Kathleen Nolan’s chapter from Theory and Educational Research:
Critical social theories Kathleen uses

In order to conduct her study and make sense of the data, Nolan used several theories. These theories include:

Reproduction theory: social and economic classes are reproduced by conditions that favor the status quo. This social reproduction is ensured by policies, structures and ideologies that ensured the current power structures. Moreover, schools play a pivotal role in maintaining these roles by having educational experiences that are different for poor/minority (urban) students.



Social Theories of Punishment: economic, political, ideological and cultural forces shape the ways in which the criminal justice system sees and applies punishment. In order to maintain the current power structures there are forces outside of the criminal justice system that shape its policies and implementations. In our country and in the current time these forces can be clearly felt by the mass imprisonment (weighing heavily on man of color) and the “order-maintenance” policing.

Acts of resistance (oppositional behaviors): oppressed people feel the power of the oppressor in many ways and they often feel disempowered. Some ways of dealing with the burden of the oppression is to create spaces/times for resistance. This resistance can come from a place of despair, where the oppressed person wield their individual power in ways to can be interpreted as disrespectful and criminal.

Theory of change: the current systems and structures in our society are unfair and benefit some groups over others. However, these systems are too large and cumbersome to change, so instead of focusing on the larger social constructs, some people focus on the individuals. In this way, individuals can be helped to fit into the broken system rather than fixing the oppressive system.

How/why does she make the theoretical decisions that she does? With what effects on her project and herself as a researcher and writer? (1 paragraph)At the end of the her chapter, Nolan describes her experience visiting an African Marker - with all the colors, smells, sounds - overwhelming. However, in her writing (and by extension in her thinking) Nolan never strays from utilizing theory to inform her ideas and data analysis. She skillfully uses those theories (and specific parts of said theories) to guide every aspect of this work including the interpretation of the data. Moreover, she also is flexible enough to only use components of these theories that best provide explanatory power to her data. Nolan explores the immediate/individual data and then looks exogenously at the context. Her selection and usage of theories exemplifies the concept of finding the threat that connects all parts of her project together. As a reader, I found myself at awe of this work and inspire to improve the social conditions that resulted in such oppressive results for her participants (and their communities).

What are some key takeaways for you? (1 paragraph)Nolan’s chapter is full of insights and these in turn illuminate her research endeavor, as well as her interpretation of her results. In many ways, I am currently feeling the pains of reading many theories and then struggling to figure out how all these ideas fit into my own research interests. Nolan weaves together many theories and her work is richer because of the lenses she uses - but more importantly, her work still maintains cohesiveness and coherence. This is a remarkable piece of work that had lofty goals and complex characteristics. Nolan manages to bring forth ideas without overwhelming the reader nor disruption the flow of the narrative. She masterfully uses theories to guide and validate her own ideas - and all the while she produces text that maintains internal consistency. It is obvious that she is extremely knowledgeable (she had a powerful theoretical arsenal) and also reflective about the process and the interpretation of the data. I am impressed with her work and hope that I can follow in her footsteps.

Kathleen Nolan’s dissertation proposal

Kathleen Nolan’s proposal, “Disciplining Urban Youth: An ethnographic study of the relationship between schools and prisons”, is clearly written with lots of passion, knowledge, and purposeful intent. Her description of the proposed research stirred strong responses from me and left me thinking about the importance and immense need for critical social research. Nolan provides the readers (reviewers) with a rich description of the problem (negative educational experiences that may lead minority students into jail), the reasoning/background for the framework (the pressures and contingencies that act upon students of color), the logic for the methodology selection (ethnographic inquiry), and the significance of the proposed work (not just describing the patterns of problems, but also providing hope).

In order to best describe the strong connection between the different sections of her proposal, in the following paragraphs I will describe each one separately and address the consistent undertone throughout the proposal.

Goals

Nolan begins her proposal by describing her time as a public high school teacher in NYC. In her introductory section she raises questions about equity, “why are some urban schools not getting the resources they desperately need?” and the connection between schools and the criminal justice [or injustice] system, “Why are some schools becoming more like prisons than perhaps ever before?” In this way, Nolan sets up the argument that individual cases of students entering the criminal justice system are the result of a greater pattern of oppression that is consistent and observable. The purpose of her proposed research project becomes clear as she makes the case that the resulting structures (i.e. police presence in some schools) is directly connected to the ideology that sees urban youth (mostly minorities) as dangerous and requiring suppression. As Anyon (2009) suggested, this approach enables Nolan to explore the problem of the disproportionate number of minority youth in jail by looking “exogenously”. In other words, Nolan is interested in the students that end up in jail, as much as she is also interested in the environmental contingencies that “produce a flow of certain students into the criminal justice system.”

