EUGEO Nora Nafaa

8/20/2019 EUGEO Nora Nafaa

1/14

EUGEO Budapest 2015 – 2.08.2015

Session 56: Uneven geographies of education and learning in changingEurope

Nora Nafaa – Université de Perpignan Via Domitia

M. A. of Geography, PhD candidate


2/14

» Research framework: Master’s dissertation and exploratory methodology:

3 months fieldwork in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

12 Semi-conducted interviews with various actors

32 Surveys Observation

Analyze of documents

» United States: inefficient public services, education as a national issue

» Timeline & turning points:˃ 1960’s: Desegregation laws

˃ 1980’s: Beginning of education reforms

˃ 2001: No Child Left Behind Act (neoliberalization)

˃ 2007: Economic & financial crisis (of the school districts) 2


3/14

What is the role of education, and schools as places, in the

production of the city in a country where education is at the core

of families residential and social strategies?

» Part 1: Urban education shaping metropolitan America

» Part 2: School and the city, when education designs the urban

dynamics

3


4/14

» Geography of education and the desegregation era:

encouraging the white f l ight

41964 1990’s


5/14

» The school market metaphor and the schools left behind

˃ Accountability (ex: Pennsylvania School System Assessment)

˃ Withdrawal of the state in the management of the schools˃ Diverse Provider Model (Educational Management Organizations: Edison Schools, Inc., Victory

Schools and Chancellor Beacon Academy)

˃ Public school choice

5


6/14

6

School Closures


7/14

7


8/14

8

West Philadelphia, a diluted ghetto facing the neoliberal urbanism

• African-American population in the United States: 12,6%

• African-American population in Philadelphia: 43,4%


9/14

9

2013

2000

Median Family Income per Census Tract


10/14

10

School at the core of the neighborhood dynamics, the case of

Penn Alexander School

• Partnership in 1998

• Begins 2001-2002 school year

• 19% : Upenn staff and students

• 1330 $ per student per year

Penn Alexander School, Nora Nafaa (May 2013)


11/14

11

Penn Alexander School PSSA Results


12/14

12

An overwhelmed school catchment area

Applicants lining up in front of Penn Alexander

School, Nora Nafaa (March 2013)

Real Estate panel, Nora Nafaa

(May 2013)


13/14

» Geography of education in the USA has participated in

designing the cities

» Education is a market, schools are options and parents are

consumers

» Attractivity of the school reflects the dynamics of the urban

territories but also participates in its building

13


14/14

14

Nora Nafaa, PhD Candidate – Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, France

Email: [email protected]

Selective bibli ography

Basu, R., (2010). « Geographies of education », in. Warf, B. (ed.), Encyclopedia of geography, Thousands Oaks, Sage

Publications, p. 875-877.Billingham, C., (2015). « Parental choice, neighborhood schools, and the market metaphor in urban education

reform », Urban Studies, vol. 52, n°4, p. 685-701.

Boger, J. C. & Orfield, G. (eds.), 2005. School resegregation: Must the South turn back?, Chapel Hill, University of North

Carolina Press, 380 p.

Bulkley, K E.; Henig J. R. & Levin H. (Ed.), (2010), Between Public and Private: Politics, Governance, and the New

Portfolio for Urban School Reform, Cambridge, Editions Harvard University Press, 127-164

Cohen D. K. & Moffitt S. L., (2009), The ordeal of equality, did federal regulation fix the schools? , Cambridge, Londres,Editions Harvard University Press, 317 p.

Harvey D., (2005), A brief history of neoliberalism, Oxford, New York, Editions Oxford University Press, 247 p.

Kozol, J., (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America, New York, Three rivers press,

425 p.

Lauria, M. ; Mirón, L. F., (2005). Urban schools: The new social spaces of resistance, New York, Washington, Peter Lang,

195 p.

Lipman P., (2011), The New Political Economy of Urban Education Neoliberalism, Race and the Right to the city, New York,

Routledge, 205 p.

Spring J., (2008), The American School, From the Puritans to the No Child Left Behind , Boston, Burr Ridge, Dubuque,

Editions McGraw-Hill, 494 p.

EUGEO Nora Nafaa

Documents

Transcript of EUGEO Nora Nafaa