Structural racism and the urban geography of education

Abstract

Although we often look to schools to solve complex social problems, many educators are not ready to address the structural racism behind many contemporary conflicts. Pedro Noguera and Julio Angel Alicia present a brief history of the socioeconomic forces that drove school closures and gentrification in Chicago, the remaking of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and generations of disadvantage in Los Angeles. By becoming aware of the structural barriers to change, educators will be better equipped to lead discussions with students about the need for justice in our society.

Distance Learning and Students With Extensive Support Needs: (Re)Defining Access to Education From a Distance

“…hen public schools across the United States were forced to close to in-person instruction in the spring of 2020 due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, students from a variety of marginalized backgrounds and their families were confronted with multiple issues of equity and access to instruction (Samuels, 2020;World Bank, 2020). Disparities in access and achievement among students on the basis of language, race, economic status, and eligibility for special education services, already well documented (e.g., Kohli et al, 2017;Kurth et al, 2015;Noguera & Alicea, 2020), were immediately amplified without the ability for schools to provide in-person instruction (Brown, 2020;Peterson et al, 2020).…”

The racial state and the violent (re)production of educational inequality

“…Accordingly, I present three means through which the racial state violently produces and reproduces educational inequality. First, I discussed structural violence and the ways in which school segregation contributes to the racially allocated accumulation of disadvantage (Noguera & Alicea, 2020). Next I employed the concept of symbolic violence to analyze how state actions to uphold a Eurocentric curriculum while criminalizing antiracist alternatives contributes to the dissemination of a racial common sense (Omi & Winant, 2015) in U.S. schools.…”

“…Structural violence in education is most evident in the historical and ongoing efforts to deny a high‐quality education to students of color (Noguera & Alicea, 2020). Quoting Weinberg (1977, p. 11), Lewis and Manno (2011) remind us that “Before Reconstruction, Black children were subjected to a ‘system of compulsory ignorance’ in which white interests in maintaining subordinate class of Black slaves and laborers led to a systematic denial of access to education” (p. 93).…”

Actions Against Racism:

“… 10 Over hundreds of years, structural racism has organized the structure of American society by race, resulting in unequal access to resources and opportunities. 11 At the individual interpersonal level, racial microaggressions cause psychological harm to students of color. 12 Experiences of microaggressions, overt discrimination, and other forms of racial maltreatment are associated with anxiety, stress, and trauma symptoms.…”