Using critical discourse analysis to operationalize discursive violence in school closure education reform policy

Abstract

This study presents the use of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as both a theory and methodology that operationalizes Discursive Violence (DV). Gleaning from 19,000 pages of discovery of a 2013–2014 court case, Smith et al., v. Henderson et al., this study explores the intersection of discursiveness and school reform policy; positing that permanent school closures are an example of violence against African-American students because of the discursive practices that steer these closures. In this study, Smith et al., v. Henderson et al. as a milieu to illustrate how CDA and DV can be employed methodologically. This study asks how discursive practices that steer school closures present as discursive violence and how can discursive violence be used to understand school closures in a predominately African-American and urban school district? Analysis shows how discursive practices deployed during the proposed closure of 20 Washington, D.C. public schools legitimized and normalized discursive violence against African-American students.