Namesake Schools: Vulnerable Places and Cultural Narratives of the South

Vonzell Agosto, Charles Kyobe, Donna Elam

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Geographic place and socio-political space are salient in struggles for justice in education. Social geography provides a
frame for discussing the relationship between names of schools and narratives of race, place, and justice (racial and spatial) in the US South. Featured herein is an illustrative case of how a school named after an African American man is implicated in the construction and preservation of cultural memory through its namesake status and the curriculum. In the literature, commemoration policies are often ignored as little points of support that codify the processes of deliberation and decision-making that guide how school buildings are named. Commemoration policies from two school districts are juxtaposed to show the varying levels of attention each gives to diversity and culture. The notion of curriculum leadership advanced is characterized by socio-political consciousness about how racial justice is linked to spatial justice and how both are mediated by practices, policies, and politics around the naming of places. This discussion has implications for other sites of cultural memory whose futures are increasingly governed by market demands, such as commodification and commemoration, rather than the legacies of humanitarians.
Original languageAmerican English
JournalJournal of Curriculum and Pedagogy
Volume14
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Curriculum
  • leadership
  • curriculum policy
  • South
  • culture
  • place
  • rural
  • place names

Disciplines

  • Education
  • Educational Leadership
  • Educational Sociology
  • Place and Environment
  • Politics and Social Change
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Rural Sociology

Cite this