Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Calling Social Work to the Movement for Educational Justice

Calling Social Work to the Movement for Educational Justice Abstract The persistent and systemic inequities within the U.S. public education system have grave implications for children’s and youth’s outcomes, yet these inequities go far beyond academics. Marginalized and vulnerable students experience injustices across the educational system, including disproportionality in school discipline, unequal access to advanced courses, and poor conditions for learning. Social work has a solid history of addressing issues that intersect across families, schools, and communities, but the profession has had little engagement in the recent educational justice movement. As educational scholars advance a movement to address educational inequities, it will be increasingly important for social work researchers to provide valuable insight into the multiple components that make up youth development and support positive well-being for all individuals within a democratic society. This article encourages social work researchers to extend lines of inquiry that investigate educational justice issues by situating social work practice and research within educational justice and suggesting an agenda for future social work research that will advance equity for all students. Public schools in the United States not only provide the instructional setting necessary for individual children’s academic growth, but also are “a foundation for the future and a reflection of societal values” (Halpert, 2018, para. 53). Despite public education’s central place in U.S. society, vast disparities remain in educational outcomes and opportunity across social groups. In fact, many children and youths experience educational injustice that systematically undermines their ability to succeed. Education scholars recently called for a civil rights movement that advances educational justice to call attention to the growing disparities in education and to create meaningful and long-lasting change (Orfield, 2014). Although the social work profession has a solid history of social justice advocacy in schools, the profession has been largely silent within the educational justice movement. This article will resituate social work within educational justice and provide an agenda for social work research that will gain ground toward achieving educational justice for all children and youth. Everyday Injustice and Its Consequences Educational injustice has vast implications for not only youth, but also families, communities, and society. In this context, I define justice using Levinson’s (2015) broad conceptualization: “a fair arrangement of benefits and burdens, where individuals receive what they are due” (p. 206). As such, educational injustice results when benefits and burdens are not distributed fairly and individuals either have disproportionately more or less than what they are due. Every day, such injustices are felt by students, families, and the school workforce. Widespread media attention has focused on the disproportionate impact of exclusionary discipline on racial minority students, as well as the explicit and implicit racism and sexism evident within discipline policies. Black boys are suspended three times as often as White boys, and Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended than their counterparts (Crenshaw, Ocen, & Nanda, 2015). Disproportionality in school discipline is more complex than simple comparisons across racial groups—the highest rates of school discipline are found among students of color who have disabilities, bringing into question whether or not these students are receiving the legal protection and appropriate education that schools are obligated to provide (Losen, Hodson, Keith, Morrison, & Belway, 2015). Examples of sexist and transphobic dress code policies abound as well. Morris and Perry’s (2017) analysis of Kentucky data indicated that Black girls were more likely to receive office discipline referrals for minor infractions, such as dress code violations. Moreover, darker skinned Black girls received out-of-school suspensions at higher rates than their White peers in Blake, Keith, Luo, Le, and Salter’s (2017) analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data. Policies that dictate skirt length, nail polish, and makeup signify efforts to regulate expressions of gender. Policies that control girls’ hair, hair accessories, and head wraps are efforts to diminish racial and cultural heritage, as well as enforce normalized conceptions of femininity (Harbach, 2016; Pomerantz, 2007). Furthermore, 22.6% of students surveyed in the national GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) school climate survey reported that they were prevented from wearing clothes considered “inappropriate” based on their assigned sex (Kosciw, Greytak, Zongrone, Clark, & Truong, 2018). Homophobic bullying is widespread, affecting students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) and those who do not. An examination of the verbal content of bullying among 191 middle school youths found that heterosexual and cisgender students reported homophobic bullying because of their nonconformity to traditional masculine/feminine gender roles (Poteat & Espelage, 2005). Homophobic bullying may have particularly negative psychological and academic impacts on youths. For instance, longitudinal studies with convenience samples have identified that homophobic bullying is associated with increased anxiety, depression, alcohol use, and an external locus of control (Swearer, Turner, Givens, & Pollack, 2008; Tucker et al., 2016). One of the largest surveys of LGBTQ students in the United States (Kosciw et al., 2018) reported that, in 2017, nearly all LGBTQ students (87%) reported harassment or assault in schools, and 12.4% reported that they were physically assaulted at school in the past year based on their sexual orientation. Approximately half of the LGBTQ students who reported victimization did not report the incident to school staff, noting most commonly that they felt the response would be ineffective or that the situation would worsen if reported. Of those who did report an incident, 60% said that the school did nothing in response. Students who identified as transgender or gender nonconforming were particularly targeted in schools, as they reported being prevented from using their preferred names and pronouns and being required to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their assigned sex (Kosciw et al., 2018). For many students, schools resemble prisons more than they resemble safe and supportive institutions for developmental growth. Using nationally representative student data from the Education Longitudinal Study, Office of Civil Rights, and Common Core of Data, Servoss and Finn (2014) found that 28% of schools used four or more security measures regularly, such as dog sniffs, security guards, and random sweeps for contraband. In the same study, Servoss and Finn also found that the greatest predictor of high school security measures was the percentage of Black students, not community-level crime or violence or student misbehavior (for example, suspensions and physical violence). Aside from the increase in security presence, many public schools have eliminated recess, playgrounds, and libraries (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2007; Sparks & Harwin, 2018). These are key contexts for youth development and socialization, making schools increasingly sterilized and institutional rather than settings for whole child development (despite the well-documented value of free play for academic outcomes; Brez & Sheets, 2017). Even the fundamental task of schools—academics—is compromised in our current educational system. Neoliberal policies focused on school reform through standards-based accountability push students to perform rather than grow and develop academically, while school leaders and teachers face increasing pressure to improve student outcomes or face sanctions (Keddie, Mills, & Pendergast, 2011; Orfield, 2014). As a result, student performance has become the primary measure of teacher quality (Buchanan, 2015), leaving teachers feeling stressed, dehumanized, and deprofessionalized as they are increasingly viewed as producers with no autonomy and creativity (S. J. Ball, 2003; Janzen & Phelan, 2015). It is not a surprise that the country is facing a teacher shortage and teacher turnover rates that threaten to undermine the quality of public education, especially for low-income students (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Ignoring the public nature of our educational system creates systems of inequality that perpetuate educational injustice and fuel larger social problems, such as economic inequality, unemployment, crime and incarceration, and extreme social and political division. This system of inequality is deeply rooted in the United States’ long history of colonialism, oppression, and dehumanization. Beginning with early efforts to block racial and ethnic minority groups from access to education, de jure and de facto segregation in schooling has created systemic oppression that has seen little improvement over decades of U.S. history (Frankenberg, Ee, Ayscue, & Orfield, 2019). Oppressive practices in education are evident across macro, mezzo, and micro levels. Examples include persistent racist and discriminatory practices concealed within school funding policies and strategies and discriminatory housing practices that created long-standing inequities in funding for public education through property taxes (Ladson-Billings, 1998). In addition, Vaught’s (2009) critical race analysis of one district found that educational leaders still practiced racism in their funding practices despite policies seemingly designed to promote equity and equality, thus legitimizing a racist system. Scholarly debates aside, there is no argument that public schools are intended to serve the public good beyond rudimentary academics. A public education system ensures that all citizens have access to the knowledge and skills necessary to be engaged members of a democratic community. Schools have both an explicit and implicit curriculum to teach civic engagement, interpersonal skills, and social and emotional learning (Labaree, 2018; Lenzi et al., 2014). At the same time, the structure of our educational system influences children’s understanding of their world, including the transmission of stereotypes, prejudices, and even values (Bigler & Liben, 2007). Positive outcomes are possible when priority is placed on justice and social services systems come together to provide sufficient resources and capacity to support public education, our largest social welfare system. The Dignity in Schools Campaign, for example, has been successful in advocating both locally and nationally for fair school discipline. Smaller but powerful examples exist within the research: LGBTQ students in schools with inclusive curriculum feel less unsafe than those without inclusive curriculum (Kosciw et al., 2018), students with race-congruent teachers have demonstrated better academic performance (Egalite, Kisida, & Winters, 2015), and students whose teachers participated in wellness programs performed better as well (Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016). To this end, educational justice is more than an academic issue—it includes the right to intellectual stimulation and growth for all children and encompasses a broad range of youth outcomes that have serious implications for our broader society. Because public education is the largest social welfare system in the United States, it is imperative that educational justice solutions go beyond education. Social Work and Educational Justice Educational justice is not new for social workers in schools, as the subprofession’s history demonstrates a consistent trend of balancing the expectations of both the educational and social services systems—for example, through the support services offered by visiting teachers in the early 1900s (Hernandez Jozefowicz, Allen-Meares, Piro-Lupinacci, & Fisher, 2002) and the formalized roles and responsibilities for social workers that were created in response to the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) (P.L. 108-446) and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-247). Social workers across settings are in a unique position to influence the education of our most vulnerable students. Critical social work offers a lens to highlight and redress injustice in social work practice and research. This practice framework notes that individuals’ everyday experiences, social problems, and social structures are interrelated, requiring that social workers use structural and emancipatory approaches. In doing so, research and practice challenge oppression, examine power differentials, and promote social change (Fook, 2016; Payne, 2014). In the critical social work tradition, Fook (2016) called on social workers to shift their approach to social problems in light of globalization, postmodernism, and intensified economic competition. This requires a radicalized approach to practice and research that disrupts dominant ways of knowing by focusing on inclusivity, intersectionality, empowerment, and context. Social workers may take on a critical approach to educational justice that radicalizes traditional practice and scholarship. The capabilities approach offers a framework for doing so. This approach highlights individuals’ opportunities as essential components of well-being (including the realization of freedom and justice), emphasizing that one’s opportunities are as important as one’s actual achievements (Nussbaum, 2000). Nussbaum (2000) and Sen (1993) departed from traditional Rawlsian approaches to social justice in that they expanded the notion of justice beyond maximizing happiness for most. Instead, Nussbaum (2000) identified a set of interrelated capabilities that are of central importance for human well-being (for example, health and safety, healthy emotional attachment and full emotional experience, prosocial