College of Education Book Event - Dividing Classes: How the Middle Class Negotiates & Rationalizes School Advantage

When: Friday, April 25, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: University Book Store - View Map
Cost: Free
Contact: Mairead Reinhard, mrein@u.washington.edu, 206-543-1035
More information:
http://education.washington.edu

A special event at the UW Book Store where Ellen Brantlinger will discuss her book, Dividing Classes: How the Middle Class Negotiates & Rationalizes School Advantage. Open to the general public, the event will begin with a wine and cheese reception at 6:30 p.m.

A “take-no-prisoners ethnography” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Ellen Brantlinger’s Dividing Classes: How the Middle Class Negotiates and Rationalizes School Advantage combines observation and interviews in an analysis of the way that social class structure affects educational success.

Dividing Classes challenges the notion that our school system is progressive or that it is based on equality. Brantlinger, a professor of education and Curriculum Studies Doctoral Program Coordinator at Indian University, builds her research on 31 candid interviews with administrators, principals, teachers, and parents in a small Midwest town.

“Many students and colleagues are uncomfortable with my slant that advocating for your children may not be a very democratic or a fair thing to do,” explains Brantlinger. “When you criticize the middle class’ perspective, many people get defensive. But that is a great discussion starter, talking about how schools are shaped by class dominance.”

The College of Education has housed many of these discussions, since Dividing Classes was selected as a College of Education “common book” by faculty president Philip Bell. “Common books” are a selection of titles that are read by the College of Education community, built into coursework, and anchored into the broader community dialogue through focused events.

“Dividing Classes provided for very rich conversations of issues that I know deeply concern many of us in the College around issues of race, social class, and educational equity,” Philip Bell asserts.