Making Schools Work: Negotiating Educational Meaning and Transforming the Margins

When talking about marginality and otherness, one must always ask, marginal to what? Other to whom? Complex issues of identity construction have been the focus of research on students who, whether based on race, gender, class, or ability, define themselves or are defined as being on the margins of school life. Making Schools Work examines this question in its presentation of the results of a longitudinal study of academic achievement and pre-college enrichment. Discussions focus on how students construct their identities with regard to race because of the history of problems associated with race relations in educational settings. Using case studies and observational data, the book presents findings on a group of adolescents defined as at risk - inside, but on the margins of educational institutions.