interaction with others, and control over one’s environment). If one does not meet a minimum level of opportunity within each of the identified capabilities, then they cannot thrive. The capabilities approach is useful as a litmus test for assessing the limits and liberations within the education system as it centers individuals’ wants and desires as well as the conditions under which individuals may make decisions for their own lives (Walker & Unterhalter, 2007). In the education context, justice manifests in equality of capabilities, not simply resources (for example, teacher–pupil ratios or dollars per student) or outcomes (for example, closing achievement gaps or qualifications for every student). It is necessary, then, to include agency as a central component of this approach—individuals must have the freedom to make choices that advance their own goals (Walker & Unterhalter, 2007). As Walker and Unterhalter (2007) noted, The approach thus leads us to ask questions such as: Are valued capabilities distributed fairly in and through education? Do some people get more opportunities to convert their resources into capabilities than others, and if so who, how, and why? (p. 8) Using a capabilities lens, this article articulates next steps for school social work research toward educational justice. Educational Justice Research There are ways in which social work research has been leveraged to advance justice for vulnerable students already including examination of school-based mental health and school climate across student subpopulations, such as racialized students (Rose, Lindsey, Xiao, Finigan-Carr, & Joe, 2017) or child welfare-involved youths (Benbenishty, Siegel, & Astor, 2018), and research addressing systemic issues that prevent students from academic success (for example, Hopson & Lee, 2011; Van Dorn, Bowen, & Blau, 2006). Likewise, social work researchers have developed a body of knowledge on family engagement and empowerment in schools that has shifted practice toward inclusive family engagement (for example, Anderson-Butcher, 2006a; A. Ball, 2014; Lawson & Alameda-Lawson, 2012). Others have studied school-based processes and interventions that may advance justice for vulnerable youths, such as Franklin’s and Kim’s intervention and outcome studies (Franklin, Kim, Ryan, Kelly, & Montgomery, 2012; Franklin, Kim, & Tripodi, 2009; Kim & Franklin, 2009) and examinations of interprofessional collaboration (Anderson-Butcher & Ashton, 2004; A. Ball, Anderson-Butcher, Mellin, & Green, 2010; Iachini, Anderson-Butcher, & Mellin, 2013). Educational and organizational sciences provide insight on educational inequality as well, particularly by generating knowledge about school and classroom influences on learning (Hawley & Williford, 2015), emancipatory approaches to education (Love, 2019), and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy (for example, Ladson-Billings, 2009). For example, Paris (2012) offered culturally sustaining pedagogy as a strategy to foster cultural pluralism in today’s schools. Likewise, multiple education scholars challenge deficit ideology and discourse (for example, Milner, 2013) that place the onus for change on children and families rather than on systems of oppression. Other research identifies how schools as organizations influence youth learning and development, such as the clear interplay between school climate and student outcomes (Wang & Degol, 2016). Furthermore, scholars in school social work and related fields call for attention to the ways in which student support services perpetuate inequality or render students’ cultural experiences invisible (Clauss-Ehlers, Serpell, & Weist, 2012; Stone, 2017). Few studies in social work, however, identify educational justice as a central component. Recently, Stone (2017) argued for a more emboldened examination of race in school social work research. Teasley and colleagues (2017) echoed this call, arguing that increasing success for African American students must involve addressing discipline disproportionality and evidence-based approaches to reducing exclusionary discipline. Finally, Goodkind (2013) and Goodkind, Schelbe, Joseph, Beers, and Pinsky (2013) interrogated assumptions that single-sex education benefits youths of color, noting the complex relationships between race and gender within U.S. schooling. Social work researchers are attuned to the influences of structural oppression on educational opportunities and outcomes, yet studies examining components of educational justice are disconnected from a broader social justice agenda. To date, there is no unifying framework for the field that propels social work forward in addressing educational justice, whether for research, practice, or both. Social Work Research to Advance Educational Justice Social work has the potential to be at the forefront of a movement for educational justice by drawing on the profession’s values and strengths. The profession’s multilevel influence is particularly notable and valuable for addressing educational injustice. Social workers, unlike members of other disciplines and professions, are able to address a social problem using macro, mezzo, and micro perspectives and approaches, offering a holistic approach to social change. Likewise, social work research examines social policy, organizational systems, and interpersonal relationships, and often as they interrelate. Coupled with an ecological lens and collaborative approach, social work offers a unique contribution to the educational justice movement. Lasting change will require multifaceted solutions that social workers are especially prepared to examine, design, and implement. I propose an agenda for future research grounded in previous social work research, the critical social work tradition, and the capabilities approach to conceptualizing justice. Four critical next steps for social work are described in the following subsections, with specific attention to the ways in which these lines of inquiry advance educational justice within a social work lens. Examine Schools as Organizations and Institutions Nussbaum (2011) developed a list of fundamental human capabilities that are required for a good life (for a full description of Nussbaum’s capabilities, see Nussbaum, 2011). These capabilities include the following: Life Bodily health Bodily integrity Senses, imagination, and thought Emotion (attachment) Practical reason Affiliation (belonging and connection) Other species Play Control over one’s environment For Nussbaum, these capabilities are a “political doctrine about basic entitlements” (2002). She continued, noting that failure to secure these to citizens is a particularly grave violation of basic justice, since these entitlements are held to be implicit in the very notion of human dignity, and a life that is worthy of the dignity of the human being. (p. 157) Nussbaum’s capabilities provide a roadmap for examining the ways in which schools as organizations and institutions promote healthy development within a socially just framework. Already, scholars have begun to document the complex ways in which students’ ecological context influences their learning, such as the well-identified connection between school climate and student outcomes (Wang & Degol, 2016). Phillippo and Stone (2011) also underscored the need for school social work research to consider the organizational context of schools in developing interventions and considering social work practice in schools. A critical social work approach requires that our research interrogate long-held practices and assumptions within systems that perpetuate inequality, and the capabilities approach highlights areas for attention. We must study educational inequity in schools on all levels, spanning from preschool through graduate and professional school, but also from policy-level decisions to local classroom-level interactions including close investigations of neighborhood effects on children’s schooling, similar to the recently developed Opportunity Atlas, an interactive mapping tool developed by Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, Jones, and Porter (2018; see opportunityatlas.org) that allows users to trace social mobility outcomes back to local neighborhoods. On a smaller scale, more scholarship is needed on the impact of institutional racism and bias in schools. It is clear that racism and other forms of prejudice and microaggression are potentially critical aspects of disproportionality in exclusionary discipline practices (Carter, Skiba, Arredondo, & Pollock, 2017), yet social work research that uses critical theories and intersectional approaches is needed to uncover the nature of racial, gender, disability, and linguistic biases in schools and classrooms. Collectively, these biases threaten students’ capabilities, particularly in relation to bodily health, bodily integrity, emotion, affiliation, play, and control over one’s environment (Nussbaum, 2011). Investigations of schools as organizations and institutions also includes research on teacher practices. School social work research has largely steered clear of investigating teachers’ roles in the classroom, even though teachers are key implementers of school-based social–emotional and mental health interventions (Anderson-Butcher, 2006b). There is no doubt that an educational justice movement will include teachers, whether willingly or not. Social work research should investigate the many ways that teachers interface with educational inequity, such as teacher practice related to student discipline; the prevention and identification of mental health concerns; and the promotion of positive, protective experiences for all children and youths. Educational justice research will benefit from social work’s ecological approach by exploring schools as institutions that perpetuate standardization, depersonalization, and trauma, for both staff and students. Some of this research is underway, demonstrating that teachers’ perceptions of students’ mental health needs are related to important teacher-level variables that contribute to burnout and attrition within the profession (A. Ball & Anderson-Butcher, 2014). As key players in schools, teachers should be the focus of more school social work research that considers schools as organizations that may perpetuate or ameliorate societal injustice. Expand Family Engagement Research to Include Investigations of Power and Reform Families are critical stakeholders in the education system. As such, research must understand how power and opportunity are manifested for families, especially as it relates to their engagement with schools. This recommendation is aligned with the capabilities approach, as it identifies agency as a core component of human development. Agency in itself is widely contested and often framed as an individual capability separate from the structural opportunities and limitations evident within a particular context (Bay-Cheng, 2019). Much of the scholarship on family engagement in schools conceptualizes agency and empowerment as individual traits that may be exercised freely and without constraint (for example, Goldring & Shapira, 1993; Myers & Myers, 2013). Likewise, a number of studies focus on the mechanisms of change within school–family relationships, such as examining pathways from family engagement to student outcomes, which shifts attention away from capabilities and toward outcomes. A smaller body of literature, however, investigated parent organizing and family empowerment in schools as essential components of educational justice (Gold, Simon, & Brown, 2002; Warren, 2014). These studies highlight the immense potential power that families may have to create change within their communities and their children’s schools, theorizing that critical shifts in power, social capital, and accountability are necessary for parents to gain the political power needed to shift educational systems. More research is needed to unpack family engagement in schools within the existing power structures of public education. Emerging studies in school social work examine family empowerment as a multifaceted construct that includes both individual and contextual features (for example, A. Ball, 2014), while also developing measures to aid future research. Most family empowerment literature in the social sciences, however, focuses on families receiving mental health services for their children or child welfare-involved families (for example, Casagrande & Ingersoll, 2017; Scheer & Gavazzi, 2009). Few scholars have analyzed parent involvement, family engagement, and family empowerment collectively to elucidate their conceptual similarities and differences. Notable exceptions from education scholarship include Rogers, Lubienski, Scott, and Welner’s (2015) examination of parent trigger policies as a form of family engagement and Marsh’s studies of parents’ democratic engagement in school reform processes (for example, Marsh, Strunk, Bush-Mecenas, & Huguet, 2015). Social work should fill this gap in family engagement research. Empowerment and meaningful civic participation are cornerstones of social work practice. An educational justice movement will require meaningful family engagement, and it will not be in the form of traditional parent involvement strategies designed to serve schools only. We need research to interrogate long-held assumptions about families’ intentions to engage with schools and an improved understanding of the mechanisms that allow parents to gain the necessary power and agency to create change for their children’s education. Social work researchers may lead this charge by maximizing their knowledge of interdisciplinary methods and using the unique perspectives of the profession to advance equity. Conduct Critical Research on School Choice and Privatization School choice stems from market-based models of education that emphasize deregulation and competition within education (Chubb & Moe, 1990; Lubienski, 2003). The increased political push for school choice in the past two decades has resulted in over 6,000 charter schools in 43 U.S. states (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). Proponents of school