SSSP: Educational Problems Newsletter Winter 2017 Society for the Study of Social Problems In pursuit of Social Justice Educational Problems Division Join us for our 68th Annual Meeting at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel Philadelphia, PA August 10-12, 2018 - Abolitionist Approaches to Social Problems - President Luis A. Fernandez. Included in this issue: Message from the Chair Sponsored Sessions for 2018 Annual Meeting Graduate Student Paper Competition Winners Member Accomplishments Call for paper Division Mission Statement and Reading List Message from the Chair It is all too easy to become frustrated by the state of education and current political affairs. We have a U.S. Secretary of Education who has shown herself to be profoundly disconnected from the needs of students, teachers, and administrators in many communities. According to research recently published by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, we have schools that are increasingly segregated along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. And across the nation, accountability isdetermined narrowly by testing, teachers and their unions are attacked as greedy if not incompetent, and CEO’s have found that the business of education is an increasingly lucrative endeavor. Yet when parents whose children are attending U.S. public schools are asked about the quality of their own children’s education, they report back being overwhelmingly satisfied. There are deep and persistent problems to be sure, but the radical experiment initiated by Horace Mann in the 1800’s and expanded by visionaries like Catherine Beecher and Charles Hamilton Houston has ensured that public schools are available in every community. Members of the Educational Problems Division have long devoted themselves to the project of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating the social problems that are addressed or produced by our schools. At this year’s SSSP Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, we will once again offer varied opportunities for you to engage in dialogue with researchers and activists who strongly believe in the power of education and shared conversation to promote social justice. A glance at our Division’s list of sessions reveals diverse topics that are in keeping with the meeting’s theme “Abolitionist Solutions to Social Problems.” In his call for participation, SSSP President Luis A. Fernandez invites us to “develop ways to abolish social problems entirely, to think through what is required to eliminate systems of subjugation, and to document the current struggles that are already leading the way in these efforts.” To this end, we encourage you to share your expertise and your vision regarding enhancing our understanding of educational problems and generating effective solutions. How can we use our research to create lasting change that promotes equity and truly empowers all? We hope you will engage with us in addressing this vital question. As we prepare for Philadelphia, I would like to thank all of the individuals who volunteered to organize and/or preside over our scheduled sessions. I would also like to thank Mollie Gambone, who has once again agreed to serve as our Newsletter Editor—evidence of her talent and hard work is clear for you to see on every page of this newsletter. And a final thank you to Maralee Mayberry, the outgoing Chair of the Educational Problems Division—I could not have asked for a more supportive and instructive mentor, who ensured for a smooth transition of leadership and inspires all those who surround her with her optimism. We wish you a restful break and a happy new year! Division Chair: A.Fiona Pearson Professor, Department of Sociology Central Connecticut State University Division Chair 2017-2019 pearsonaf@ccsu.edu Newsletter Editor: Mollie Gambone, Ph.D. Drexel University Office of University and Community Partnerships mad432@drexel.edu SESSION TITLE SPONSOR(S) ORGANIZER(S) Education and Immigration: Borders, Politics, and Culture Education Problems Elizabeth Vaquera, University of South Florida, vaquera@email.gwu.edu Gender, Sexuality, and Education Education Problems Patricia Morency, pmorency821@gmail.com School Climate for LGBT Students Education Problems Maralee Mayberry, University of South Florida, mayberry@usf.edu Education in the Age of Resegregation Education Problems AND Poverty, Class, and Inequality Mollie Gambone, Drexel University, mad432@drexel.edu Education and Social Mobility Pathways Education Problems AND Poverty, Class, and Inequality Linda Waldron, Christopher Newport University lwaldron@cnu.edu Empowering Minds and Bodies: Sport and Education Education Problems AND Sport, Leisure, and the Body Giovanna Follo, Wright State University giovanna.follo@wright.edu Corporate Influences in Public Education and Policy Education Problems AND Racial and Ethnic Minorities Michael Miner, University of Wisconsin- Madison, minerm@uwm.edu THEMATIC: Problems in Higher Education: Resistance and Transformation Education Problems AND Social Problems Theory Keith Johnson, keithjohnson101@gmail.com THEMATIC: Student Activism: Resistance and Change Education Problems AND Conflict, Social Action, and Change Britany Gatewood, Howard University, britany.gatewood@bison.howard.edu Disability and Schooling Education Problems AND Disability Sara Green, University of South Florida, sagreen@usf.edu 2017 Graduate Student Paper Award Winners Congratulations to Kelley Fong and Sarah Faude for their co-authored paper “Choosing Late: Considering Late Registration in School Choice,” which received the Educational Problems Division’s Graduate Student Paper award at the 2017 SSSP Annual meeting in Montreal, Canada. Kelley Fong is a doctoral student in sociology and social policy at Harvard University, where she studies poverty, child welfare, education, and family life. Her research interests center around how low- income families interact with and experience social policies, systems, and supports. Current projects examine the child welfare system, school choice, and residential decision-making. