Preventing Violence in Schools: A Challenge To American Democracy

by Burstyn, Joan N.; Bender, Geoff; Casella, Ronnie; Gordon, Howard W.

• ISBN13: 9780805837346
• ISBN10: 0805837345
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

School violence is a burning issue these days. This book provides an in-depth analysis of violence prevention programs and an assessment of their effectiveness, using data from observations, individual interviews, and focus groups, as well as published data from the schools. It is distinguished by its focus on the cultural and structural context of school violence and violence prevention efforts. Where most other researchers use quantitative measures, such as surveys, to assess the effectiveness of violence prevention programs, the authors of this book use qualitative research and ethnography to study the environment where such programs take place. Thus, this work--one of only a few ethnographic studies of violence prevention programs in schools--links previous quantitative research on the topic and critical ethnography. Preventing Violence in Schools: A Challenge to American Democracy: *includes voices of school students, accused of practicing violence, who have been participants in violence prevention programs; *analyzes a citywide peer mediation program (who benefits and who does not, who is mediated and who mediates, and what the implications of these findings may be); *examines the kinds of violence recognized in schools and the ways schools themselves may perpetuate violence; and *describes a violence prevention program for students at an alternative school. Preventing Violence in Schools: A Challenge to American Democracy is highly relevant for students in courses on urban education, foundations of education, education and social policy, youth and the law, and qualitative research, and for teachers, administrators, and other professionals, such as school psychologists and guidance counselors, at the middle and high school levels.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Violence and Its Prevention: A Challenge for Schools	1	(14)
Joan N. Burstyn
Part One: The Social Context of Violence in Schools
What Is Violent About ``School Violence''? The Nature of Violence in a City High School	15	(32)
Ronnie Casella
The Importance of Ethnography in Understanding Violence in Schools	47	(14)
Kimberly M. Williams
Resisting Dominance? The Study of a Marginalized Masculinity and Its Construction Within High School Walls	61	(18)
Geoff Bender
Someone Is Screaming	79	(16)
Short story
Howard W. Gordon
Followed by Joan N. Burstyn's account of an interview with the author
``Frontin' It'': Schooling, Violence, and Relationships in the 'Hood	95	(14)
Kimberly M. Williams
Interrupting ``Good'' Girlness: Sexuality, Education, and the Prevention of Violence Against Women	109	(30)
Kristen V. Luschen
Part Two: Appraising Strategies to Counter School Violence
Involving the Whole School in Violence Prevention	139	(20)
Joan N. Burstyn
Rebecca Stevens
The Cultural Foundations of Peer Mediation: Beyond a Behaviorist Model of Urban School Conflict	159	(22)
Ronnie Casella
Peer Mediation: An Examination of a School District's Training Program for Educators	181	(18)
Rebecca Stevens
What Derails Peer Mediation?	199	(10)
Kimberly M. Williams
Reaching Troubled Teens Through a Literacy Tutoring Project	209	(16)
Domingo P. Guerra
Joan N. Burstyn
The Challenge for Schools: To Prevent Violence While Nurturing Democracy	225	(10)
Joan N. Burstyn
Authors	235	(2)
Author Index	237	(4)
Subject Index	241