choice argue that deregulated markets not only increase competition, but also create space for autonomy and innovation, which spurs improvement and puts families in the position of the consumer (Preston, Goldring, Berends, & Cannata, 2012). Critics, however, point to the negative consequences of deregulated educational systems, including segregation and increased private sector involvement. Considerable research documents that choice is not advantageous for vulnerable children and youths, indicating that many charter schools “cream” their enrollment by selecting only high-performing students while other schools “crop” their enrollment by admitting students with the fewest academic or behavioral difficulties (Lacireno-Paquet, Holyoke, Moser, & Henig, 2002). In addition, the increasing involvement of for-profit educational management organizations in school choice calls into question the nature of private sector involvement in public education (Ertas & Roch, 2014). These concerns echo the caution evident within the capabilities approach—resources alone are not enough for a good life. Instead, we have to examine access to these resources and understand how resources may be converted into capabilities. Thus, increased options in the schooling market is not enough to create equitable opportunities. Social workers must question the role of school choice in a public, democratic educational system. As it is now, school choice in the United States is a questionable opportunity for vulnerable children. To date, social work research is largely silent on the issue of school choice, with few scholars conducting studies or weighing in on this critical development in American education. Crutchfield and Teasley (2016) identified a need for clarity on social work practice tasks in charter schools, as well as examinations of charter school social workers’ roles and responsibilities. Although it will be important to examine social work practice in charter schools, it also will be critical to address the social justice aspects of school choice. Social work research must be critical of who has access to quality charter schools, how they operate, and whom they serve, as well as both the intended and unintended consequences of market-based models of public education. Education and economic research have shed light on the limits and potentially harmful effects of school choice (Fabricant & Fine, 2012), but social work offers important contributions to the knowledge base that center students’ and families’ educational rights and bring ecological, empowerment- and capabilities-based approaches to the forefront. Doing so can ensure that school choice does not reproduce segregation and erode the largest social welfare system in the country. Center Intersectionality in All Research on Children, Families, and Schools Finally, any educational justice work going forward must center intersectionality. Intersectionality theory has developed considerably since Crenshaw (1989) and Collins (2015) first introduced the concept nearly 30 years ago. More research examines children’s experiences within an intersectional context, considering the ways in which race, ethnicity, social class, disability, and other social identity categories are mutually constructed and influence one another to create complex and distinctive individual experiences (for example, Jang, 2018). Orfield (2014) called on educational researchers to consider civil rights in a multiracial context. Intersectional research will be critical in advancing educational justice; as Sen (1993) and Nussbaum (2000, 2002) emphasized, resources are experienced differently across individuals and communities. Limiting educational and school social work research to examinations of social identity characteristics in isolation will erase aspects of individuals’ experiences that may be critical for intervention. Furthermore, introducing more intersectional research will further highlight the ways in which people are disadvantaged in public schooling, which allows for more nuanced change strategies. Social work researchers should conduct all research on schools and school-based interventions with intersectionality in mind. This is done by moving past conventional measures of demographic variables, extending lines of inquiry to include individuals’ multiple social identities, utilizing intersectional methods (for example, interaction effects or developing multidimensional measures of social identity characteristics; Codiroli McMaster & Cook, 2018), and explicitly identifying intersectionality as a theoretical and/or methodological approach. Moreover, this approach should extend beyond the individual level to consider how schools as institutions are shaped by intersectionality, made up of individuals with multiple, intersecting social identities. As demographic diversity in schools becomes increasingly complex, it is necessary for research to explore the organizational aspects of these changes and how they influence children and youths. Inequality is context specific (Crenshaw, 1989); thus, studies could examine relationships between organizational practices (such as ability tracking, variability in program offerings, or staff demographic makeup) and student-level outcomes broken down by intersectional subgroups, such as gender–race/ethnicity or race/ethnicity–socioeconomic status. One such study used survey data to investigate how school-level diversity was related to both White and Black students’ bullying experiences, finding that White students experienced significantly more bullying than other groups when they were the minority racial group in a school (Fisher et al., 2015). More studies are needed to understand the complexities of students’ experiences within diverse learning environments, at both the individual level and the institutional level. Conclusion Communities in the United States continue to struggle with poverty, unemployment, and demographic diversity—all of which come to bear on the public education system. Students’ academic outcomes have changed little since the considerable policy gains made during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the broader context for learning has remained stagnant or, in fact, devolved over time. We need a significant shift in the public education system that focuses on creating a more equitable distribution of resources and opportunities. Social workers are critical for this movement. In particular, social work researchers have much to offer given our emphasis on the ecological perspective, trauma and adversity, multilevel practice, and community-engaged research. Social work practice and research is especially well suited to lead the charge given its roots in advocacy, collaboration, and cross-systems service delivery. The research agenda set forth in this article will advance educational justice and position social workers as thought and action leaders at the intersection of public education and social justice. Annahita Ball, PhD, is associate professor, School of Social Work, University at Buffalo, 685 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14216; e-mail: annahita@buffalo.edu. References Anderson-Butcher D. ( 2006a ). Building effective family support programs and interventions. In Franklin C. , Harris M. B. , Allen-Meares P. (Eds.), The school services sourcebook: A guide for school-based professionals (pp. 251 – 274 ). New York : Oxford University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Anderson-Butcher D. ( 2006b ). The role of the educator in early identification, referral, and linkage. In Waller R. J. (Ed.), Child and adolescent mental health issues in the classroom (pp. 257 – 274 ). Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Anderson-Butcher D. , Ashton D. ( 2004 ). Innovative models of collaboration to serve children, youths, families, and communities . Children & Schools, 26 , 39 – 53 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ball A. ( 2014 ). The Parent/Guardian Empowerment in Schools scale . Families in Society, 95 , 92 – 99 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ball A. , Anderson-Butcher D. ( 2014 ). Understanding teachers’ perceptions of student support systems in relation to teachers’ stress . Children & Schools, 36 , 221 – 229 . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Ball A. , Anderson-Butcher D. , Mellin E. A. , Green J. H. ( 2010 ). A cross-walk of professional competencies involved in expanded school mental health: An exploratory study . School Mental Health, 2 , 114 – 124 . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Ball S. J. ( 2003 ). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity . Journal of Education Policy, 18 ( 2 ), 215 – 228 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Bay-Cheng L. Y. ( 2019 ). Agency is everywhere, but agency is not enough: A conceptual analysis of young women’s sexual agency . Journal of Sex Research, 56 , 462 – 474 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Benbenishty R. , Siegel A. , Astor R. A. ( 2018 ). School-related experiences of adolescents in foster care: A comparison with their high-school peers . American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 88 , 261 – 268 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Bigler R. S. , Liben L. S. ( 2007 ). Developmental intergroup theory: Explaining and reducing children’s social stereotyping and prejudice . Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16 ( 3 ), 162 – 166 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Blake J. J. , Keith V. M. , Luo W. , Le H. , Salter P. ( 2017 ). The role of colorism in explaining African American females’ suspension risk . School Psychology Quarterly, 32 , 118 – 130 . doi:10.1037/spq0000173 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Brez C. , Sheets V. ( 2017 ). Classroom benefits of recess . Learning Environments Research, 20 , 443 – 445 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Buchanan R. ( 2015 ). Teacher agency and identity in an era of accountability . Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21 , 700 – 719 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Carter P. L. , Skiba R. , Arredondo M. I. , Pollock M. ( 2017 ). You can’t fix what you don’t look at: Acknowledging race in addressing racial discipline disparities . Urban Education, 52 ( 2 ), 207 – 235 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Carver-Thomas D. , Darling-Hammond L. ( 2017 ). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it . Palo Alto, CA : Learning Policy Institute . Retrieved from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Teacher_Turnover_REPORT.pdf Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Casagrande K. A. , Ingersoll B. R. ( 2017 ). Service delivery outcomes in ASD: Role of parent education, empowerment, and professional partnerships . Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26 , 2386 – 2395 . doi:10.1007/s10826-017-0759-8 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Chetty R. , Friedman J. N. , Hendren N. , Jones M. R. , Porter S. R. ( 2018 ). The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the childhood roots of social mobility [Working paper]. Retrieved from https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/atlas_paper.pdf Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974, P.L. 93-247, 88 Stat. 4, 42 U.S.C. 5101 et seq. Chubb J. E. , Moe T. M. ( 1990 ). Politics, markets, and America’s schools. Washington, DC : Brookings Institution . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Clauss-Ehlers C. S. , Serpell Z. N. , Weist M. D. (Eds.). ( 2012 ). Introduction: Making the case for culturally responsive school mental health. In Handbook of culturally responsive school mental health: Advancing research, training, practice, and policy (pp. 3 – 15 ). New York : Springer Science & Business Media . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Codiroli McMaster N. , Cook R. ( 2018 ). The contribution of intersectionality to quantitative research into educational inequalities . Review of Education . Advance online publication. doi:10.1002/rev3.3116 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Collins P. H. ( 2015 ). Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas . Annual Review of Sociology, 41 ( 1 ), 1 – 20 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Crenshaw K. ( 1989 ). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, Article 8. Crenshaw K. W. , Ocen P. , Nanda J. ( 2015 ). Black girls matter: Pushed out, overpoliced, and underprotected . New York : African American Policy Forum, Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, Columbia University . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Crutchfield J. M. , Teasley M. L. ( 2016 ). Developing a knowledge base for charter school social work practice [Editorial] . Children & Schools, 38 , 133 – 135 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Egalite A. J. , Kisida B. , Winters M. A. ( 2015 ). Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement . Economics of Education Review, 45 , 44 – 52 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ertas N. , Roch C. H. ( 2014 ). Charter schools, equity, and student enrollments: The role of for-profit educational management organizations . Education and Urban Society, 46 , 548 – 579 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Fabricant M. , Fine M. ( 2012 ). Charter schools and the corporate makeover of public education: What's at stake ? New York : Teachers College Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Fisher S. , Middleton K. , Ricks E. , Malone C. , Briggs C. , Barnes J. ( 2015 ). Not just black and white: Peer victimization and the intersectionality of school diversity and race . Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44 , 1241 – 1250 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Fook J. ( 2016 ). Social work: A critical approach to practice (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Frankenberg E. , Ee J. , Ayscue J. B. , Orfield G. ( 2019 ). Harming our common future: America’s segregated future 65 years after Brown . Los Angeles : Civil Rights Project . