. However, there is still a gap in the literature regarding the ways in which teacher practice, particularly teacher discourse, shapes the identities of these students. Drawing on the data from a study that examined the participation of students with significant disabilities in inclusive settings, this paper presents a case study of the relations between Harry, a first‐grade student with significant disabilities, and a peer student, Andrea. The paper weaves several theoretical frameworks – disability studies, narrative theory, and sociocultural theory – to offer an interpretation that directs attention to the forms of teacher mediation available to peer stu...
TL;DR: YPAR and arts-informed approaches reflect a source of critical resistance at the intersection of theory and practice (praxis) as mentioned in this paper, and they have been used to support the work of Mestizo Arts & Activism (MAA).
Abstract: Youth participatory action research (YPAR) and arts-informed approaches reflect a source of critical resistance at the intersection of theory and practice (praxis). Our discussion draws upon Mestizo Arts & Activism (MAA), a participatory action research collective made up of young people who focused their research on the educational rights of undocumented students (http//educatexcambio.blogspot.com/); coupled with the emotional and economic impacts of stereotypes of immigrant communities (http//www.myspace.com/dreamingofnojudgement). Informed by participatory action research and critical youth studies, art opens up space for youth researchers to collectively process and question social issues they confront in their community while embodying forms of resistance that inspire and create collective participation and action toward social justice. This reflective account narrates our multiple and contradictory experience with resistance and YPAR. By blending personal opinion, theory, and practice we discuss “Ca...
TL;DR: A broad overview of the many reasons for critical pedagogy and critical research can be found in the special issue of Critical Pedagogy: Why, how, and how.
Abstract: This introduction provides a broad overview of the many ‘whys’ (existential, political, professional, and personal) for embracing critical pedagogy and critical research, which are reflected in this special issue as a whole. Scholar‐practitioners of critical pedagogy and critical research hail from many disciplines and utilize various theories and methods, but all share the common goal of ‘humanizing’ education and research. Individually, the articles illustrate the many ‘ways’ and ‘whys’ of critical pedagogy and critical research. As a collection, the articles are representational of the power of the bricolage for the ‘doing of’ critical pedagogy and critical research.
TL;DR: Turning to reflexive journals and fieldnotes, the author reconsiders Foucault's relations of power through her experiences with five research participants, who are professors of education as mentioned in this paper, and rethinks relations of vulnerability as Relations of vulnerability/Relations of power.
Abstract: Turning to reflexive journals and fieldnotes, the author reconsiders Foucault’s relations of power through her experiences with five research participants, who are professors of education. The paper explores: (1) the translation of Foucault for an analysis of power; (2) the dynamics of researching up and analyzing from below; and (3) the rethinking of relations of power as also, simultaneously, relations of vulnerability. Metalogues, imagined conversations, extend and challenge Foucault in a negotiation of power/knowledge with the author as she rethinks relations of power as Relations of vulnerability/Relations of power.
TL;DR: This article explored the role of what the students describe as "bullshit" as both a form of resistance as well as a key lesson in the process of becoming elite while disguising the appearance of unearned privilege.
Abstract: Resistance is typically framed around the experiences of youth with oppression within institutions and through “intersecting” systems of domination. Resistance among those who benefit the most from current institutional arrangements, like students attending elite schools, has rarely been considered in how resistance is theorized. This postcard is based on two years of ethnographic research into the process by which students at one elite boarding school internalize elite status and convince themselves that they deserve the privileges of an elite education. Drawing on interview and focus group data, I explore the role of what the students describe as “bullshit” as both a form of resistance as well as a key lesson in the process of becoming elite while disguising the appearance of unearned privilege. I draw a parallel between “having a laff” as a form of working class resistance, and bullshit as a form of resistance among ruling elites.
TL;DR: The authors presented an analytic process that draws upon multiple analytic frameworks based on constant comparative analysis, discursive textual analysis, and traditional literary analysis to explore intersecting forms of power exhibited in written texts.
