Critical Social Inquiry 0125 - School to Prison Pipeline

The United States of America incarcerates more youth than any other country in the world. What role does education play in this phenomenon? This course explores the socio-educational factors at the heart of the school to prison pipeline, a term for the disturbing trend in which punitive policies have led to youth being funneled out of schools and into the criminal justice system at an alarming rate. Beginning with the extension of "slavery by another name" via "the New Jim Crow" and continuing through the inevitable logic of judges literally selling kids to detention camps, we will explore connections between education and incarceration as we address the question, Why prisons? Topics will include how mass media narratives naturalize the criminalization of black and brown bodies, the logic of presumed guilt that often frames how teachers perceive black and brown students, and the raced, classed, and gendered construction of dis/ability in school settings. We will also address the discriminatory effects of zero tolerance discipline policies and the routine use of police forces in everyday school discipline. Recognizing that what is socially constructed can be dismantled, we will explore movements to (re)position schooling as a means to stop the flow of young bodies into various sites of incarceration.

Power, Community and Social Justice Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.