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Franklin C. G. , Kim J. S. , Ryan T. N. , Kelly M. S. , Montgomery K. L. ( 2012 ). Teacher involvement in school mental health interventions: A systematic review . Children and Youth Services Review, 34 , 973 – 982 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Franklin C. , Kim J. S. , Tripodi S. J. ( 2009 ). A meta-analysis of published school social work practice studies: 1980-2007 . Research on Social Work Practice, 19 , 667 – 677 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Gold E. , Simon E. , Brown C. ( 2002 ). Successful community organizing for school reform . Chicago : Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Goldring E. B. , Shapira R. ( 1993 ). Choice, empowerment, and involvement: What satisfies parents? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15 , 396 – 409 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Goodkind S. ( 2013 ). Single-sex public education for low-income youth of color: A critical theoretical review . Sex Roles, 69 , 393 – 402 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Goodkind S. , Schelbe L. , Joseph A. A. , Beers D. E. , Pinsky S. L. ( 2013 ). Providing new opportunities or reinforcing old stereotypes? Perceptions and experiences of single-sex public education . Children and Youth Services Review, 35 , 1174 – 1181 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Greenberg M. T. , Brown J. L. , Abenavoli R. M. ( 2016 ). Teacher stress and health effects on teachers, students, and schools [Issue Brief]. Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved from http://prevention.psu.edu/uploads/files/rwjf430428.pdf Halpert J. ( 2018 , March 4). What if America didn’t have public schools? Imagining an entirely different educational system reveals some strengths—and flaws—of the current one. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/03/what-if-america-didnt-have-public-schools/552308/ Harbach M. J. ( 2016 ). Sexualization, sex discrimination, and public school dress codes . University of Richmond Law Review, 50 , 1039 – 1062 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Hawley P. H. , Williford A. ( 2015 ). Articulating the theory of bullying intervention programs: Views from social psychology, social work, and organizational science . Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 37 , 3 – 15 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Hernandez Jozefowicz D. M. , Allen-Meares P. , Piro-Lupinacci M. A. , Fisher R. ( 2002 ). School social work in the United States: A holistic approach. In Huxtable M. , Blyth E. (Eds.), School social work worldwide (pp. 33 – 56 ). Washington, DC : NASW Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Hopson L. M. , Lee E. ( 2011 ). Mitigating the effect of family poverty on academic and behavioral outcomes: The role of school climate in middle and high school . Children and Youth Services Review, 33 , 2221 – 2229 . doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.07.006 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Iachini A. L. , Anderson-Butcher D. , Mellin E. A. ( 2013 ). Exploring best practice teaming strategies among school-based teams: Implications for school mental health practice and research . Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 6 ( 2 ), 139 – 154 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, P.L. 108-446, 118 Stat. 2647 (2004). Jang S. T. ( 2018 ). The implications of intersectionality on Southeast Asian female students’ educational outcomes in the United States: A critical quantitative intersectionality analysis . American Educational Research Journal, 55 , 1268 – 1306 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Janzen M. , Phelan A. M. ( 2015 ). The emotional toll of obligation and teachers’ disengagement from the profession . Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 61 , 347 – 350 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Keddie A. , Mills M. , Pendergast D. ( 2011 ). Fabricating an identity in neo‐liberal times: Performing schooling as ‘number one’ . Oxford Review of Education, 37 ( 1 ), 75 – 92 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Kim J. S. , Franklin C. ( 2009 ). Solution-focused brief therapy in schools: A review of the outcome literature . Children and Youth Services Review, 31 , 464 – 470 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Kosciw J. G. , Greytak E. A. , Zongrone A. D. , Clark C. M. , Truong N. L. ( 2018 ). The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools . New York : GLSEN . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Labaree D. F. ( 2018 ). Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good . Phi Delta Kappan, 100 ( 3 ), 8 – 13 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Lacireno-Paquet N. , Holyoke T. T. , Moser M. , Henig J. R. ( 2002 ). Creaming versus cropping: Charter school enrollment practices in response to market incentives . Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 ( 2 ), 145 – 158 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ladson-Billings G. ( 1998 ). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11 ( 1 ), 7 – 24 . doi:10.1080/095183998236863 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ladson-Billings G. ( 2009 ). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children . New York : John Wiley & Sons . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Lawson M. A. , Alameda-Lawson T. ( 2012 ). A case study of school-linked, collective parent engagement . American Educational Research Journal, 49 , 651 – 684 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Lenzi M. , Vieno A. , Sharkey J. , Mayworm A. , Scacchi L. , Pastore M. , Santinello M. ( 2014 ). How school can teach civic engagement besides civic education: The role of democratic school climate . American Journal of Community Psychology, 54 , 251 – 261 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Levinson M. ( 2015 ). Moral injury and the ethics of educational injustice . Harvard Educational Review, 85 , 203 – 228 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Losen D. , Hodson C. , Keith M. A. , Morrison K. , Belway S. ( 2015 ). Are we closing the school discipline gap ? Los Angeles : Center for Civil Rights Remedies, University of California, Los Angeles . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Love B. L. ( 2019 ). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom . Boston : Beacon Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Lubienski C. ( 2003 ). Innovation in education markets: Theory and evidence on the impact of competition and choice in charter schools . American Education Research Journal, 40 , 395 – 443 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Marsh J. A. , Strunk K. O. , Bush-Mecenas S. C. , Huguet A. ( 2015 ). Democratic engagement in district reform: The evolving role of parents in the Los Angeles Public School Choice initiative . Educational Policy, 29 ( 1 ), 51 – 84 . doi:10.1177/0895904814563204 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Milner H. ( 2013 ). Rethinking achievement gap talk in urban education . Urban Education, 48 , 3 – 8 . doi:10.1177/0042085912470417 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Morris E. W. , Perry B. L. ( 2017 ). Girls behaving badly? Race, gender, and subjective evaluation in the discipline of African American girls . Sociology of Education, 90 ( 2 ), 127 – 148 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Myers S. M. , Myers C. B. ( 2013 ). The dynamics of parental involvement in U.S. schools from 1996 to 2007 . Journal of School Public Relations, 34 ( 1 ), 74 – 105 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Nussbaum M. C. ( 2000 ). Women and human development: The capabilities approach . Cambridge, UK : Cambridge Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Nussbaum M. C. ( 2002 ). Capabilities and disabilities: Justice for mentally disabled citizens . Philosophical Topics, 30 ( 2 ), 133 – 165 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Nussbaum M. C. ( 2011 ). Creating capabilities: The human development approach . Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Orfield G. ( 2014 ). Tenth annual Brown lecture in education research: A new civil rights agenda for American education . Educational Researcher, 43 , 273 – 292 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Paris D. ( 2012 ). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice . Educational Researcher, 41 , 93 – 97 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Payne M. ( 2014 ). Modern social work theory . New York : Oxford University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Phillippo K. , Stone S. ( 2011 ). Toward a broader view: A call to integrate knowledge about schools into school social work research . Children & Schools, 33 , 71 – 81 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Pomerantz S. ( 2007 ). Cleavage in a tank top: Bodily prohibition and the discourses of school dress codes . Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53 ( 4 ), 373 – 386 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Poteat V. P. , Espelage D. L. ( 2005 ). Exploring the relation between bullying and homophobic verbal content: The Homophobic Content Agent Target (HCAT) Scale. Violence and Victims, 20 , 513 – 528 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Preston C. , Goldring E. , Berends M. , Cannata M. ( 2012 ). School innovation in district context: Comparing traditional public schools and charter schools . Economics of Education Review, 32 , 318 – 330 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. ( 2007 ). Recess rules: Why the undervalued playtime may be America’s best investment for healthy kids and healthy schools. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealthexcellence.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/rwjf_sports4kids_recess_report.pdf Rogers J. , Lubienski C. , Scott J. , Welner K. G. ( 2015 ). Missing the target? The parent trigger as a strategy for parental engagement and school reform . Teachers College Record, 117 ( 6 ), 1 – 36 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Rose T. , Lindsey M. A. , Xiao Y. , Finigan-Carr N. M. , Joe S. ( 2017 ). Mental health and educational experiences among Black youth: A latent class analysis . Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46 , 2321 – 2340 . doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0723-3 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Scheer S. D. , Gavazzi S. M. ( 2009 ). A qualitative examination of a state-wide initiative to empower families containing children and adolescents with behavioral health care needs . Children and Youth Services Review, 31 , 370 – 377 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Sen A. ( 1993 ). Capability and well being. In Nussbaum M. , Sen A. (Eds.), The quality of life (pp. 30 – 53 ). New York : Oxford University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Servoss T. J. , Finn J. D. ( 2014 ). School security: For whom and with what results? Leadership and Policy in Schools, 13 ( 1 ), 61 – 92 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Sparks S. D. , Harwin A. ( 2018 , May 16). Schools see steep drop in librarians, new analysis finds. Ed Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/05/16/schools-see-steep-drop-in-librarians-new.html Stone S. ( 2017 ). Racial equity and school social work . Psychology in Schools, 54 , 1238 – 1244 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Swearer S. M. , Turner R. K. , Givens J. E. , Pollack W. S. ( 2008 ). “ You’re so gay!”: Do different forms of bullying matter for adolescent males? School Psychology Review, 37 , 160 – 173 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Teasley M. L. , McRoy R. G. , Joyner M. , Armour M. , Gourdine R. M. , Crewe S. E. , et al. ( 2017 ). Increasing success for African American children and youth (Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative Working Paper No. 21). Cleveland : American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare . Tucker J. S. , Ewing B. E. , Espelage D. L. , Green H. D. Jr. , de la Haye K. , Pollard M. S. ( 2016 ). Longitudinal associations of homophobic name-calling victimization with psychological distress and alcohol use during adolescence . Journal of Adolescent Health, 59 , 110 – 115 . doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.03.018 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat U.S. Department of Education. ( 2018 ). The condition of education 2017: Public charter school enrollment . Washington, DC : National Center for Education Statistics . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Van Dorn R. A. , Bowen G. L. , Blau J. R. ( 2006 ). The impact of community diversity and consolidated inequality on dropping out of high school . Family Relations, 55 ( 1 ), 105 – 118 . doi:10.1111/j.1741- 3729.2006.00360.x Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Vaught S. E. ( 2009 ). The color of money: School funding and the commodification of Black children . Urban Education, 44 , 545 – 570 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Walker M. , Unterhalter E. ( 2007 ). Amartya Sen’s capability approach and social justice in education. New York : Palgrave Macmillan . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Wang M. T. , Degol J. L. ( 2016 ). School climate: A review of the construct, measurement, and impact on student outcomes . Educational Psychology Review, 28 , 315 – 352 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Warren M. R. ( 2014 ). Transforming public education: The need for an educational justice movement . New England Journal of Public Policy, 26 ( 1 ), 1 – 16 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat © 2020 National Association of Social Workers This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Social Work Research Oxford University Press

Calling Social Work to the Movement for Educational Justice

Ball, Annahita
Social Work Research , Volume 44 (4) – Feb 23, 2021
Download PDF
11 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/oxford-university-press/calling-social-work-to-the-movement-for-educational-justice-ptISIwQcDm

