Who Is the One Being Disrespectful? Understanding and Deconstructing the Criminalization of Elementary School Boys of Color

Abstract

This research aims to contribute to understanding what criminalization for boys of color looks like in urban elementary school settings and to offering insights into what we must do to disrupt criminalization in urban schools. Using multiple sources of data from four elementary schools across a 2-year period, we found that boys of color in the study were subjected to criminalization as part of their daily educational experiences. Their bodies and behaviors were hyper-policed, disparately punished, and routinely labeled with criminalizing terms. Furthermore, we found masternarratives framing boys of color as disrespectful and habitually truant to be ambiguous and empirically false.

Keywords

discipline policies subjects Hispanic students urban education African American students Black males racism social incarceration teacher beliefs scale construction elementary school programs race identity

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