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Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to investigate the inner workings of a North American summer enrichment programme named Freedom School. More specifically this research explores how participants of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom School programme experience ‘the Freedom School way’, an amalgam of ideologies, discourses, and behaviours endorsed by the CDF. First, observations are analysed which forward a picture of the research context. In addition, survey data are gathered from 36 youth participants of the programme. Data also are generated from interviews with Freedom School interns. Using Michel Foucault’s regimes of truth as a unit of analysis, results from this research highlight: (1) the process by which various Freedom School activities bolster CDF ideology; (2) the ways in which CDF ideologies are part of Freedom School discourse; and (3) how CDF ideology and Freedom School discourse perpetuate a regime of truth.
Notes
1. Twenty‐five per cent of the scholars (n = 12) failed to complete the survey due to scheduling conflicts and absences.
2. No scholar refused participation. This sample is representative of the City Tech Freedom School population. High rates of Black male incarceration, gang activity, few summer employment and other youth development opportunities made this Freedom School an attractive, viable, safe option for summer enrichment and helped to explain why City Tech’s male population is almost triple that of its female population.
3. The Kiswahili term means ‘let’s organise together’ and was popularised in Kenya during their 1960’s fight for independence (Mwiria Citation1990).
4. Ashe (also spelled ache/axe’) is a Yoruban (West African) word for divine power.