Abstract: Although often used as secondary sources, written texts are powerful sources of data for qualitative researchers to explore power networks and broad ideological perspectives. As such, I present in this paper an analytic process that draws upon multiple analytic frameworks – constant comparative analysis, discursive textual analysis, and traditional literary analysis – based in three different disciplines to explore intersecting forms of power exhibited in written texts. To do so, I draw upon a previous study in 2007 in which I examined 17 LGBTQ‐themed young adult novels. Through this example, I describe the three analytic methods used, demonstrate a self‐reflexive heuristic I called ‘analytic triple‐entry journals’ (analytic TEJs), which effectively facilitated the analysis through these multiple methods, and highlight how the incorporation of these multiple perspectives and methods allows for increased multi‐dimensional, complex representation of the data.
TL;DR: Using critical ethnography guided by cultural sociology, the authors examines the role of co-teaching in teacher education; coresearching, coteaching, and cogenerating dialogue, and explores how collaboration served to dismantle teacher-student hierarchies and replaced them with complex relationships mediated by polysemic approaches to research.
Abstract: Using critical ethnography guided by cultural sociology, this paper examines the role of ‘co’ in teacher education; coresearching, coteaching, and cogenerating dialogue. The authors are a pre‐service teacher and a college instructor, and through our multiple perspectives and positionings, we explore how collaboration served to dismantle teacher–student hierarchies and replaced them with complex relationships mediated by polysemic approaches to research. Pushing against traditional ideologies, we utilize a multi‐voiced approach to writing as we present our experiences and interpretations of data relative to the possibilities of collaboration in education and research. As we analyze our role in collaborative endeavors, we ask: How can we find ways to work across and around hierarchical institutional structures when working with our students? What are ways that we can examine our individual lived experiences together, and is it possible to work with each other to develop identities as teachers that are not p...
TL;DR: The authors explore how critical theory and critical research can be used to critique hierarchies of knowledge in academia and society in order to create new opportunities for learning and researching dialogically, a process that the author calls, "stepping out of the academic brew".
Abstract: Critical theory and critical research are undeniably useful for revealing oppressive social structures and challenging the status quo in the realm of grand theory; yet, they are also useful for creating knowledge structures when academics deploy them on the ground. This article explores how critical theory and critical research can be used to critique hierarchies of knowledge in academia and society in order to create new opportunities for learning and researching dialogically, a process that the author calls, ‘stepping out of the academic brew’. Using the concept of REDO (reveal, examine, dismantle, open) and an example of critical research done with and by urban high school students, the author offers a framework for how critical researchers (with the help of those with whom they work) might begin flattening hierarchical knowledge structures in education, in themselves, and in life.
TL;DR: The authors examined the pedagogies of transformational resistance, interrogated HB 2281's repressive aspects, and illuminated the role of social networking media as expressions of cultural citizenship in the twenty-first century.
Abstract: The protest against Arizona House Bill 2281 designed to ban Ethnic Studies from K-12 public schools on 12 May 2010 in Tucson resulted in 15 arrests. Students walked out of their classrooms in large numbers to defend their Mexican American Studies curriculum and program. Based primarily on participant observation of the protest, the authors examine the pedagogies of transformational resistance, interrogate HB 2281’s repressive aspects, and illuminate the role of social networking media as expressions of cultural citizenship in the twenty-first century.
TL;DR: A postcard from the resistance seeks to examine the ways in which playwriting and performance serve as mediating tools for formerly incarcerated black girls seeking reentry to their schools, communities, and families as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the twenty-first century the United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other country. While the numbers of incarcerated males far outnumber incarcerated women, there are still great concerns about the growing female prison population. This fixation with incarceration and building prisons has trickled down to America’s children as well. Among those who have been strategically extracted from childhood and adolescence and catapulted into the category of “adults” are teen girls and more specifically girls of color. This postcard from the resistance seeks to examine the ways in which playwriting and performance serve as mediating tools for formerly incarcerated black girls seeking reentry to their schools, communities, and families. More specifically this postcard extends the notion of performance ethnography and formerly incarcerated girls’ “performance of possibilities” that serve as a bridge between incarcerated and liberated lives.
TL;DR: Based on an ethnographic study in a rural middle school in Northwest China, the authors explores how the transition of the rural countryside, specifically townization, has challenged the urban-rural...
Abstract: Based on an ethnographic study in a rural middle school in Northwest China, the author explores how the transition of the rural countryside, specifically townization, has challenged the urban–rural...