References (113)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 National Association of Social Workers
ISSN
1070-5309
eISSN
1545-6838
DOI
10.1093/swr/svaa014
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract The persistent and systemic inequities within the U.S. public education system have grave implications for children’s and youth’s outcomes, yet these inequities go far beyond academics. Marginalized and vulnerable students experience injustices across the educational system, including disproportionality in school discipline, unequal access to advanced courses, and poor conditions for learning. Social work has a solid history of addressing issues that intersect across families, schools, and communities, but the profession has had little engagement in the recent educational justice movement. As educational scholars advance a movement to address educational inequities, it will be increasingly important for social work researchers to provide valuable insight into the multiple components that make up youth development and support positive well-being for all individuals within a democratic society. This article encourages social work researchers to extend lines of inquiry that investigate educational justice issues by situating social work practice and research within educational justice and suggesting an agenda for future social work research that will advance equity for all students. Public schools in the United States not only provide the instructional setting necessary for individual children’s academic growth, but also are “a foundation for the future and a reflection of societal values” (Halpert, 2018, para. 53). Despite public education’s central place in U.S. society, vast disparities remain in educational outcomes and opportunity across social groups. In fact, many children and youths experience educational injustice that systematically undermines their ability to succeed. Education scholars recently called for a civil rights movement that advances educational justice to call attention to the growing disparities in education and to create meaningful and long-lasting change (Orfield, 2014). Although the social work profession has a solid history of social justice advocacy in schools, the profession has been largely silent within the educational justice movement. This article will resituate social work within educational justice and provide an agenda for social work research that will gain ground toward achieving educational justice for all children and youth. Everyday Injustice and Its Consequences Educational injustice has vast implications for not only youth, but also families, communities, and society. In this context, I define justice using Levinson’s (2015) broad conceptualization: “a fair arrangement of benefits and burdens, where individuals receive what they are due” (p. 206). As such, educational injustice results when benefits and burdens are not distributed fairly and individuals either have disproportionately more or less than what they are due. Every day, such injustices are felt by students, families, and the school workforce. Widespread media attention has focused on the disproportionate impact of exclusionary discipline on racial minority students, as well as the explicit and implicit racism and sexism evident within discipline policies. Black boys are suspended three times as often as White boys, and Black girls are six times more likely to be suspended than their counterparts (Crenshaw, Ocen, & Nanda, 2015). Disproportionality in school discipline is more complex than simple comparisons across racial groups—the highest rates of school discipline are found among students of color who have disabilities, bringing into question whether or not these students are receiving the legal protection and appropriate education that schools are obligated to provide (Losen, Hodson, Keith, Morrison, & Belway, 2015). Examples of sexist and transphobic dress code policies abound as well. Morris and Perry’s (2017) analysis of Kentucky data indicated that Black girls were more likely to receive office discipline referrals for minor infractions, such as dress code violations. Moreover, darker skinned Black girls received out-of-school suspensions at higher rates than their White peers in Blake, Keith, Luo, Le, and Salter’s (2017) analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data. Policies that dictate skirt length, nail polish, and makeup signify efforts to regulate expressions of gender. Policies that control girls’ hair, hair accessories, and head wraps are efforts to diminish racial and cultural heritage, as well as enforce normalized conceptions of femininity (Harbach, 2016; Pomerantz, 2007). Furthermore, 22.6% of students surveyed in the national GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) school climate survey reported that they were prevented from wearing clothes considered “inappropriate” based on their assigned sex (Kosciw, Greytak, Zongrone, Clark, & Truong, 2018). Homophobic bullying is widespread, affecting students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) and those who do not. An examination of the verbal content of bullying among 191 middle school youths found that heterosexual and cisgender students reported homophobic bullying because of their nonconformity to traditional masculine/feminine gender roles (Poteat & Espelage, 2005). Homophobic bullying may have particularly negative psychological and academic impacts on youths. For instance, longitudinal studies with convenience samples have identified that homophobic bullying is associated with increased anxiety, depression, alcohol use, and an external locus of control (Swearer, Turner, Givens, & Pollack, 2008; Tucker et al., 2016). One of the largest surveys of LGBTQ students in the United States (Kosciw et al., 2018) reported that, in 2017, nearly all LGBTQ students (87%) reported harassment or assault in schools, and 12.4% reported that they were physically assaulted at school in the past year based on their sexual orientation. Approximately half of the LGBTQ students who reported victimization did not report the incident to school staff, noting most commonly that they felt the response would be ineffective or that the situation would worsen if reported. Of those who did report an incident, 60% said that the school did nothing in response. Students who identified as transgender or gender nonconforming were particularly targeted in schools, as they reported being prevented from using their preferred names and pronouns and being required to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their assigned sex (Kosciw et al., 2018). For many students, schools resemble prisons more than they resemble safe and supportive institutions for developmental growth. Using nationally representative student data from the Education Longitudinal Study, Office of Civil Rights, and Common Core of Data, Servoss and Finn (2014) found that 28% of schools used four or more security measures regularly, such as dog sniffs, security guards, and random sweeps for contraband. In the same study, Servoss and Finn also found that the greatest predictor of high school security measures was the percentage of Black students, not community-level crime or violence or student misbehavior (for example, suspensions and physical violence). Aside from the increase in security presence, many public schools have eliminated recess, playgrounds, and libraries (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2007; Sparks & Harwin, 2018). These are key contexts for youth development and socialization, making schools increasingly sterilized and institutional rather than settings for whole child development (despite the well-documented value of free play for academic outcomes; Brez & Sheets, 2017). Even the fundamental task of schools—academics—is compromised in our current educational system. Neoliberal policies focused on school reform through standards-based accountability push students to perform rather than grow and develop academically, while school leaders and teachers face increasing pressure to improve student outcomes or face sanctions (Keddie, Mills, & Pendergast, 2011; Orfield, 2014). As a result, student performance has become the primary measure of teacher quality (Buchanan, 2015), leaving teachers feeling stressed, dehumanized, and deprofessionalized as they are increasingly viewed as producers with no autonomy and creativity (S. J. Ball, 2003; Janzen & Phelan, 2015). It is not a surprise that the country is facing a teacher shortage and teacher turnover rates that threaten to undermine the quality of public education, especially for low-income students (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Ignoring the public nature of our educational system creates systems of inequality that perpetuate educational injustice and fuel larger social problems, such as economic inequality, unemployment, crime and incarceration, and extreme social and political division. This system of inequality is deeply rooted in the United States’ long history of colonialism, oppression, and dehumanization. Beginning with early efforts to block racial and ethnic minority groups from access to education, de jure and de facto segregation in schooling has created systemic oppression that has seen little improvement over decades of U.S. history (Frankenberg, Ee, Ayscue, & Orfield, 2019). Oppressive practices in education are evident across macro, mezzo, and micro levels. Examples include persistent racist and discriminatory practices concealed within school funding policies and strategies and discriminatory housing practices that created long-standing inequities in funding for public education through property taxes (Ladson-Billings, 1998). In addition, Vaught’s (2009) critical race analysis of one district found that educational leaders still practiced racism in their funding practices despite policies seemingly designed to promote equity and equality, thus legitimizing a racist system. Scholarly debates aside, there is no argument that public schools are intended to serve the public good beyond rudimentary academics. A public education system ensures that all citizens have access to the knowledge and skills necessary to be engaged members of a democratic community. Schools have both an explicit and implicit curriculum to teach civic engagement, interpersonal skills, and social and emotional learning (Labaree, 2018; Lenzi et al., 2014). At the same time, the structure of our educational system influences children’s understanding of their world, including the transmission of stereotypes, prejudices, and even values (Bigler & Liben, 2007). Positive outcomes are possible when priority is placed on justice and social services systems come together to provide sufficient resources and capacity to support public education, our largest social welfare system. The Dignity in Schools Campaign, for example, has been successful in advocating both locally and nationally for fair school discipline. Smaller but powerful examples exist within the research: LGBTQ students in schools with inclusive curriculum feel less unsafe than those without inclusive curriculum (Kosciw et al., 2018), students with race-congruent teachers have demonstrated better academic performance (Egalite, Kisida, & Winters, 2015), and students whose teachers participated in wellness programs performed better as well (Greenberg, Brown, & Abenavoli, 2016). To this end, educational justice is more than an academic issue—it includes the right to intellectual stimulation and growth for all children and encompasses a broad range of youth outcomes that have serious implications for our broader society. Because public education is the largest social welfare system in the United States, it is imperative that educational justice solutions go beyond education. Social Work and Educational Justice Educational justice is not new for social workers in schools, as the subprofession’s history demonstrates a consistent trend of balancing the expectations of both the educational and social services systems—for example, through the support services offered by visiting teachers in the early 1900s (Hernandez Jozefowicz, Allen-Meares, Piro-Lupinacci, & Fisher, 2002) and the formalized roles and responsibilities for social workers that were created in response to the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) (P.L. 108-446) and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-247). Social workers across settings are in a unique position to influence the education of our most vulnerable students. Critical social work offers a lens to highlight and redress injustice in social work practice and research. This practice framework notes that individuals’ everyday experiences, social problems, and social structures are interrelated, requiring that social workers use structural and emancipatory approaches. In doing so, research and practice challenge oppression, examine power differentials, and promote social change (Fook, 2016; Payne, 2014). In the critical social work tradition, Fook (2016) called on social workers to shift their approach to social problems in light of globalization, postmodernism, and intensified economic competition. This requires a radicalized approach to practice and research that disrupts dominant ways of knowing by focusing on inclusivity, intersectionality, empowerment, and context. Social workers may take on a critical approach to educational justice that radicalizes traditional practice and scholarship. The capabilities approach offers a framework for doing so. This approach highlights individuals’ opportunities as essential components of well-being (including the realization of freedom and justice), emphasizing that one’s opportunities are as important as one’s actual achievements (Nussbaum, 2000). Nussbaum (2000) and Sen (1993) departed from traditional Rawlsian approaches to social justice in that they expanded the notion of justice beyond maximizing happiness for most. Instead, Nussbaum (2000) identified a set of interrelated capabilities that are of central importance for human well-being (for example, health