Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Paradox of Getting Ahead; Part I . Social and Historical Contexts; Chapter 1. Situating Jackson High: Last Chance High Schools and the Discourse of These Kids; Chapter 2. Being Professional: Figured Worlds and the Construction of Self; Part II. Theorizing Identity and Agency; Chapter 3. People Have the Power: Critical Consciousness and Political Identity in PARTY; Chapter 4. From Theory to Practice: Teacher Identity, Agency, and Reproduction at Jackson High; Part III. Dilemmas of Social Justice at the Last Chance High School
Chapter 5. Paradigms of Educational Justice: Contested Curricular Goals in the Social Justice ClassChapter 6. Social Justice for "These Kids"; Appendix: Last Chance Literature Review Coding Methods; Notes; References; Index
Summary
Few would deny that getting ahead is a legitimate goal of learning, but the phrase implies a cruel hierarchy: a student does not simply get ahead, but gets ahead of others. In These Kids, Kysa Nygreen turns a critical eye on this paradox. Offering the voices and viewpoints of students at a "last chance" high school in California, she tells the story of students who have, in fact, been left behind. Detailing a youth-led participatory action research project that she coordinated, Nygreen uncovers deep barriers to educational success that are embedded within educ
