1. Week 4: The Power of Discourse in the Public & in Scholarship
Racism & Educational Inequality in the Lives of African-American Youth
Week 4:
The Power of Discourse in the Public & in Scholarship
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

2. Today Audio clip from Ghetto Life 101
Lecture: the cycle of representation
Break
Reading response discussion
Q&A with Eugene Scott
Final paper proposals
Eve L. Ewing - A-111M - Harvard Graduate School of Education, Spring 2016

3. Ghetto Life 101
Consider the voices of these young men. How is the story they tell similar to or different from common representations of black youth/life in the “inner city”?
LeAlan Jones & Lloyd Newman, 1993; living in and around the Ida B. Wells Homes
Inspired by There Are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz

4. Key Questions
How are Black youth depicted in research and the public imagination?
How do these images influence policy, and vice-versa?
How can we imagine a more ethical relationship between scholarship and Black youth?

7. The Moynihan Report
“The Negro Family: The Case For National Action” (1965) Daniel Patrick Moynihan “At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family.” “Most Negro youth are in danger of being caught up in the tangle of pathology that affects their world, and probably a majority are so entrapped…. The Negro community produces its share, very possibly more than its share, of young people who have the something extra that carries them over the worst obstacles. But such persons are always a minority. The common run of young people in a group facing serious obstacles to success do not succeed. A prime index of the disadvantage of Negro youth in the United States is their consistently poor performance on the mental tests that are a standard means of measuring ability and performance in the present generation.”

8. What is the Achievement Gap?

10. The Prison Bed Myth
“States use their third-grade reading scores to plan the number of prison beds they’ll need.”
Why does this idea have staying power despite being untrue?
[source]

11. Researcher Preoccupations
Public Discourse
Education Policies
Researcher Preoccupations
“The burden of acting White” (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986)
Black students’ underperformance comes from a fear of acting white.
My Brother’s Keeper

12. What should be in final paper proposals?
Proposals due via Canvas at 11:59 on Friday, February 26 (or sooner!) Idea not listed? me by Sunday 2/21.
All proposals: questions you have or assistance I can provide; justification of why this interests you
Research paper: question/topic you will discuss, sources you will use, the argument you would like to make
Proposal for a research project: research question, proposed methods, data sources, some citations of other related work
Policy intervention: who is being served, why is it necessary, how are existing interventions ineffectual, relevant evidence
Curriculum: intended audience, major learning objectives, list of materials you will develop, potential resources