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Progressive Discipline, Regressive Education: The Systematic Exclusion of Black Youth In and Through Expulsion Programmes

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Politics of Anti-Racism Education: In Search of Strategies for Transformative Learning

Part of the book series: Explorations of Educational Purpose ((EXEP,volume 27))

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Abstract

This chapter elucidates some of the central issues surrounding the academic exclusion of Black youth in Canada. Extensive research exists on school exclusion rates and their effects on the racialized minority student population in the US and the UK. Canada, however, refuses to compile statistics upon which such race-focused research can be based and by which claims of institutional racism may be supported. This chapter draws upon the theories of Foucault and Bourdieu to discuss how power functions in the structure of expulsion programs, and argues that these programs are both the results and sites of oppressive practices of the educational system in Canada. It also engages social constructionist discourses as it explores the manner in which Black students and their behaviours are constituted and thereby limited. It offers reflections on my positioning within my intersectional analysis, as a Black female researcher, and the specific challenges that my intersecting identities pose. Framing the issues with a situational analysis and using first-hand experience as a Social Worker within the school system, I expose the differential management of Black and white students and make a case for the exigency of anti-racism education in Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Camisha Sibblis

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  1. Camisha Sibblis
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Correspondence to Camisha Sibblis .

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  1. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    George J. Sefa Dei  & Mairi McDermott  & 

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Sibblis, C. (2014). Progressive Discipline, Regressive Education: The Systematic Exclusion of Black Youth In and Through Expulsion Programmes. In: Dei, G.J.S., McDermott, M. (eds) Politics of Anti-Racism Education: In Search of Strategies for Transformative Learning. Explorations of Educational Purpose, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7627-2_4

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