Critical vigilance, counter-discourses, and counter-conduct: White Teachers’ attempt at resistance at one ‘no-excuses’ urban charter school

ABSTRACT

Educational innovations such as ‘no-excuses’ charter schools have emerged as a discipline-focused approach to schooling as they are predicated on communicating high-expectations and personal responsibility. As ‘no-excuses’ charters are replicated across the United States as part of a neoliberal education reform policy, there continues to be prevailing stereotypes about the Black and Latinx populations in these spaces by teachers, the majority of whom are White. Yet not every White teacher within this context espouses the academic and behavioural socialisation associated with ‘no-excuses’ contexts. The findings of this phenomenological study suggest that White educators can become allies of Black and Latinx students but fail to create consistent affirming spaces due to an unrelenting implicit organisational pressure that we identify as ‘no-excuses pressure,’ that works against educators becoming full resistors and works against Black and Latinx students’ full humanity. The paper concludes with implications on how to build critical resistance for all teachers, especially those within a ‘no-excuses’ context.

KEYWORDS:

• White teachers
• resistance
• neoliberal
• ‘no-excuses’ charter
• urban

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. MCCA was co-located in a building with a traditional public school (TPS). The TPS had access to the computer lab, MCCA did not.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

L. Trenton S. Marsh

Dr. L. Trenton S. Marsh, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Urban Education in the Learning Sciences and Educational Research department and a program liaison for the Public Affairs’ Ph.D. program in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida. Centering on equity and diversity, his research arch has intersecting commitments: (1) understanding the experiences of minoritized students and families within various educative settings; (2) engaging the multivocality of youth/students, families, and communities; and (3) informing practices and micro-level policies within relationship-centered and social justice-oriented settings. 

Amanda Wilkerson

Dr. Amanda Wilkerson seeks to build a better world through cooperation, collaboration, and community action. She is an Assistant Professor in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education.  Dr. Wilkerson served as the guest editor for the Urban Education Research and Policy Annuals Journal-Hillard Sizemore Special Edition. Further, she has authored several articles, book chapters, research briefs and has one edited book.