Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side by

Description: Ghosts in the Schoolyard by Eve L. Ewing Tells the story of how and why the city has chosen to close a number of schools on the South Side-and how the history of racism and disadvantage that the decision rested on helped lead to widespread protest from parents, teachers, and students. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description "Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools." Thats how Eve L. Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard: describing Chicago Public Schools from the outside. The way politicians and pundits and parents of kids who attend other schools talk about them, with a mix of pity and contempt. But Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures—theyre an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings. Pitched simultaneously as a solution to a budget problem, a response to declining enrollments, and a chance to purge bad schools that were dragging down the whole system, the plan was met with a roar of protest from parents, students, and teachers. But if these schools were so bad, why did people care so much about keeping them open, to the point that some would even go on a hunger strike? Ewings answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Ewing reveals that this issue is about much more than just schools. Black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. The fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination. Author Biography Eve L. Ewing is assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. She is the author of Electric Arches, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, and many other venues. She was born in Chicago, where she still lives. Table of Contents Terms and People Introduction 1 What a School Means 2 City of Losses 3 Dueling Realities 4 Mourning Conclusion: An Open Door Acknowledgments Appendix: Methodological and Theoretical Notes Notes Bibliography Index Review "Ghosts in the Schoolyard is an engaging, critical, and accessible analysis of the Chicago Public School closings. With brilliant analysis and beautiful prose, Eve Ewing lends a window into the local and national political struggles, historical processes of marginalization and isolation, and contemporary market logics that have produced the current educational moment. Equally important, Ewing never loses track of the various ways that students, teachers, and parents have resisted the processes and discourses of school closing. This is a rare and urgent text that should be read by scholars, parents, teachers, and students alike."--Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of Americas War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond"A chilling must-read investigation of racism in Chicagos education system. . . .In addition to its poignant content and touching cast of characters, this book is technically superb. Ewings crisp prose is succinct and inviting, never lacking in energy. This book never backs down from critiquing the housing, education, and legal systems that contribute to the plight of certain communities in Chicago. . . . Eve L. Ewings Ghosts in the Schoolyard deftly details a microcosm of a larger picture where some peoples freedoms are much more complicated than others." -- "Foreword Reviews""Ewing is a Harvard-trained sociologist as well as a poet and an educator (among other things), and this comes through in her lively and accessible writing." -- "Booklist, starred review""Ewings refusal to forgo structures for people, or people for structures, is what makes this book incendiary." -- "Allegra""In Ghosts in the Schoolyard, we listen to the anguished and angry voices of parents, teachers, students, and community members who expose the currents of deceit, shaming, and racism that are embedded in the bureaucratic language and metrics that seek to rationalize the school closings on Chicagos South Side. In this heartbreaking and revelatory narrative, Eve Ewing is the disciplined observer, the generous witness, the probing analyst, and the soulful poet who hears the grieving and the grace in their institutional mourning." --Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, Harvard University"In Ghosts in the Schoolyard, Eve Ewing dramatically uncovers the deleterious effects of school closings in the Chicago inner-city community of Bronzeville. With noteworthy prose, this powerful research study illuminates the role of implicit racism, segregation, school policy, and housing policy in school closings and their subsequent impact on students, parents and teachers. Ewings revelatory analysis is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of urban communities, especially the public schools populated with students of color."--William Julius Wilson"The best book about education this year. . . . The book reads like a novel. . . . Let me add that I have waited for this book for a long time, not knowing if it would ever be written. History told from the point of view of those who were acted on, rather than the point of view of those at the top of the pyramid. Whose story will be told and who will tell it? Eve Ewing has told it. . . . I found it difficult to put down." --Diane Ravitch"Throughout the book, Ewing demands that we consider the perspectives of the students, families, and communities to whom schools belong. She insists that we sit with their pain and mourning as they fight for and sometimes lose the institutions that moored and connected them. And as she breathes life into the school, making it every bit as important a character as the people who fill it, she also expertly renders visible, tangible, and undeniable the phantasm that looms in the shadows of this story: racism. By plainly stating that Chicagos school closures have been racist and providing ample evidence of that fact, Ewing names the invisible force shaping CPS policy, and helps us--scholars, policymakers, school leaders--imagine a path forward. . . . Whether youre an education researcher, a sociologist of race and racism, a teacher, a policy analyst, or simply a member of a school community, there is something in Ghosts in the Schoolyard for you. . . . The book is also a generative text for a qualitative methods class, given the tour-de-force of analytical methods Ewing uses. . . . Perhaps most important, though, is the fact that this book is public