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Shows how the labeling of children as "at-risk" actually perpetuates the inequities, racism, and discrimination facing many families in America.
This book critiques the currently popular "at-risk" construct, drawing from historical, contextual, critical, and personal perspectives. It provides an alternative context for viewing children and their families as "at-promise." A basic premise of the book is that the generalized use of the "at-risk" label is highly problematic and often implicitly racist and classist-a 1990s version of the cultural deficit model that locates problems in individuals, families, and communities, rather than in institutional structures that create and maintain inequality. This book provides a needed interrogation and alternative context for viewing children and families caught in the extreme conditions facing many families in the United States.
"In Children and Families 'At Promise': Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk we see how deconstructing the at risk label is inextricably linked to a critical analysis of pervasive poverty and exclusionary and discriminatory educational practices within our society. Many myths have been decoded in these chapters. The 'at promise' narratives present a countertext of possiblility and action. It is clear, in reading the accounts of successful classrooms in this book, that when classrooms do become landscapes of promise, they offer children a place where their selfhood matters, where they do find acceptance and possibility, and where they can become meaningmakers within their lifeworld of school." — from the Epilogue by Valerie Polakow, author of Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America
Foreword
Christine E. Sleeter
The Social Construction of Children and Families "at Risk": An Introduction
Beth Blue Swadener and Sally Lubeck
I Deconstructing the "at Risk" Label
1. Children and Families "at Promise":Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk
Beth Blue Swadener
2. Mothers at Risk
Sally Lubeck
3. The Politics of Who's "at Risk"
Michelle Fine
II Children and Families at Promise
4. Voice Unaltered: Marginalized Young Writers Speak
Elizabeth Quintero and Mary Kay Rummel
5. "Motherwit": Childrearing Lessons from African American Mothers of Low Income
Donelda A. Cook and Michelle Fine
6. Exploding the Myths: African American Families at Promise
Mary Smith Arnold
7. Native Americans at Promise: Travel in Borderlands
Carolyne J. White
III Reconstructing Classrooms and Community Contexts
8. Learning in and out of School: Critical Perspectives on the Theory of Cultural Compatibility
B. Robert Tabachnick and Marianne N. Bloch
9. Creating a Classroom Culture of Promise: Lessons from a First Grade
Mary E. Hauser and Cynthia Thompson
10. Student Success: A Matter of Compatibility and Expectations
Joyce S. Waldoch
11. Advocating for Aric: Strategies for Full Inclusion
Lisa Leifield and Tina Murray
Epilogue
Naming and Blaming: Beyond a Pedagogy of the Poor
Valerie Polakow
Contributors
Index