“I'm not really that bad”: Alternative School Students, Stigma, and Identity Politics

Abstract

Public schools in the United States are predicated upon some common, albeit contested, understanding of a “normal” child. Such an identity comes with corresponding rules of behavior. In this study, we use identity politics as the primary lens through which to interpret the experiences of students at an alternative middle and high school. Through ethnographic field observational data and student interviews over a four-month period, we examine student narratives to inform the theoretical framework of this research. We conclude that the alternative school in this case study is a stigmatized space for students with spoiled identities (Goffman, 1963). We offer implications for alternative schools in general and suggest that their design, by definition, can reinforce the stigmatized identity and its corresponding “deviant” behavior.