Throwaway Youth: The Sociocultural Location of Resistance to Schooling

Abstract

This article illuminates the ways in which resistant youth challenge attempts toward cultural homogenization within public school systems. We trace how youth from historical and lived traumatic experiences such as African American, Native American, and youth with histories of domestic violence, navigate the dominant narrative of pity and punishment in public schools. We argue that these resistive youth have been tagged with constructed identities as “broken youth.” The article situates the practice of school discipline in terms of traditional and neoliberal agendas that seek to throw away noncompliant students and label them as deviant and/or disordered. Drawing from Bauman's (2009) conception of a world where vast numbers of human beings are increasingly seen as expendable and unworthy of a dignified existence, this article seeks to uncover how disciplinary and labeling practices become a vital part of the school-to-prison pipeline. We trace how deficit oriented discourses of historical and familial domestic violence help shape the often-unintentional violent discourses of pity and punishment towards resistant youth in public school settings.

Notes

¹Our purpose in using the adjective “unintentional” is to demonstrate our solidarity with educators. As educators ourselves, with over two decades of combined teaching experience, we believe that teachers, overwhelmingly, do not intend to enact violent or violating practices. However, we also recognize the structural conditions with which teachers must contend, that do result in the violent and violating outcomes that many youth experience. Our work is about being in solidarity with both youth and educators, which often places us in a contradictory space.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tracey Pyscher

Tracey Pyscher is a PhD candidate in literacy education within the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on critical literacy and how youth with histories of domestic violence experience and navigate public schooling.

Brian D. Lozenski

Brian D. Lozenski is an assistant professor in Metropolitan State University's School of Urban Education. His research focuses on critical participatory action research with youth of African descent. His work is engaged with various communities in the Twin Cities that are fighting for justice through education.