In efforts to transform schools, federal- and state-driven agendas often disregard students as vi... more In efforts to transform schools, federal- and state-driven agendas often disregard students as viable producers of meaningful educational space. Some scholars have centered the experiences, actions, and voices of students in transforming their unequal education, establishing that youth play an important role in the educational decisions that shape their lives. Other scholars have focused their research on the organized ways in which students create direct impact on educational and school change, such as through civic engagement, participatory action research programs, and organizing. Similar to the aims studied by these scholars, youths’ everyday interaction with space and place may also reflect their agentive capabilities.
This study is about how four Latina student leaders at one small school in Los Angeles created and maintained spaces of social membership, meaning, and belonging. Through an ethnographic approach, I set out to answer the following research questions: How do Latina student leaders at one urban high school in Los Angeles create place? In what ways is their place-making informed by their culture, identity, community context, or history? To what extent does their place-making shape school space?
Major findings from my work indicate that students’ community context plays a role in the way they understand their actions within their meaningful school spaces. Democratic practices are created and enacted as students claim school spaces, though these spaces are more about membership, meaning, and belonging than political means and ends. Nevertheless, through the spaces they are involved in at school, Latina student leaders learn about themselves, what they can do as a collective, how to be role models, and how to gain affirmations from their interactions with other Latinas.
My research offers insights into the ways students shape school spaces and places in order to represent themselves and their communities. At both theoretical and practical levels, I provide recommendations that call on educational scholars, leaders, and educators to be attentive to issues of space and place as ways to build upon notions of democratic practices and visions occurring within schools.
Public schools failing to meet accountability standards have been shut down, taken over by charte... more Public schools failing to meet accountability standards have been shut down, taken over by charter organizations, or undergone reconstitution. This article challenges deficit views of students as passive and complacent in a schooling context dictated by accountability sanctions. Drawing from counterpublic theory, it describes a case study that illustrates the emergence of a student counterpublic at an urban high school under the threat of reconstitution. Interviews with four former students who were at the center of this emergence demonstrate how they and their peers acted within a realm of non-deliberative power and created their own spaces for deliberation and collective action. The results offer an example of how students can be partners in shaping reform through democratic action rather than simply being objects of reform.
The CENTER XCHANGE is a repository of documents produced by and about UCLA students, alumni, and ... more The CENTER XCHANGE is a repository of documents produced by and about UCLA students, alumni, and faculty on the work of transforming public schools. The CENTER XCHANGE is managed by an editorial board that meets monthly to review submission and develop new content. Access to these resources vary with copyright selection, however Center X strives to provide open and free access whenever possible.
In efforts to transform schools, federal- and state-driven agendas often disregard students as vi... more In efforts to transform schools, federal- and state-driven agendas often disregard students as viable producers of meaningful educational space. Some scholars have centered the experiences, actions, and voices of students in transforming their unequal education, establishing that youth play an important role in the educational decisions that shape their lives. Other scholars have focused their research on the organized ways in which students create direct impact on educational and school change, such as through civic engagement, participatory action research programs, and organizing. Similar to the aims studied by these scholars, youths’ everyday interaction with space and place may also reflect their agentive capabilities.
This study is about how four Latina student leaders at one small school in Los Angeles created and maintained spaces of social membership, meaning, and belonging. Through an ethnographic approach, I set out to answer the following research questions: How do Latina student leaders at one urban high school in Los Angeles create place? In what ways is their place-making informed by their culture, identity, community context, or history? To what extent does their place-making shape school space?
Major findings from my work indicate that students’ community context plays a role in the way they understand their actions within their meaningful school spaces. Democratic practices are created and enacted as students claim school spaces, though these spaces are more about membership, meaning, and belonging than political means and ends. Nevertheless, through the spaces they are involved in at school, Latina student leaders learn about themselves, what they can do as a collective, how to be role models, and how to gain affirmations from their interactions with other Latinas.
My research offers insights into the ways students shape school spaces and places in order to represent themselves and their communities. At both theoretical and practical levels, I provide recommendations that call on educational scholars, leaders, and educators to be attentive to issues of space and place as ways to build upon notions of democratic practices and visions occurring within schools.
Public schools failing to meet accountability standards have been shut down, taken over by charte... more Public schools failing to meet accountability standards have been shut down, taken over by charter organizations, or undergone reconstitution. This article challenges deficit views of students as passive and complacent in a schooling context dictated by accountability sanctions. Drawing from counterpublic theory, it describes a case study that illustrates the emergence of a student counterpublic at an urban high school under the threat of reconstitution. Interviews with four former students who were at the center of this emergence demonstrate how they and their peers acted within a realm of non-deliberative power and created their own spaces for deliberation and collective action. The results offer an example of how students can be partners in shaping reform through democratic action rather than simply being objects of reform.
The CENTER XCHANGE is a repository of documents produced by and about UCLA students, alumni, and ... more The CENTER XCHANGE is a repository of documents produced by and about UCLA students, alumni, and faculty on the work of transforming public schools. The CENTER XCHANGE is managed by an editorial board that meets monthly to review submission and develop new content. Access to these resources vary with copyright selection, however Center X strives to provide open and free access whenever possible.
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Papers by Claudia Diera
This study is about how four Latina student leaders at one small school in Los Angeles created and maintained spaces of social membership, meaning, and belonging. Through an ethnographic approach, I set out to answer the following research questions: How do Latina student leaders at one urban high school in Los Angeles create place? In what ways is their place-making informed by their culture, identity, community context, or history? To what extent does their place-making shape school space?
Major findings from my work indicate that students’ community context plays a role in the way they understand their actions within their meaningful school spaces. Democratic practices are created and enacted as students claim school spaces, though these spaces are more about membership, meaning, and belonging than political means and ends. Nevertheless, through the spaces they are involved in at school, Latina student leaders learn about themselves, what they can do as a collective, how to be role models, and how to gain affirmations from their interactions with other Latinas.
My research offers insights into the ways students shape school spaces and places in order to represent themselves and their communities. At both theoretical and practical levels, I provide recommendations that call on educational scholars, leaders, and educators to be attentive to issues of space and place as ways to build upon notions of democratic practices and visions occurring within schools.
This study is about how four Latina student leaders at one small school in Los Angeles created and maintained spaces of social membership, meaning, and belonging. Through an ethnographic approach, I set out to answer the following research questions: How do Latina student leaders at one urban high school in Los Angeles create place? In what ways is their place-making informed by their culture, identity, community context, or history? To what extent does their place-making shape school space?
Major findings from my work indicate that students’ community context plays a role in the way they understand their actions within their meaningful school spaces. Democratic practices are created and enacted as students claim school spaces, though these spaces are more about membership, meaning, and belonging than political means and ends. Nevertheless, through the spaces they are involved in at school, Latina student leaders learn about themselves, what they can do as a collective, how to be role models, and how to gain affirmations from their interactions with other Latinas.
My research offers insights into the ways students shape school spaces and places in order to represent themselves and their communities. At both theoretical and practical levels, I provide recommendations that call on educational scholars, leaders, and educators to be attentive to issues of space and place as ways to build upon notions of democratic practices and visions occurring within schools.