Against the politics of desperation: educational justice, critical race theory, and Chicago school reform

Abstract

As a center for education ‘reform’ in the United States, Chicago sheds light on state apparatuses seeking to end public education and replace it with market-driven ventures, largely by way of public–private partnerships. Critical to this process is the idea of ‘choice’ which has come to operate as a political device providing the illusion that students, parents, and families have options leading to educational improvement. In this article, Stovall pays specific attention to what he calls the politics of desperation, suggesting that entities such as central school offices and educational management organizations are using popular rhetoric coupled with marketing tools to solicit buy-in on their specific brand of educational improvement. He argues that this strategy targets groups facing uncertainty in education and housing, and who therefore attempt to navigate choices they have little say in defining. Instead of said improvements, Stovall contends we are witnessing a ‘more-of-the-same’ game, including dispossession and continued disenfranchisement of working-class communities of color. At the same time, he highlights the absolute necessity of resistance. Borrowing from Duncan-Andrade's notion of critical hope, he suggests we must be painfully honest about current educational conditions, while also building grassroots networks that challenge these realities. Stovall identifies strategies and resources mobilized by Chicago residents through direct-action organizing, coalition building, and school–community partnerships to challenge neoliberal reform.

Keywords:

• discourse analysis/semiotics
• educational policy
• inequality/social exclusion in education
• race
• urban education