sociology at its best--insightful, sharp, and with a clear sense of its scholarly lineage, without being inaccessible or unnecessarily abstruse." -- "Contexts""What makes this book more than an inflated explainer on racism and school closings is Ewings analytic methods, and in particular how eager she is to share them with the reader. The choices she makes, both as a writer and as a sociologist, are well considered and explained in the text. . . . Ewing is less interested in showing off the depth of her reading than in convincing us that theory is more aligned with our experiential knowledge than we might otherwise think. One of the clearest signs of her lack of egotism is how willing she is to cede analytic insight to the people in her community. . . . Ewings mission is to present critical theory and sociology in a way that makes her readers feel capable of enacting both." -- "The Nation""Within sociology, ethnographers are sometimes considered foot soldiers of the discipline. The trained ethnographer enters a community, often one that is not their own, in an effort to expand our knowledge of the social world through an in-depth study of culture. A good ethnography offers a revealing glimpse into a social system, an understanding of everyday actors and insights into how everyday actions, interactions, and events are patterned by culture and structure. A great ethnography goes beyond this by advancing theory and uncovering hidden truths about the social world. Ghosts in the Schoolyard surpasses both of these measures, elevating the ethnographic project to the status of art, even as the polymathic author may shy away from identifying with any one methodological tradition. Within the first few pages, readers are not only intellectually rooted in the events surrounding school closures on Chicagos South Side, but are fully immersed in the scenes of a strange paradoxical world where it is the year 2013 in one of the richest countries in the world, and the only way to improve a school is to close it. Writing with equal parts intellectual rigor, élan, and moral clarity, Ewing offers a forceful reexamination of the prevailing logic that governs school closings in majority black neighborhoods while also inviting the reader to consider a dueling reality, another version of events as seen from the perspectives of those most impacted by Chicagos school closures."-- "Harvard Educational Review""Ghosts in the Schoolyard by Eve L. Ewing provides a powerful examination of the debilitating effects of the discourse of school failure on Chicago public schools...Ewing explains school closures in a succinct manner, and her style of writing allows all to decipher the poignant points made in this book. Additionally, Ewings positionality as a Chicago native, and later a teacher in Chicago, is very important as it allows the reader to understand the landscape and history of Chicago from the standpoint of an insider...I highly recommend this book for all, especially for those interested in sociology, urban education, race, ethnicity, and qualitative research methods."--Mercy Agyepong "American Journal of Sociology""If only for widening the scope of the debate over public schools, Eve Ewings new book is a welcome entry to the conversation. Rejecting the impulse to see education as disconnected from American life and politics, Ghosts in the Schoolyard links the struggles of Chicago public schooling with the citys notoriously racist housing practices. Ewing peels back the seemingly anodyne messaging of reform (school choice) and its ostensibly objective standards (test scores) to reveal the insidious assumptions lying beneath. Perhaps most importantly, Ewing gives direct voice to those served by those schools often dismissed as failing. What she finds is that these schools are often among the last working institutions in neighborhoods which have been systematically stripped of everything else. Mixing history, sociology, and even memoir, Ghosts in the Schoolyard is an important addition to any conversation about the future of public schools and those they were designed to serve." --Ta-Nehisi Coates"This superbly written and researched account is at once poignant and deeply troubling, blending the personal and the academic in a way that makes the heavy subject matter accessible. Ghosts is essential reading for anyone trying to better understand the intersection of segregation and education--as well as the importance of preserving the public institutions that help shape communities."--Juan Vidal "NPR, Best Books of 2018" Review Quote "Within sociology, ethnographers are sometimes considered foot soldiers of the discipline. The trained ethnographer enters a community, often one that is not their own, in an effort to expand our knowledge of the social world through an in-depth study of culture. A good ethnography offers a revealing glimpse into a social system, an understanding of everyday actors and insights into how everyday actions, interactions, and events are patterned by culture and structure. A great ethnography goes beyond this by advancing theory and uncovering hidden truths about the social world. Ghosts in the Schoolyard surpasses both of these measures, elevating the ethnographic project to the status of art, even as the polymathic author may shy away from identifying with any one methodological tradition. Within the first few pages, readers are not only intellectually rooted in the events surrounding school closures on Chicagos South Side, but are fully immersed in the scenes of a strange paradoxical world where it is the year 2013 in one of the richest countries in the world, and the only way to improve a school is to close it. Writing with equal parts intellectual rigor, Details ISBN022652602X Author Eve L. Ewing Pages 240 Year 2018 ISBN-10 022652602X ISBN-13 9780226526027 Format Hardcover Media Book Imprint University of Chicago Press Subtitle Racism and School Closings on Chicagos South Side Country of Publication United States DEWEY 370.89097731 Short Title Ghosts in the Schoolyard Language English NZ Release Date 2018-10-22 US Release Date 2018-10-22 Publication Date 2018-10-22 UK Release Date 2018-10-22 Illustrations 4 halftones, 1 map, 5 tables Publisher The University of Chicago Press Audience General AU Release Date 2018-10-04 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:132100980;

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