Research questions

Nolan’s questions are ambitious and powerful. Without having to directly pointing to it, Nolan asks questions that target the purpose, ideology, and legitimacy of the school discipline procedures, as these demonstrate the interconnection between racists, elitists and classist people (legislatures) and structures. Nolan is not shy about calling out the historical events that have lead to the current situation. While at the same time, she calls for an exploration of the “lived experience” of the youth that is currently suffering the consequences and results of a system that is not truly fair. Lastly, Nolan does not excuse violent behavior, but instead proposes that these behaviors are not random, but instead these acts may be influenced by the unjust historical context.

Literature review

Nolan situates her work in three main literature themes: a. Critical educational studies, b. Changing role of urban public schools, and c. Repressive (disciplining) elements of schools.

Nolan explores these three main bodies of literature and shows that they are connected and interrelated. With these literature themes, Nolan exposes and clarifies her framework, even if she does not isolate it nor directly name it. In order to position her work within the larger historical and social context, Nolan describes several important and connected areas of research including: mass incarceration and its consequences of urban communities, the political and economic roots of mass incarceration, theories of punishment, urban youth violence, policies and public rhetoric, and finally, the connection between urban youth violence, schooling and punishment. Throughout Nolan’s presentation of the literature, one of the most pertinent and present connectors is the neo-liberal policies and ideals which use the criminal justice system as a legal (and often seen as moral) method for controlling poor people.

Methodology

In her proposal, Nolan makes a strong case for her methodology selection. Ethnography as a inquiry method enables her to describe the immediate events in her participants’ (guides) lives. But more importantly, it also allows her to explore, describe, and situate those events to a larger historical and social context. Nolan describes how she plans on extending her research work in order to connect the micro (individual cases of students and the criminal justice system) and the macro (social structures and history). Lastly, it is also important to point out that Nolan has set out to do research FOR social justice. There is no doubt that Nolan is a committed researcher who not only wants to understand what and why it is happening, but also wants to improve the lives of those she studies.

Methods

Since Nolan is using an extended ethnographic approach her choice of school, participants, interviewing protocols, selection of historical analysis and case studies, all speak about a theoretical framework which values the interconnectedness of the individuals and the greater context. Nolan also describes the fact that the proposed work builds on the work of many others that have already explored and exposed the connection between school experiences and the criminal justice system. Lastly, the inclusion of the neighborhood data and the following of the students involved in disciplinary cases, is an addition to the body of literature which will surely enrich the exposition of the connection between schools and jails.

Analysis

Like the rest of her proposal, Nolan’s analysis section describes the importance of connecting themes and exploring the larger with the minute. Moreover, even with the described approach to analysis Nolan doesn’t want limit herself by selecting a single analysis approach, instead she describes that this will be an ongoing process which will incorporate existing theories, data collection and data analysis. Nolan concludes her proposal by describing the potential significance of this work. She hopes that the analysis of the lived experience of these youth involved with the criminal justice system will eventually guide policy makers, and also point to possibility of change and hope.

Conclusion

Nolan’s proposal is overwhelming to me! She is proposing to take on a very challenging problem and she specifies large and complex data sources. Nolan’s approach is commendable, but I don’t know how she will accomplish all she proposes during her time as a doctoral student (this seems more like the work of a lifetime). She is clearly interested in social justice and her writing screams about the system that both punishes and perpetuates the causes of crime. From her perspective, oppression is alive and well - underhandedly holding some down because of their circumstances.

Lastly, given the large scope of Nolan’s proposal, I wondered about the approval of her pilot as well as this current proposal. Since she posits that the individual is affected by the larger social structures, she plans on including an expansive set of data points. Some of these data sources will be sensitive in nature (e.g. personal histories with suspensions and the criminal justice system). Undoubtedly, this work is invaluable and needed, and I am glad she is willing to do all this difficult work including the submission for approval of this proposal. Nolan is inspiring!