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Kelley spent two years at MDRC, contributing to research on community college reforms, and two years working on child welfare system reform efforts. Sarah Faude is a PhD Candidate with research interests in urban educational equity and access. Her dissertation explores the ways that an urban district reproduces unequal access to school choices through institutional practices related to school assignment. She has also contributed to several projects related to equity and access gaps in education in Massachusetts, spanning from preschool to public higher education, all of which emphasize bridging research with practitioners. Before arriving at Northeastern, Sarah received her B.A. in 2009 from Skidmore College, her M.S.Ed in Urban Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011, and three years teaching middle and high school English in Philadelphia. New Book The Diversity Bargain and Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities By Natasha K. Warikoo University of Chicago Press, 2016 We’ve heard plenty from politicians and experts on affirmative action and higher education, about how universities should intervene—if at all—to ensure a diverse but deserving student population. But what about those for whom these issues matter the most? In this book, Natasha K. Warikoo deeply explores how students themselves think about merit and race at a uniquely pivotal moment: after they have just won the most competitive game of their lives and gained admittance to one of the world’s top universities. What Warikoo uncovers—talking with both white students and students of color at Harvard, Brown, and Oxford—is absolutely illuminating; and some of it is positively shocking. As she shows, many elite white students understand the value of diversity abstractly, but they ignore the real problems that racial inequality causes and that diversity programs are meant to solve. They stand in fear of being labeled a racist, but they are quick to call foul should a diversity program appear at all to hamper their own chances for advancement. The most troubling result of this ambivalence is what she calls the “diversity bargain,” in which white students reluctantly agree with affirmative action as long as it benefits them by providing a diverse learning environment—racial diversity, in this way, is a commodity, a selling point on a brochure. And as Warikoo shows, universities play a big part in creating these situations. The way they talk about race on campus and the kinds of diversity programs they offer have a huge impact on student attitudes, shaping them either toward ambivalence or, in better cases, toward more productive and considerate understandings of racial difference. Ultimately, this book demonstrates just how slippery the notions of race, merit, and privilege can be. In doing so, it asks important questions not just about college admissions but what the elite students who have succeeded at it—who will be the world’s future leaders—will do with the social inequalities of the wider world. New Position: NATASHA WARIKOO 2017 Guggenheim Fellow (U.S. and Canada) Field of Study: Education Website: https://natashawarikoo.com/ Natasha Warikoo is an expert on the relationships between education, racial and ethnic diversity, and cultural processes in schools and universities. Her most recent book, The Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities (University of Chicago Press, 2016), illuminates how undergraduates attending Ivy League universities and Oxford University conceptualize race and meritocracy. The book emphasizes the contradictions, moral conundrums, and tensions on campus related to affirmative action and diversity, and how these vary across racial and national lines. Warikoo’s first book, Balancing Acts: Youth Culture in the Global City (University of California Press, 2011), analyzes youth cultureamong children of immigrants attending diverse, low-performing high schools in New York City and London. Balancing Acts won the Thomas and Znaneicki Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association’s International Migration Section. Both of these projects involve extensive ethnographic research in the United States and Britain. Warikoo’s research has also been published in scholarly journals (American Journal of Education; British Education Research Journal; Poetics; Race, Ethnicity and Education; Ethnic and Racial Studies(also here); Review of Educational Research; Sociological Forum), edited books, and newspapers (Boston Globe, Education Week, Hechinger Report, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post), and she has won grants, fellowships and awards from American Sociological Association, the British Academy, National Science Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation. Her recent articles can be accessed for free here. At Harvard Warikoo teaches courses on racial inequality and the role of culture in K-12 and higher education. Prior to her academic career Warikoo was a teacher in New York City’s public schools for four years, and also spent time working at the US Department of Education and as a fellow with the Teachers Network Leadership Institute. Warikoo completed her PhD in sociology from Harvard University, and BSc and BA in mathematics and philosophy at Brown University. During her year as a Guggenheim Fellow, Warikoo will work on a book about racial change in suburban America. She is studying how the settlement of the nation’s most successful immigrant groups in privileged, previously predominantly white communities shapes the nature of racial boundaries, beliefs about success and achievement, and youth cultures. The findings will have implications for how to address racial diversity and student competition in privileged communities. Graduate Student Paper Competition The Educational Problems Division announces its 2018 Graduate Student Paper Competition. Papers must address a contemporary educational problem and may be empirical or theoretical in nature. Authors must be current graduate students. In addition to single-authored papers, co-authored