Authority, Discipline, and the Marginalization of Youth in Schools
This annotated reading list was produced in the aftermath of the incident of violence against a young female student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina on October 26, 2015. She was asked to leave a classroom by a teacher after using her phone during a math class. She refused and was later confronted by Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields, who asked her to leave. When the student ignored him, the officer proceeded to grab her by the neck, slam her desk to the floor and then drag her out of the desk. The footage went viral, and the masses began to react on social media. Many of us were horrified by what we saw, knowing that the forces that undergird such harsh treatment are similar to the ones that fuel disproportionate suspensions and expulsions and the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.
In response, our former Faculty Director, Professor Prudence Carter, with the assistance of Dr. Travis Bristol, a research and policy fellow at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), and doctoral student, Kia Darling-Hammond, spearheaded an effort to put together a list of research that addresses the marginalization and treatment of youth of color in our schools. The response was immediate. Educational researchers and other social scientists connected via social media to offer their suggestions for the following crowdsourced list of books and research-based articles. This is an offering in service of our youth, who are often subjected to discriminatory treatment, racism, gender and sexual violence, class bias, and other forms of dehumanization.
The works in this reading list provide some strong bases to help seek fairness and justice on behalf of our youth, build interventions, change policies and practices, frame analyses, build curricula, and facilitate dialogue school boards, policy makers (local, state, and national), parent organizations, teachers unions, and others.
Authority, Discipline, and the Marginalization of Youth in Schools