Suspended Animation: A Legal Perspective of School Discipline and African American Learners in the Shadows of Brown

The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court’s unanimous decision (1954) held promise for many African American children and youth. Sixty years after Brown, racial disparities in school discipline have garnered national attention in the professional literature. This article extends the post-Brown discourse beyond the achievement gap to the discipline gap, or the disparate disciplinary practices that impact African American learners in Prekindergarten to 12th grade settings. After Brown’s legal theories are advanced, the discussion focuses on school discipline and the impact of zero tolerance policies on African American learners. Lastly, interdisciplinary recommendations are proffered for educators, policymakers, juvenile justice, families, community members, and other agency personnel

Problematising the role of the white researcher in social justice research

This article contributes to the debate on decolonising methodologies in qualitative research by considering how a white researcher can try and destabilise white supremacy when explicitly conducting research with social justice aims. It draws on data from a recent ethnographic study of minority ethnic pupils’ experiences in secondary schools in England and interrogates the tensions between the research aim to challenge racial stereotyping in education and issues of race and power emerging from the research process. This article investigates specifically the ways in which interaction is shaped by – frequently hidden, particularly to those privileged by them – structures of white supremacy. Developing an innovative analytical framework which draws on insights from both critical race theory and the work of Judith Butler, the researcher problematises issues of voice and representation in conducting social justice research. It is argued that an approach which engages with elements of both structural and post-structural theory allows a more critical exploration of white supremacy through an understanding of the performativity of race. The author works towards a possible research methodology which not only takes into account, but also tries to destabilise processes of white supremacy in research by both recognising participants’ efforts to do this, and trying to make researchers better able to take responsibility for their own complicity in perpetuating unequal racial structures. It is argued that such a recognition by white researchers will necessarily be an uncomfortable process