Geographies of Difference: The Social Production of the East Side, West Side and Central City School

by Edward Buendia, Nancy Ares

Overview

Geographies of Difference powerfully documents the multitude of socio-educational processes that construct differentiated students, educators, and educational practices within cities. Through a case study of a large metropolitan school district, this book identifies how the conversations and practices of educators, citywide media, and political relations codify students, schools, and city spaces with spatial metaphors that obscure as well as denote meanings about race and social class. It argues that through these practices of codification, educational processes of constructing and differentiating populations and spaces work in concert with broader city media and political discourses to create differentiated curricular and pedagogical offerings for students in different parts of the city. Geographies of Difference also posits that these overlapping school and citywide practices result in propelling and naturalizing re-segregated schools and cities. Geographies of Difference is written for students and scholars working in urban education, multicultural education, media studies, and social foundation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820486925
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	10/05/2006
Series:	Intersections in Communications and Culture: Global Approach , #17
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

The Authors: Edward Buendía, a former K-12 teacher, is Associate Professor in the Department of Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Utah. He received his Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. He has developed a line of inquiry that includes the formation of school knowledge and practice as they pertain to diverse students and educational contexts, as well as the social production of alternative epistemological frameworks.
Nancy Ares is Assistant Professor in Teaching and Curriculum at the University of Rochester’s Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She received her Ph.D. in educational psychology. She has established a line of inquiry that draws on sociocultural, sociohistorical, and social spatial theories to inform explorations of race, power, and cultural practices in and across varied cultural contexts, including districts, schools, and classrooms.

Editorial Reviews

«This is an important book for considering the ethics, politics, and challenges of schooling in producing an equitable society. Buendía and Ares engage Foucauldian studies, Human Geography, and postmodern theories in a conversation to understand the ‘urban child’ and urban education. After reading this study, it should no longer be possible to treat urban education as a geographical term describing the site of policy implementation. ‘Urban’ is a cultural space that normalizes, differentiates, and divides the child.» (Thomas Popkewitz, Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison)

From the Publisher