papers will be considered for this award if co-authors are graduate students but not co-authored with a faculty member or colleague who is not a student. Papers may not have been submitted or accepted for publication (papers that have been presented at a professional meeting or that have been submitted for presentation at a professional meeting are eligible). Papers must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages (excluding notes, references, tables, and figures). All papers must include a 150-200 word abstract and be prepared for anonymous review with the author’s name and institutional affiliation appearing only on the title page. Winners will receive a small stipend, student membership in the SSSP, conference registration to the 2018 SSSP annual meeting, and a plaque of recognition at the conference awards ceremony.Authors are required to submit their papers through the annual meeting Call for Papers process as a condition for consideration for the award. Students may only submit to one division. All papers must also be submitted electronically (as an attachment) to the Division Chair, Dr. Fiona Pearson at pearsonaf@ccsu.edu with subject line: SSSP-Edu. Probs. Div. Student Paper Competition. Please include your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information in the body of your email. The paper should be submitted no later than 11:59pm (EST), January 31, 2018. Educational Problems Division Mission The primary mission of the Educational Problems Division is to support research teaching, activism, and practice that critically explore the ways in which educational and learning practices are shaped by social contexts and conditions. The work of our Division is heavily influenced by our Membership’s commitment to social justice. As such, we are focused not just on understanding social life and the role that educationand its institutions play in shaping it, but also in actively addressing the inequities of our educational system; in shaping social policy in the educational arena; and in bridging the divide between academics and non-academics in the field of education. Our concerns include but are not limited to: 1. Understanding how schools help to maintain and perpetuate social inequality; 2. Examining how factors of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability affect the educational experiences of students both within and across schools?; and 3. Exploring what the ultimate purpose of education should be and how we as a society might best achieve this ideal. Our members advance our mission and pursue our concerns in many arenas. On college and university campuses across the country and the globe, our members advance our mission through teaching students to critically examine the world they confront and the role that education has played in preparing – or not preparing – them for its challenges. Commitment to our mission can also be found in the scholarship of our Division’s members, whether in leading academic and policy journals, acclaimed academic and non-academic books, or in newspapers and magazines that reflect the diversity of disciplines and intellectual traditions present in our membership. Finally, our Division’s mission is also advanced by our members engaged in advocacy work and in other non-profit endeavors working to dismantle the inequities that undermine the promise of many of our youth both well before and after they enter the classroom. Division mission statement was reviewed in November 2017 by A. Fiona Pearson, Central Connecticut State University, Educational Problems Division Chair, 2017-2019. No edits were made. Division mission statement last edited in 2013 by Leslie R. Hinkson, Georgetown University, Educational Problems Division Chair, 2011-2013. Apple, Michael W. 1982. Education and Power. Boston: Ark Paperbacks. Armstrong, Linda and Laura T. Hamilton. 2015. Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Bowles, Samuel and Herbert Gintis. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books. Carter, Prudence L. 2005. Keepin’ it Real: School Success Beyond Black and White. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chu, Lenora. 2017. Little Soldiers: An American Boy, A Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve. New York: Harpers. Delpit, Lisa. 1995. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: The New Press. Duncan, Greg and Richard Murnane. 2014. Restoring Opportunity: The Crisis of Inequality and the Challenge for American Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Publishing Group. Ferguson, Ann Arnett. 2000. Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Fullinwider, Robert K., & Lichtenberg, Judith. 2004. Leveling the Playing Field: Justice, Politics, and College Admissions. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Hochschild, Jennifer and Nathan Scovronick. 2003. The American Dream and the Public Schools. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kumashiro, Kevin. 2002. Troubling Education: Queer Activism and Antioppressive Pedagogy. New York: Routledge. Lareau, Annette. 2003. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. Morris, Monique W. 2016. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School. New York: Basic Books. Mullen, Ann. 2010. Degrees of Inequality: Culture, Class, and Gender in Higher Education. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins Press. Orfield, Gary and Eaton, Susan E. 1996. Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. New York: The New Press. Pascoe, C.J. 2007. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ravitch, Diane. 2010. The Death and Life of the Great American School System. New York: Basic Books. Thorne, Barrie. 1993. Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Tuchman, Gaye. 2011. Wannabe U: Inside the Corporate University. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Tyack, David and Larry Cuban. 1995. Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Warikoo, Natasha K. 2016. The Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Willis, Paul. 1981. Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.