How does critical social theory help her design a cohesive, coherent, rich, and important project? Be specific. (1-2 paragraphs)


Nolan’s proposal is a powerful demonstration that research is needed in order to expose the injustices our society perpetuates. Under Nolan’s lenses, what can seemingly be viewed as an easy explanation for the disciplinary actions of schools, can in fact be explored and connected to the larger social and cultural oppression of young minority boys. After reading Nolan’s proposal it is easy to feel uncomfortable with the status quo. In many ways, Nolan uses critical social theory to expose the unfair ideologies, structures and policies which oppress urban youth. For example, by exploring the historical changes that have taken place over the last decades (i.e. depletion of vital economic resources and opportunities through deindustrialization), Nolan exposes the underlying currents that have led to new patterns of mass incarceration. Also, Nolan describes the dismissive description of minority youth as predators, which leaves out the social, political, and economic forces that are at play for these youth, and result in punishment which benefit the middle and upper classes.

It is obvious to me that Nolan is vested in this work and her description of her participants, as well as the environmental variables indicate to me that she is positioning herself as an ethnographer and an agent for change. This work is extremely important and Nolan’s exposure of the limiting reality of the meritocracy ideas of society, enabled me as a reader to feel that discomfort with things as they are.

Part of the whole

PART OF THE WHOLE:

This week I am teaching my biology students about ecosystems, biomes, and ecology. In that light, today I found myself covering food webs and the flow of energy. I made it a point to focus on how EVERY species has a relationship (either directly or indirectly) with EVERY other species. In other words, living organisms are part of a larger ecological community (and this creates an interdependency). In the same way, our research interests are also interconnected to the larger context. In other words, when Jean Anyon (2009) wrote “That is, we assume one cannot understand or explain x by merely describing x. One must look exogenously at non-x”, she was describing the fact that in order to understand and appreciate the intricacies of our research topics, we must consider and explore the contingencies that play a role in our research outcomes. Social research is never independent of the contexts!

Anyon, J. (2009). Theory and educational research: Toward critical social explanation. New York: Routledge.












Bonus - two of my favorite quotes by Einstein and Krishnamurti:

So... Hard... to ... Write - well!

What kind of work habits do you have as a writer? What new ideas from this text resonated with you? What is at the heart of that resonance?

Since my childhood I have been a romantic of sorts. I found that language was a powerful tool with the capacity to move people into action. This gift of language usage was well developed by my grandfather who was a newspaper reporter and subsequently by my mother who was a school teacher and an unrecognized poet. My mother used to say: “si le tapan la boca, usara dibujos”, which roughly translates into “if they shut his mouth, he will use speech bubbles”. In other words, since a very early age I delighted in using language - sometimes to my mother’s dismay. I relished in the delicacies of the Spanish I spoke in my early childhood. Words could be playful yet serious, they could be lengthy and short, they could easily roll of the tongue or precariously fall out of the mouth. Ferrocarril, desvanecimiento, independientemente - these were playthings for my young mind.


And then came schooling. For me, there was a major shift in learning how to use written language as opposed to the spoken language that was my daily bread. This learning curve was made even steeper by the fact that I had to learn a new language in order to communicate academic ideas. The lingua Franca is English, so Spanish lost its romance. There were times when in my frustration, I cursed my mother tongue. It turned into something ugly, loud (like Puerto Rican salsa on Saturday nights), disconnected (like Christmas without presents), and cheap (like the shoes my mother could afford to buy for us). My head and heart hurt as I learned English with all of its harsh sounds and non-intuitive pronunciations.


It was only during my college years that I learned about the beauty that could be coaxed out of the English language. Yes, I found Whitman, Tagore (in English), Maya Angelou, and T. S. Eliot. Oh, English was not just academic and heady - it was also fluid and passionate. Once I discovered this fact, my writing attempted to capture both the essence and the richness of my thoughts - not always, succeeding. This is why as a writer I habitually attempt to write when I am inspired, rather than when it needs to get done. This habit has lead to some great pieces (mostly short pieces or poems) and some really disconnected longer pieces (many of my academic papers).

As I read the Zerubave piece I found myself thinking about this apparent dichotomy between “unscheduled outbursts of creative energy” and “structured timed schedule” - the mind and the heart. This is the part that most resonated with me - it isn’t talent alone that produces excellence, but good work habits and perseverance. This reminds me of the misattributed Aristotle quote:  “…we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.”


