Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Citizenship and National Political Identity Among Youth

这项研究调查了学校教室是否以及如何成为公民形成的空间。该项目的重点是亚利桑那州修订法令(ARS)第15-112节，它是亚利桑那州公立和特许高中取消和修改种族研究课程的基础。这项禁令侧重于特定的课程，尽管有研究表明，这些课程是学生成功的关键。围绕这些课程的争论反映了人们对美墨边境、移民以及美国文化构成的担忧。项目调查人员调查了学校教室和特定类型的学校课程塑造国家认同、公民实践和教育成果的过程。该项目侧重于教育在代表不足的群体中的作用，以促进包容性和民族认同感，由在STEM领域任职人数不足的个人指导和实施。这些数据将通过会议介绍和出版物、向与会者提交的报告以及通过大学间政治和社会研究联盟传播。种族研究课程目前在其他州也是一个类似的辩论话题，分析亚利桑那州种族研究禁令的影响可能会为其他州的决策提供参考。这项研究调查了以下问题：1)高中教室如何作为政治空间发挥作用，相关的教育结果是什么？2)这项禁令是否促进了美国白人公民的一种形式？如果是，是如何形成的？3)在这种背景下，教师和高中生可以通过什么过程形成公民主体？该项目的智力价值来自于与年轻人地理位置的新学科接触，以及学校在构建和培养公民方面作为一个系统和空间的作用。直到最近，关于未成年人的社会科学研究侧重于育儿和行为研究，而在很大程度上忽视了未成年人的政治背景。这个项目涉及青少年居住的政治空间的特殊性，以及他们如何参与公民形成的过程。调查人员将通过对政策制定者、教师、活动家和以前的学生进行深入的半结构化访谈；对法庭文件和公共记录进行叙事分析；以及直接旁听课堂、亚利桑那州众议院教育委员会会议和图森联合学区学校董事会会议来收集数据。这种定性方法的组合旨在对关于公开的信仰、政治叙事和观察到的行为的信息进行三角测量。

This study investigates whether and how school classrooms become spaces of citizenship formation. The project focuses on the Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) § 15-112, which is the basis for elimination and alteration of ethnic studies courses in Arizona public and charter high schools. The ban focuses on specific courses, despite research showing how those courses are central to student success. Debates surrounding such courses reflect concerns about the U.S.-Mexico border, migration, and what constitutes American culture. Project investigators inquire into the process by which school classrooms and specific types of school curricula shape national identity, citizenship practices, and educational outcomes. The project focuses on the role of education among underrepresented groups to foster inclusion and national identity, and is directed and conducted by individuals who are underrepresented in STEM fields. The data will be disseminated through conference presentations and publications, reports to participants and through the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Ethnic studies courses are currently a topic of similar debate in other states, and an analysis of the impacts of the ethnic studies ban in Arizona is likely to inform decisions made elsewhere.This research examines the following questions: 1) How do high school classrooms function as political spaces, and what are the associated educational outcomes? 2) Does the ban promote a form of whitened citizenship in the United States? If so, how? 3) What are the processes of citizen-subject formation available to teachers and high school students in this context? The project's intellectual merit derives from new disciplinary engagements with the geographies of young people and the role of the school as both a system and a space in constructing and producing the citizen. Until recently social science research on minors emphasized parenting and behavioral studies, and largely ignored the political context of minors. This project addresses the distinctness of political spaces inhabited by teenagers and how they are engaged in the process of citizen formation. The investigators will collect data through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with policy-makers, teachers, activists and former students; narrative analysis of court documents and public records; and direct observation of classes, Arizona House of Representatives Education Committee meetings, and Tucson Unified School District school board meetings. This combination of qualitative approaches is designed to triangulate information about professed beliefs, political narratives, and observed behavior.