What Is Care? The Birth and Identity Formation of an Alternative Public Middle School

"Drawing on textual analyses of the school's handbook, institutional documents, public policy and popular media; along with copious field notes and open-ended interviews with local politicians, administrators, faculty and children; I argue that though CARE strives to be a place for innovation, hope and academic possibility, the assumptions of cultural deficit, and its attendant solution, behavior modification permeate its character. Thus, I apprehend CARE as a crisis heterotopia, a convoluted and curious site devoid of historical memory as well as theoretical and political situativity, and one that beckons answers to questions of white privilege and racial equality. I further argue that the deficit model for understanding differential academic achievement, masked in deceptively ambiguous discourses of ""risk"" and ""alternative,"" is alive and well in the late nineties and will surely creep into the next century."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Hogan, Maureen Patricia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bruce, Bertram C.

• Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9971097

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80398