Knowing that I am determined to complete a dissertation (which is mostly academic in nature), I know that I will need to create an environment where I am most likely to find success and still have room for exploring my emotions. This environment will need to consider: a. Establishing an optimal amount of time intended for writing, b. Breaking down time into actual work sessions, c. identifying the best writing times (I think it will be afternoons for me), d. Crossing off times that I cannot use for writing, and e. Designing a regular weekly schedule. In this way, the ideas that need to come across (intellectually) can still be fed and infused by the more emotional and ethereal musings of my mind. By creating this habitual pattern, I can approach the writing without fear of losing my inspiration since I will always have the next session to solidify my expression of thoughts in written form.
Language is amazing - perhaps the most holistic of human tools, next to the universal language of music. Written language can inspire and move, dance and sing, convey and describe  - all of which I hope to do with my dissertation.



Try ONE of Zerubavel’s suggestions. Write a reflection on the experience. How did it feel? What did you notice?

For this particular piece, I decided to use Zerubavel’s suggestion of scheduling a session with an additional 20 minute buffer where I could “get into the creative mode” while maintaining an effective and sustained productive session. This 20 minutes at the beginning of the session allowed me to check my emails so that I could “clear my mind” before the actual writing. Once the writing session began, I protected my writing from possible interruptions to ensure a continuity of concentration. Namely, I made sure to close the tabs on the browser which had my email accounts open.

In some ways, I think Zerubavel describes writing as fundamentally important, therefore, planning for something this significant entails planning and execution that should not be left up to the whims of randomness. I appreciate his writing and the ideas it conveys. I will certainly be incorporating these ideas into my life (with a different schedule during the summer, when I have more time to write).
I noticed that having set aside the time and allowing myself the buffer at the beginning of the session afforded me a greater degree of concentration. Lastly, following his advice made me feel that what I am doing with this written piece is important (even if it is just important for me).

Reflexivity

(A) How might your position or social location (class, race, gender, age, etc.) affect the way you approach this work?
As humans beings we are the result of our genetic heritage as well as our environments. Therefore, the way we interpret and interact with the world is interrelated to our social structures. Our society has inequitable values which favor some people over other. For example, as an able body, lightly pigmented, heterosexual male, I have privileges which were assigned to me without any effort from my part. In other words, I did nothing to earn these privileges, similarly to the oppression others feel because they may not share these characteristics. On the other hand, as a short stature, non-attractive, Latino immigrant, I also know how it feels to be oppressed for superficial characteristics I cannot control.

Our "positionality" influences all aspects of our research endeavors. This short video shows how positionality is like eating a layered cake (it is separate layers, until you eat it - then it all mixes together):

It is important to appreciate how our values (shaped by society and our experiences) can influence the type of questions we ask, the research methods we select, the data collect and even how we interpret the data. We need to examine our epistemological and ontological grounds in order to explore our research ideas; otherwise, we are likely to inadvertently reproduce the inequities of an unjust society.



B) This is a brief response to the Zeus Leonardo 2004 article
(1) Some important takeaways:

• Critical Social Theory (CST) is a multidisciplinary framework which holds great potential for helping students (people) to improve unfair social structures. 
• CST looks at education as a shift from knowledge transmission to knowledge transformation.
• Criticism of current ideologies and structures is essential for CST: "In quality education, criticism functions to cultivate students' ability to question, deconstruct, and then reconstruct knowledge in the interest of emancipation."
• CST positions the teacher as an "intellectual or cultural worker".
• Under CST, quality education encourages students to become aware and subsequently work against social injustices. 

(2) Three discussion questions from
The beginning: Given the historical influences in the early 20th century, how did the Frankfurt School manage to construct such a strong criticism of social structures and yet not fundamentally challenge the rise of Nazis?
The middle: In the article, Leonardo writes: ""quality education begins with a language of critique". I wonder about the practicality of this sequence of events for educating children. Do students need a fundamental/basic level of understanding about schooling/society before they can begin to critically analyze the world? In other words, do children need a basic "construction" of knowledge before they can begin to deconstruct and reconstruct the world?
The end: When Leonardo write about the utopic thinking, I wonder whose idea of utopia he is imagining? Specifically, should we consider that the ideals of utopia are based on cultural/historical factors?

(3) Ideas, concepts, arguments, or passages to unpack, clarify, or dig deeper into.

Several times throughout the text several "Buddhist" ideas/terms are used. For example, "enlightenment" (page 15), and the "process of liberation" (page 16). I wonder if these philosophies influenced the development of critical social theories.