and safety, healthy emotional attachment and full emotional experience, prosocial interaction with others, and control over one’s environment). If one does not meet a minimum level of opportunity within each of the identified capabilities, then they cannot thrive. The capabilities approach is useful as a litmus test for assessing the limits and liberations within the education system as it centers individuals’ wants and desires as well as the conditions under which individuals may make decisions for their own lives (Walker & Unterhalter, 2007). In the education context, justice manifests in equality of capabilities, not simply resources (for example, teacher–pupil ratios or dollars per student) or outcomes (for example, closing achievement gaps or qualifications for every student). It is necessary, then, to include agency as a central component of this approach—individuals must have the freedom to make choices that advance their own goals (Walker & Unterhalter, 2007). As Walker and Unterhalter (2007) noted, The approach thus leads us to ask questions such as: Are valued capabilities distributed fairly in and through education? Do some people get more opportunities to convert their resources into capabilities than others, and if so who, how, and why? (p. 8) Using a capabilities lens, this article articulates next steps for school social work research toward educational justice. Educational Justice Research There are ways in which social work research has been leveraged to advance justice for vulnerable students already including examination of school-based mental health and school climate across student subpopulations, such as racialized students (Rose, Lindsey, Xiao, Finigan-Carr, & Joe, 2017) or child welfare-involved youths (Benbenishty, Siegel, & Astor, 2018), and research addressing systemic issues that prevent students from academic success (for example, Hopson & Lee, 2011; Van Dorn, Bowen, & Blau, 2006). Likewise, social work researchers have developed a body of knowledge on family engagement and empowerment in schools that has shifted practice toward inclusive family engagement (for example, Anderson-Butcher, 2006a; A. Ball, 2014; Lawson & Alameda-Lawson, 2012). Others have studied school-based processes and interventions that may advance justice for vulnerable youths, such as Franklin’s and Kim’s intervention and outcome studies (Franklin, Kim, Ryan, Kelly, & Montgomery, 2012; Franklin, Kim, & Tripodi, 2009; Kim & Franklin, 2009) and examinations of interprofessional collaboration (Anderson-Butcher & Ashton, 2004; A. Ball, Anderson-Butcher, Mellin, & Green, 2010; Iachini, Anderson-Butcher, & Mellin, 2013). Educational and organizational sciences provide insight on educational inequality as well, particularly by generating knowledge about school and classroom influences on learning (Hawley & Williford, 2015), emancipatory approaches to education (Love, 2019), and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy (for example, Ladson-Billings, 2009). For example, Paris (2012) offered culturally sustaining pedagogy as a strategy to foster cultural pluralism in today’s schools. Likewise, multiple education scholars challenge deficit ideology and discourse (for example, Milner, 2013) that place the onus for change on children and families rather than on systems of oppression. Other research identifies how schools as organizations influence youth learning and development, such as the clear interplay between school climate and student outcomes (Wang & Degol, 2016). Furthermore, scholars in school social work and related fields call for attention to the ways in which student support services perpetuate inequality or render students’ cultural experiences invisible (Clauss-Ehlers, Serpell, & Weist, 2012; Stone, 2017). Few studies in social work, however, identify educational justice as a central component. Recently, Stone (2017) argued for a more emboldened examination of race in school social work research. Teasley and colleagues (2017) echoed this call, arguing that increasing success for African American students must involve addressing discipline disproportionality and evidence-based approaches to reducing exclusionary discipline. Finally, Goodkind (2013) and Goodkind, Schelbe, Joseph, Beers, and Pinsky (2013) interrogated assumptions that single-sex education benefits youths of color, noting the complex relationships between race and gender within U.S. schooling. Social work researchers are attuned to the influences of structural oppression on educational opportunities and outcomes, yet studies examining components of educational justice are disconnected from a broader social justice agenda. To date, there is no unifying framework for the field that propels social work forward in addressing educational justice, whether for research, practice, or both. Social Work Research to Advance Educational Justice Social work has the potential to be at the forefront of a movement for educational justice by drawing on the profession’s values and strengths. The profession’s multilevel influence is particularly notable and valuable for addressing educational injustice. Social workers, unlike members of other disciplines and professions, are able to address a social problem using macro, mezzo, and micro perspectives and approaches, offering a holistic approach to social change. Likewise, social work research examines social policy, organizational systems, and interpersonal relationships, and often as they interrelate. Coupled with an ecological lens and collaborative approach, social work offers a unique contribution to the educational justice movement. Lasting change will require multifaceted solutions that social workers are especially prepared to examine, design, and implement. I propose an agenda for future research grounded in previous social work research, the critical social work tradition, and the capabilities approach to conceptualizing justice. Four critical next steps for social work are described in the following subsections, with specific attention to the ways in which these lines of inquiry advance educational justice within a social work lens. Examine Schools as Organizations and Institutions Nussbaum (2011) developed a list of fundamental human capabilities that are required for a good life (for a full description of Nussbaum’s capabilities, see Nussbaum, 2011). These capabilities include the following: Life Bodily health Bodily integrity Senses, imagination, and thought Emotion (attachment) Practical reason Affiliation (belonging and connection) Other species Play Control over one’s environment For Nussbaum, these capabilities are a “political doctrine about basic entitlements” (2002). She continued, noting that failure to secure these to citizens is a particularly grave violation of basic justice, since these entitlements are held to be implicit in the very notion of human dignity, and a life that is worthy of the dignity of the human being. (p. 157) Nussbaum’s capabilities provide a roadmap for examining the ways in which schools as organizations and institutions promote healthy development within a socially just framework. Already, scholars have begun to document the complex ways in which students’ ecological context influences their learning, such as the well-identified connection between school climate and student outcomes (Wang & Degol, 2016). Phillippo and Stone (2011) also underscored the need for school social work research to consider the organizational context of schools in developing interventions and considering social work practice in schools. A critical social work approach requires that our research interrogate long-held practices and assumptions within systems that perpetuate inequality, and the capabilities approach highlights areas for attention. We must study educational inequity in schools on all levels, spanning from preschool through graduate and professional school, but also from policy-level decisions to local classroom-level interactions including close investigations of neighborhood effects on children’s schooling, similar to the recently developed Opportunity Atlas, an interactive mapping tool developed by Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, Jones, and Porter (2018; see opportunityatlas.org) that allows users to trace social mobility outcomes back to local neighborhoods. On a smaller scale, more scholarship is needed on the impact of institutional racism and bias in schools. It is clear that racism and other forms of prejudice and microaggression are potentially critical aspects of disproportionality in exclusionary discipline practices (Carter, Skiba, Arredondo, & Pollock, 2017), yet social work research that uses critical theories and intersectional approaches is needed to uncover the nature of racial, gender, disability, and linguistic biases in schools and classrooms. Collectively, these biases threaten students’ capabilities, particularly in relation to bodily health, bodily integrity, emotion, affiliation, play, and control over one’s environment (Nussbaum, 2011). Investigations of schools as organizations and institutions also includes research on teacher practices. School social work research has largely steered clear of investigating teachers’ roles in the classroom, even though teachers are key implementers of school-based social–emotional and mental health interventions (Anderson-Butcher, 2006b). There is no doubt that an educational justice movement will include teachers, whether willingly or not. Social work research should investigate the many ways that teachers interface with educational inequity, such as teacher practice related to student discipline; the prevention and identification of mental health concerns; and the promotion of positive, protective experiences for all children and youths. Educational justice research will benefit from social work’s ecological approach by exploring schools as institutions that perpetuate standardization, depersonalization, and trauma, for both staff and students. Some of this research is underway, demonstrating that teachers’ perceptions of students’ mental health needs are related to important teacher-level variables that contribute to burnout and attrition within the profession (A. Ball & Anderson-Butcher, 2014). As key players in schools, teachers should be the focus of more school social work research that considers schools as organizations that may perpetuate or ameliorate societal injustice. Expand Family Engagement Research to Include Investigations of Power and Reform Families are critical stakeholders in the education system. As such, research must understand how power and opportunity are manifested for families, especially as it relates to their engagement with schools. This recommendation is aligned with the capabilities approach, as it identifies agency as a core component of human development. Agency in itself is widely contested and often framed as an individual capability separate from the structural opportunities and limitations evident within a particular context (Bay-Cheng, 2019). Much of the scholarship on family engagement in schools conceptualizes agency and empowerment as individual traits that may be exercised freely and without constraint (for example, Goldring & Shapira, 1993; Myers & Myers, 2013). Likewise, a number of studies focus on the mechanisms of change within school–family relationships, such as examining pathways from family engagement to student outcomes, which shifts attention away from capabilities and toward outcomes. A smaller body of literature, however, investigated parent organizing and family empowerment in schools as essential components of educational justice (Gold, Simon, & Brown, 2002; Warren, 2014). These studies highlight the immense potential power that families may have to create change within their communities and their children’s schools, theorizing that critical shifts in power, social capital, and accountability are necessary for parents to gain the political power needed to shift educational systems. More research is needed to unpack family engagement in schools within the existing power structures of public education. Emerging studies in school social work examine family empowerment as a multifaceted construct that includes both individual and contextual features (for example, A. Ball, 2014), while also developing measures to aid future research. Most family empowerment literature in the social sciences, however, focuses on families receiving mental health services for their children or child welfare-involved families (for example, Casagrande & Ingersoll, 2017; Scheer & Gavazzi, 2009). Few scholars have analyzed parent involvement, family engagement, and family empowerment collectively to elucidate their conceptual similarities and differences. Notable exceptions from education scholarship include Rogers, Lubienski, Scott, and Welner’s (2015) examination of parent trigger policies as a form of family engagement and Marsh’s studies of parents’ democratic engagement in school reform processes (for example, Marsh, Strunk, Bush-Mecenas, & Huguet, 2015). Social work should fill this gap in family engagement research. Empowerment and meaningful civic participation are cornerstones of social work practice. An educational justice movement will require meaningful family engagement, and it will not be in the form of traditional parent involvement strategies designed to serve schools only. We need research to interrogate long-held assumptions about families’ intentions to engage with schools and an improved understanding of the mechanisms that allow parents to gain the necessary power and agency to create change for their children’s education. Social work researchers may lead this charge by maximizing their knowledge of interdisciplinary methods and using the unique perspectives of the profession to advance equity. Conduct Critical Research on School Choice and Privatization School choice stems from market-based models of education that emphasize deregulation and competition within education (Chubb & Moe, 1990; Lubienski, 2003). The increased political push for school choice in the past two decades has resulted in over 6,000 charter schools in 43 U.S. states (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). Proponents of school choice argue that deregulated markets not only increase competition, but also create space for autonomy and innovation, which spurs improvement and puts families in the position of the consumer (Preston, Goldring, Berends, & Cannata, 2012). Critics, however, point to the negative consequences of deregulated educational systems, including segregation and increased private sector involvement. Considerable research documents that choice is not advantageous for vulnerable children and youths, indicating that many charter schools “cream” their enrollment by selecting only high-performing students while other schools “crop” their enrollment by admitting students with the fewest academic or behavioral difficulties (Lacireno-Paquet, Holyoke, Moser, & Henig, 2002). In addition, the increasing involvement of for-profit educational management organizations in school choice calls into question the nature of private sector involvement in public education (Ertas & Roch, 2014). These concerns echo the caution evident within the capabilities approach—resources alone are not enough for a good life. Instead, we have to examine access to these resources and understand how resources may be converted into capabilities. Thus, increased options in the schooling market is not enough to create equitable opportunities. Social workers must question the role of school choice in a public, democratic educational system. As it is now, school choice in the United States is a questionable opportunity for vulnerable children. To date, social work research is largely silent on the issue of school choice, with few scholars conducting studies or weighing in on this critical development in American education. Crutchfield and Teasley (2016) identified a need for clarity on social work practice tasks in charter schools, as well as examinations of charter school social workers’ roles and responsibilities. Although it will be important to examine social work practice in charter schools, it also will be critical to address the social justice aspects of school choice. Social work research must be critical of who has access to quality charter schools, how they operate, and whom they serve, as well as both the intended and unintended consequences of market-based models of public education. Education and economic research have shed light on the limits and potentially harmful effects of school choice (Fabricant & Fine, 2012), but social work offers important contributions to the knowledge base that center students’ and families’ educational rights and bring ecological, empowerment- and capabilities-based approaches to the forefront. Doing so can ensure that school choice does not reproduce segregation and erode the largest social welfare system in the country. Center Intersectionality in All Research on Children, Families, and Schools Finally, any educational justice work going forward must center intersectionality. Intersectionality theory has developed considerably since Crenshaw (1989) and Collins (2015) first introduced the concept nearly 30 years ago. More research examines children’s experiences within an intersectional context, considering the ways in which race, ethnicity, social class, disability, and other social identity categories are mutually constructed and influence one another to create complex and distinctive individual experiences (for example, Jang, 2018). Orfield (2014) called on educational researchers to consider civil rights in a multiracial context. Intersectional research will be critical in advancing educational justice; as Sen (1993) and Nussbaum (2000, 2002) emphasized, resources are experienced differently across individuals and communities. Limiting educational and school social work research to examinations of social identity characteristics in isolation will erase aspects of individuals’ experiences that may be critical for intervention. Furthermore, introducing more intersectional research will further highlight the ways in which people are disadvantaged in public schooling, which allows for more nuanced change strategies. Social work researchers should conduct all research on schools and school-based interventions with intersectionality in mind. This is done by moving past conventional measures of demographic variables, extending lines of inquiry to include individuals’ multiple social identities, utilizing intersectional methods (for example, interaction effects or developing multidimensional measures of social identity characteristics; Codiroli McMaster & Cook, 2018), and explicitly identifying intersectionality as a theoretical and/or methodological approach. Moreover, this approach should extend beyond the individual level to consider how schools as institutions are shaped by intersectionality, made up of individuals with multiple, intersecting social identities. As demographic diversity in schools becomes increasingly complex, it is necessary for research to explore the organizational aspects of these changes and how they influence children and youths. Inequality is context specific (Crenshaw, 1989); thus, studies could examine relationships between organizational practices (such as ability tracking, variability in program offerings, or staff demographic makeup) and student-level outcomes broken down by intersectional subgroups, such as gender–race/ethnicity or race/ethnicity–socioeconomic status. One such study used survey data to investigate how school-level diversity was related to both White and Black students’ bullying experiences, finding that White students experienced significantly more bullying than other groups when they were the minority racial group in a school (Fisher et al., 2015). More studies are needed to understand the complexities of students’ experiences within diverse learning environments, at both the individual level and the institutional level. Conclusion Communities in the United States continue to struggle with poverty, unemployment, and demographic diversity—all of which come to bear on the public education system. Students’ academic outcomes have changed little since the considerable policy gains made during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the broader context for learning has remained stagnant or, in fact, devolved over time. We need a significant shift in the public education system that focuses on creating a more equitable distribution of resources and opportunities. Social workers are critical for this movement. In particular, social work researchers have much to offer given our emphasis on the ecological perspective, trauma and adversity, multilevel practice, and community-engaged research. Social work practice and research is especially well suited to lead the charge given its roots in advocacy, collaboration, and cross-systems service delivery. The research agenda set forth in this article will advance educational justice and position social workers as thought and action leaders at the intersection of public education and social justice. Annahita Ball, PhD, is associate professor, School of Social Work, University at Buffalo, 685 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14216; e-mail: annahita@buffalo.edu. References Anderson-Butcher D. ( 2006a ). Building effective family support programs and interventions. In Franklin C. , Harris M. B. , Allen-Meares P. (Eds.), The school services sourcebook: A guide for school-based professionals (pp. 251 – 274 ). New York : Oxford University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Anderson-Butcher D. ( 2006b ). The role of the educator in early identification, referral, and linkage. In Waller R. J. (Ed.), Child and adolescent mental health issues in the classroom (pp. 257 – 274 ). Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Anderson-Butcher D. , Ashton D. ( 2004 ). Innovative models of collaboration to serve children, youths, families, and communities . Children & Schools, 26 , 39 – 53 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ball A. ( 2014 ). The Parent/Guardian Empowerment in Schools scale . Families in Society, 95 , 92 – 99 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ball A. , Anderson-Butcher D. ( 2014 ). Understanding teachers’ perceptions of student support systems in relation to teachers’ stress . Children & Schools, 36 , 221 – 229 . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Ball A. , Anderson-Butcher D. , Mellin E. A. , Green J. H. ( 2010 ). A cross-walk of professional competencies involved in expanded school mental health: An exploratory study . School Mental Health, 2 , 114 – 124 . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Ball S. J. ( 2003 ). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity . Journal of Education Policy, 18 ( 2 ), 215 – 228 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Bay-Cheng L. Y. ( 2019 ). Agency is everywhere, but agency is not enough: A conceptual analysis of young women’s sexual agency . Journal of Sex Research, 56 , 462 – 474 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Benbenishty R. , Siegel A. , Astor R. A. ( 2018 ). School-related experiences of adolescents in foster care: A comparison with their high-school peers . American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 88 , 261 – 268 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Bigler R. S. , Liben L. S. ( 2007 ). Developmental intergroup theory: Explaining and reducing children’s social stereotyping and prejudice . Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16 ( 3 ), 162 – 166 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Blake J. J. , Keith V. M. , Luo W. , Le H. , Salter P. ( 2017 ). The role of colorism in explaining African American females’ suspension risk . School Psychology Quarterly, 32 , 118 – 130 . doi:10.1037/spq0000173 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Brez C. , Sheets V. ( 2017 ). Classroom benefits of recess . Learning Environments Research, 20 , 443 – 445 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Buchanan R. ( 2015 ). Teacher agency and identity in an era of accountability . Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21 , 700 – 719 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Carter P. L. , Skiba R. , Arredondo M. I. , Pollock M. ( 2017 ). You can’t fix what you don’t look at: Acknowledging race in addressing racial discipline disparities . Urban Education, 52 ( 2 ), 207 – 235 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Carver-Thomas D. , Darling-Hammond L. ( 2017 ). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it . Palo Alto, CA : Learning Policy Institute . Retrieved from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Teacher_Turnover_REPORT.pdf Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Casagrande K. A. , Ingersoll B. R. ( 2017 ). Service delivery outcomes in ASD: Role of parent education, empowerment, and professional partnerships . Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26 , 2386 – 2395 . doi:10.1007/s10826-017-0759-8 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Chetty R. , Friedman J. N. , Hendren N. , Jones M. R. , Porter S. R. ( 2018 ). The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the childhood roots of social mobility [Working paper]. Retrieved from https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/atlas_paper.pdf Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974, P.L. 93-247, 88 Stat. 4, 42 U.S.C. 5101 et seq. Chubb J. E. , Moe T. M. ( 1990 ). Politics, markets, and America’s schools. Washington, DC : Brookings Institution . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Clauss-Ehlers C. S. , Serpell Z. N. , Weist M. D. (Eds.). ( 2012 ). Introduction: Making the case for culturally responsive school mental health. In Handbook of culturally responsive school mental health: Advancing research, training, practice, and policy (pp. 3 – 15 ). New York : Springer Science & Business Media . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Codiroli McMaster N. , Cook R. ( 2018 ). The contribution of intersectionality to quantitative research into educational inequalities . Review of Education . Advance online publication. doi:10.1002/rev3.3116 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Collins P. H. ( 2015 ). Intersectionality’s definitional dilemmas . Annual Review of Sociology, 41 ( 1 ), 1 – 20 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Crenshaw K. ( 1989 ). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989, Article 8. Crenshaw K. W. , Ocen P. , Nanda J. ( 2015 ). Black girls matter: Pushed out, overpoliced, and underprotected . New York : African American Policy Forum, Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, Columbia University . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Crutchfield J. M. , Teasley M. L. ( 2016 ). Developing a knowledge base for charter school social work practice [Editorial] . Children & Schools, 38 , 133 – 135 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Egalite A. J. , Kisida B. , Winters M. A. ( 2015 ). Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement . Economics of Education Review, 45 , 44 – 52 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ertas N. , Roch C. H. ( 2014 ). Charter schools, equity, and student enrollments: The role of for-profit educational management organizations . Education and Urban Society, 46 , 548 – 579 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Fabricant M. , Fine M. ( 2012 ). Charter schools and the corporate makeover of public education: What's at stake ? New York : Teachers College Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Fisher S. , Middleton K. , Ricks E. , Malone C. , Briggs C. , Barnes J. ( 2015 ). Not just black and white: Peer victimization and the intersectionality of school diversity and race . Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44 , 1241 – 1250 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Fook J. ( 2016 ). Social work: A critical approach to practice (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Frankenberg E. , Ee J. , Ayscue J. B. , Orfield G. ( 2019 ). Harming our common future: America’s segregated future 65 years after Brown . Los Angeles : Civil Rights Project . