{"id":42,"date":"2018-12-20T10:23:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T15:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010-spring-2018\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2019-04-20T14:58:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T18:58:06","slug":"log-8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/data-collection-logs\/log-8\/","title":{"rendered":"April 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I researched the neoliberal theoretical framework of the school-to-prison pipeline, aiming to establish why<\/em> schools disproportionately discipline POC. One argument is that it\u2019s all about the money: schools save money by expelling students they believe are a liability because they are violent, disruptive, or they take up resources that could be going to \u2018deserving\u2019 students. Lewis expands on the discourse of security, which posits that schools are responsible for protecting the safety of their students and that students who threaten school safety are pathological and unchangeable. Moreover, the discourse of safety highlights the administrators as objective purveyors of discipline whose judgement is comprehensive and accurate. This contradicts with the discourse of equity, which schools also employ to suggest that they have a responsibility to give all students an equal opportunity to become \u2018good citizens\u2019 by consuming. These types of contradictions are embedded in neoliberalism. Moreover, the discourse of equity can be drawn upon to exonerate schools that are accused of unfair or biased practices.<\/p>\n

This research complements the interview I conducted this week. Yuejay Reeves essentially outlined all of these main points before I had even completed this reading. He suggested that POC are a liability to Bowdoin: we take up resources through affinity groups, tutoring, and counseling that could be better used (in the eyes of administration and alumni) elsewhere. Moreover, because of racist discourses about the threat of black men, black men are especially unfairly disciplined because of their perceived potential for greater violence and disruption in the school: they are a liability. Additionally, Reeves touched on how the college outlines specific readmission policies, and they can judge whether students meet the criteria of these policies \u2013 enabling them to restrict someone he knows from re-enrolling in Bowdoin, despite completing these requirements. Reeves also touched on the power of administrators who are seen as objective adjudicators despite their own, clear patterns of prejudice (in comparing his friends\u2019 and his interactions with one specific dean).<\/p>\n

Next week, I want to read Bowdoin\u2019s social and academic code for its specific language. I also want to do more interviews. I fortunately have a few more leads on who would be willing to talk to me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kennedy-Lewis, Brianna L. 2013. \u201cUsing Critical Policy Analysis to Examine Competing Discourses in Zero Tolerance Legislation: Do We Really Want to Leave No Child behind?\u201d\u00a0Journal of Education Policy<\/em>29(2):165\u201394.<\/p>\n

Kennedy-Lewis outlines the discourses of safety and equity present in school discipline rhetoric that engage neoliberal principles to define students as either good, obedient consumers, or deviant, pathological \u2018disposables.\u2019 Kennedy-Lewis writes a peer-reviewed paper for an academic audience. This article is helpful in understanding how neoliberal ideology constructs diametrically opposed students, one worthy of education and the other irredeemable. This research provides a \u2018why\u2019 explanation for some of the racialized outcomes I have been researching in previous weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wamsley, Dillon. 2018. \u201cNeoliberalism, Mass Incarceration, and the US Debt\u2013Criminal Justice Complex.\u201d\u00a0Critical Social Policy<\/em>39(2):248\u201367.<\/p>\n

Wamsley outlines how the debt-incarceration system is a product of neoliberal market ideology. This article is a peer-reviewed paper written for an academic audience. This article is helpful in contextualizing the monetary benefits of mass incarceration, which can be translated to a college context, as donors and alumni are involved in college policy because of their monetary benefits to the college.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yuejay Reeves. April 12, 2019. Personal Interview.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reeves discussed his and his close friends\u2019 interactions with disciplinary action, putting a face and real stories to many of the theoretical ideas I have researched this week. In particular, the idea that students of color pose a liability to the administration\u2019s ability to generate capital and produce good citizens (read: consumers) in a neoliberal state. Reeves is speaking from personal experience and that of his friends, which introduces bias in the retelling and re-remembering of the stories as well as confirmation bias within the framework of my study, which is to investigate racial bias; he may have been inclined to confirm my hypotheses. This interview is the most useful in describing real stories that contextualize many of the theories I have encountered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lopez’s Comments:<\/p>\n

Aliya this is really exciting work. These is a real disproportionate amount of students of color affected by the College’s disciplinary actions. Interview more… you are onto something here.<\/p>\n

The school to prison pipeline is telling and relevant to Bowdoin, however, much of the phenomena you are studying pertains mostly to elite liberal arts colleges. On the one hand, they use a diverse student body (and faculty) to amend historical critique that they were exclusionary and for branding themselves as diverse institutions. But on the other hand, these schools really don’t really know how to work with students of color within the institutional framework based on privilege.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I researched the neoliberal theoretical framework of the school-to-prison pipeline, aiming to establish why schools disproportionately discipline POC. One argument is that it\u2019s all about the money: schools save money by expelling students they believe are a liability because they are violent, disruptive, or they take up resources that could be going to … Continue reading “April 17”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":15,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-42","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/sociology-3010a-spring-2019-ajessa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}