Cultural Curriculum and Marginalized Youth: An Analysis of Conflict at a School for Juvenile Parolees

Abstract

In this article I analyze marginalized juvenile parolees' schooling experiences at an alternative community school in a large southwestern city. My analysis is based on a year of field research at the school. The analysis draws heavily from the critical pedagogy literature and focuses on how the school's cultural curriculum (rules, assignments, and discourses) conflicted with students' locally based identities. I illustrate how the conflict between the school's cultural curriculum and students' locally based identities hindered the learning process at the school and helped create student resistance against the school. The analysis reveals that the youths, who strongly valued their locally based identities, often resisted and rejected the school's attempted transmission of dominant cultural identities (e.g., nongang member) and capital (e.g., formal school knowledge). Teachers' generally sincere attempts to help students' transition to a better life played a significant role in students' school failure.