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Franklin C. G. , Kim J. S. , Ryan T. N. , Kelly M. S. , Montgomery K. L. ( 2012 ). Teacher involvement in school mental health interventions: A systematic review . Children and Youth Services Review, 34 , 973 – 982 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Franklin C. , Kim J. S. , Tripodi S. J. ( 2009 ). A meta-analysis of published school social work practice studies: 1980-2007 . Research on Social Work Practice, 19 , 667 – 677 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Gold E. , Simon E. , Brown C. ( 2002 ). Successful community organizing for school reform . Chicago : Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Goldring E. B. , Shapira R. ( 1993 ). Choice, empowerment, and involvement: What satisfies parents? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15 , 396 – 409 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Goodkind S. ( 2013 ). Single-sex public education for low-income youth of color: A critical theoretical review . Sex Roles, 69 , 393 – 402 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Goodkind S. , Schelbe L. , Joseph A. A. , Beers D. E. , Pinsky S. L. ( 2013 ). Providing new opportunities or reinforcing old stereotypes? Perceptions and experiences of single-sex public education . Children and Youth Services Review, 35 , 1174 – 1181 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Greenberg M. T. , Brown J. L. , Abenavoli R. M. ( 2016 ). Teacher stress and health effects on teachers, students, and schools [Issue Brief]. Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved from http://prevention.psu.edu/uploads/files/rwjf430428.pdf Halpert J. ( 2018 , March 4). What if America didn’t have public schools? Imagining an entirely different educational system reveals some strengths—and flaws—of the current one. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/03/what-if-america-didnt-have-public-schools/552308/ Harbach M. J. ( 2016 ). Sexualization, sex discrimination, and public school dress codes . University of Richmond Law Review, 50 , 1039 – 1062 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Hawley P. H. , Williford A. ( 2015 ). Articulating the theory of bullying intervention programs: Views from social psychology, social work, and organizational science . Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 37 , 3 – 15 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Hernandez Jozefowicz D. M. , Allen-Meares P. , Piro-Lupinacci M. A. , Fisher R. ( 2002 ). School social work in the United States: A holistic approach. In Huxtable M. , Blyth E. (Eds.), School social work worldwide (pp. 33 – 56 ). Washington, DC : NASW Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Hopson L. M. , Lee E. ( 2011 ). Mitigating the effect of family poverty on academic and behavioral outcomes: The role of school climate in middle and high school . Children and Youth Services Review, 33 , 2221 – 2229 . doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.07.006 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Iachini A. L. , Anderson-Butcher D. , Mellin E. A. ( 2013 ). Exploring best practice teaming strategies among school-based teams: Implications for school mental health practice and research . Advances in School Mental Health Promotion, 6 ( 2 ), 139 – 154 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, P.L. 108-446, 118 Stat. 2647 (2004). Jang S. T. ( 2018 ). The implications of intersectionality on Southeast Asian female students’ educational outcomes in the United States: A critical quantitative intersectionality analysis . American Educational Research Journal, 55 , 1268 – 1306 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Janzen M. , Phelan A. M. ( 2015 ). The emotional toll of obligation and teachers’ disengagement from the profession . Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 61 , 347 – 350 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Keddie A. , Mills M. , Pendergast D. ( 2011 ). Fabricating an identity in neo‐liberal times: Performing schooling as ‘number one’ . Oxford Review of Education, 37 ( 1 ), 75 – 92 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Kim J. S. , Franklin C. ( 2009 ). Solution-focused brief therapy in schools: A review of the outcome literature . Children and Youth Services Review, 31 , 464 – 470 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Kosciw J. G. , Greytak E. A. , Zongrone A. D. , Clark C. M. , Truong N. L. ( 2018 ). The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation’s schools . New York : GLSEN . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Labaree D. F. ( 2018 ). Public schools for private gain: The declining American commitment to serving the public good . Phi Delta Kappan, 100 ( 3 ), 8 – 13 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Lacireno-Paquet N. , Holyoke T. T. , Moser M. , Henig J. R. ( 2002 ). Creaming versus cropping: Charter school enrollment practices in response to market incentives . Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 ( 2 ), 145 – 158 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ladson-Billings G. ( 1998 ). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11 ( 1 ), 7 – 24 . doi:10.1080/095183998236863 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Ladson-Billings G. ( 2009 ). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children . New York : John Wiley & Sons . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Lawson M. A. , Alameda-Lawson T. ( 2012 ). A case study of school-linked, collective parent engagement . American Educational Research Journal, 49 , 651 – 684 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Lenzi M. , Vieno A. , Sharkey J. , Mayworm A. , Scacchi L. , Pastore M. , Santinello M. ( 2014 ). How school can teach civic engagement besides civic education: The role of democratic school climate . American Journal of Community Psychology, 54 , 251 – 261 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Levinson M. ( 2015 ). Moral injury and the ethics of educational injustice . Harvard Educational Review, 85 , 203 – 228 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Losen D. , Hodson C. , Keith M. A. , Morrison K. , Belway S. ( 2015 ). Are we closing the school discipline gap ? Los Angeles : Center for Civil Rights Remedies, University of California, Los Angeles . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Love B. L. ( 2019 ). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom . Boston : Beacon Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Lubienski C. ( 2003 ). Innovation in education markets: Theory and evidence on the impact of competition and choice in charter schools . American Education Research Journal, 40 , 395 – 443 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Marsh J. A. , Strunk K. O. , Bush-Mecenas S. C. , Huguet A. ( 2015 ). Democratic engagement in district reform: The evolving role of parents in the Los Angeles Public School Choice initiative . Educational Policy, 29 ( 1 ), 51 – 84 . doi:10.1177/0895904814563204 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Milner H. ( 2013 ). Rethinking achievement gap talk in urban education . Urban Education, 48 , 3 – 8 . doi:10.1177/0042085912470417 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Morris E. W. , Perry B. L. ( 2017 ). Girls behaving badly? Race, gender, and subjective evaluation in the discipline of African American girls . Sociology of Education, 90 ( 2 ), 127 – 148 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Myers S. M. , Myers C. B. ( 2013 ). The dynamics of parental involvement in U.S. schools from 1996 to 2007 . Journal of School Public Relations, 34 ( 1 ), 74 – 105 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Nussbaum M. C. ( 2000 ). Women and human development: The capabilities approach . Cambridge, UK : Cambridge Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Nussbaum M. C. ( 2002 ). Capabilities and disabilities: Justice for mentally disabled citizens . Philosophical Topics, 30 ( 2 ), 133 – 165 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Nussbaum M. C. ( 2011 ). Creating capabilities: The human development approach . Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Orfield G. ( 2014 ). Tenth annual Brown lecture in education research: A new civil rights agenda for American education . Educational Researcher, 43 , 273 – 292 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Paris D. ( 2012 ). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice . Educational Researcher, 41 , 93 – 97 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Payne M. ( 2014 ). Modern social work theory . New York : Oxford University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Phillippo K. , Stone S. ( 2011 ). Toward a broader view: A call to integrate knowledge about schools into school social work research . Children & Schools, 33 , 71 – 81 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Pomerantz S. ( 2007 ). Cleavage in a tank top: Bodily prohibition and the discourses of school dress codes . Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 53 ( 4 ), 373 – 386 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Poteat V. P. , Espelage D. L. ( 2005 ). Exploring the relation between bullying and homophobic verbal content: The Homophobic Content Agent Target (HCAT) Scale. Violence and Victims, 20 , 513 – 528 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Preston C. , Goldring E. , Berends M. , Cannata M. ( 2012 ). School innovation in district context: Comparing traditional public schools and charter schools . Economics of Education Review, 32 , 318 – 330 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. ( 2007 ). Recess rules: Why the undervalued playtime may be America’s best investment for healthy kids and healthy schools. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealthexcellence.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/rwjf_sports4kids_recess_report.pdf Rogers J. , Lubienski C. , Scott J. , Welner K. G. ( 2015 ). Missing the target? The parent trigger as a strategy for parental engagement and school reform . Teachers College Record, 117 ( 6 ), 1 – 36 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Rose T. , Lindsey M. A. , Xiao Y. , Finigan-Carr N. M. , Joe S. ( 2017 ). Mental health and educational experiences among Black youth: A latent class analysis . Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46 , 2321 – 2340 . doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0723-3 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Scheer S. D. , Gavazzi S. M. ( 2009 ). A qualitative examination of a state-wide initiative to empower families containing children and adolescents with behavioral health care needs . Children and Youth Services Review, 31 , 370 – 377 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Sen A. ( 1993 ). Capability and well being. In Nussbaum M. , Sen A. (Eds.), The quality of life (pp. 30 – 53 ). New York : Oxford University Press . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Servoss T. J. , Finn J. D. ( 2014 ). School security: For whom and with what results? Leadership and Policy in Schools, 13 ( 1 ), 61 – 92 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Sparks S. D. , Harwin A. ( 2018 , May 16). Schools see steep drop in librarians, new analysis finds. Ed Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/05/16/schools-see-steep-drop-in-librarians-new.html Stone S. ( 2017 ). Racial equity and school social work . Psychology in Schools, 54 , 1238 – 1244 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Swearer S. M. , Turner R. K. , Givens J. E. , Pollack W. S. ( 2008 ). “ You’re so gay!”: Do different forms of bullying matter for adolescent males? School Psychology Review, 37 , 160 – 173 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Teasley M. L. , McRoy R. G. , Joyner M. , Armour M. , Gourdine R. M. , Crewe S. E. , et al. ( 2017 ). Increasing success for African American children and youth (Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative Working Paper No. 21). Cleveland : American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare . Tucker J. S. , Ewing B. E. , Espelage D. L. , Green H. D. Jr. , de la Haye K. , Pollard M. S. ( 2016 ). Longitudinal associations of homophobic name-calling victimization with psychological distress and alcohol use during adolescence . Journal of Adolescent Health, 59 , 110 – 115 . doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.03.018 Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat U.S. Department of Education. ( 2018 ). The condition of education 2017: Public charter school enrollment . Washington, DC : National Center for Education Statistics . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Van Dorn R. A. , Bowen G. L. , Blau J. R. ( 2006 ). The impact of community diversity and consolidated inequality on dropping out of high school . Family Relations, 55 ( 1 ), 105 – 118 . doi:10.1111/j.1741- 3729.2006.00360.x Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Vaught S. E. ( 2009 ). The color of money: School funding and the commodification of Black children . Urban Education, 44 , 545 – 570 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Walker M. , Unterhalter E. ( 2007 ). Amartya Sen’s capability approach and social justice in education. New York : Palgrave Macmillan . Google Scholar Google Preview OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat COPAC Wang M. T. , Degol J. L. ( 2016 ). School climate: A review of the construct, measurement, and impact on student outcomes . Educational Psychology Review, 28 , 315 – 352 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat Warren M. R. ( 2014 ). Transforming public education: The need for an educational justice movement . New England Journal of Public Policy, 26 ( 1 ), 1 – 16 . Google Scholar OpenURL Placeholder Text WorldCat © 2020 National Association of Social Workers This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)

Journal

Social Work Research – Oxford University Press

Published: Feb 23, 2021

There are no references for this article.