(Un)Doing Hegemony in Education: Disrupting School-to-Prison Pipelines for Black Males

Abstract

The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the disturbing national trend in which children are funneled out of public schools and into juvenile and criminal justice systems. The purpose of this article is to theorize how this pipeline fulfills societal commitments to black male over-incarceration. First, the author reviews the troublesome perceptions of black boys and men in educational settings throughout the educational pipeline. Next, the ways in which black American boys are scripted out of childhood humanity are discussed, drawing upon tenets of discipline and punishment theory. Second, drawing from additional theories of power, the article re-interprets school discipline and achievement data in the educational pipeline as tools of containment that support school-to-prison pipelines for black males. The third section synthesizes the literature on black male behavioral responses in disempowering educational settings. The article closes with discussion and implications for schools and society.