SPRING 2024 NEWSLETTER EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS Society for the Study of Social Problems: In Pursuit of Social Justice In this issue Letter from the Division Chair Division Awards Social Media Manager Needed Member News and Publications Call for Papers SSSP 2024 Annual Meeting Our Division’s Sessions Friday, Aug 9 12:30-2:10 PM – Session 008: Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in K-16 2:30-4:10 PM – Session 019: Curricular Violence: White Supremacist Silencing in Education Saturday, Aug 10 2:30-4:10 PM – Session 073: PAPERS IN THE ROUND: Educators at Work Sunday, Aug 11 12:30-2:10 PM - Session 104: The Costs of Higher Ed 2:30-4:10 PM - Session 113: Immigrant Youth and Education https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/991/fuseaction/ssspsession2.onlineSessionIndex/ Letter from the Division Chair Written by Kyla Walters, PhD The Spring newsletter is a pleasure-filled endeavor. It is where we learn more about the good and hard work of our colleagues, especially the Division of Educational Problems’ award recipients. On our behalf, I extend my hearty congratulations to the 2024 winners: Sean J. Drake (Outstanding Book Award), Joyce Kim (Graduate Student Paper Award), Jessica Schachle-Gordon (Honorable Mention, Graduate Student Paper Award), and Myron T. Strong (Contribution to the Discipline Award). Well done! Learn more about each recipient from this newsletter. Having three awards is a blessing inherited from Immediate Past Chair Myron T. Strong, who rightfully founded the Outstanding Book Award and the Contribution to the Discipline Award so that our division could more robustly recognize the excellent work of our members. Having three awards also means three committees to adjudicate the honors. My sincere thanks to Derron O. Wallace, Nicole M. Kraus, and Julio Alicea for their timely and thoughtful work on our division’s 2024 award committees. If you are interested in serving on the 2025 award committees, please let me know. It is never too soon to step up for service. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend this year’s annual meeting. I hope that folks who are able to go have a tremendous time and enjoy themselves. Please attend our division’s sessions (listed on the first page of the newsletter). Before long, the 2025 meeting’s theme will be announced and I will send a call out for ideas for sessions. So keep those thinking caps on. But also take some time off, if and when you are able. Check out the sunset, the sunrise, the stars, the soil. Embrace the learning that comes from your natural surroundings, and from your personal social interactions. I hope summer is kind to you and yours. 2024 Division Awards Outstanding Book Award Winner Academic Apartheid: Race and Criminalization of Failure in an American Suburb by Sean J. Drake, Syracuse University (2022, University of California Press) In Academic Apartheid, sociologist Sean J. Drake addresses long-standing problems of educational inequality from a nuanced perspective, looking at how race and class intersect to affect modern school segregation. Drawing on more than two years of ethnographic observation and dozens of interviews at two distinct high schools in a racially diverse Southern California suburb, Drake unveils hidden institutional mechanisms that lead to the overt segregation and symbolic criminalization of Black, Latinx, and lower-income students who struggle academically. His work illuminates how institutional definitions of success contribute to school segregation, how institutional actors leverage those definitions to justify inequality, and the ways in which local immigrant groups use their ethnic resources to succeed. Academic Apartheid represents a new way forward for scholars whose work sits at the intersection of education, race and ethnicity, class, and immigration. Graduate Student Paper Award Winner “A Moral Dilemma of ‘Selling Out’: Race, Class, and Career Considerations Among Elite College Students” by Joyce Kim, University of Pennsylvania Abstract Existing research on occupational choice has emphasized cognitive processes of individualized work values and tended to focus on economic outcomes. Based on 62 in-depth interviews with Asian, Black, and White first-generation, low-income (FGLI), and middle-class students at an elite university, I argue that students’ career decisions comprise a moral dimension that varies based on the intersection of their racial and class backgrounds. Specifically, patterns broadly align with two categories: 1) limitable objections, or the varying levels of objection to certain high-prestige, high-paying careers based on inspired preferences or civic justifications, and 2) linked obligations to broader communities, such as ethnoracial groups or families. Paradoxically, some students use these evaluative logics to justify “selling out” in pursuit of these elite jobs, whereas others use these logics to reject them. While students across all racial and class backgrounds raised limitable objections, FGLI students and students of color tended to voice more linked obligations. Furthermore, Asian and Black FGLI students more often cited linked obligations in their career choices compared to their White FGLI counterparts. Considerations of these objections and obligations reflected heightened compromises based on different justifications of worth. This study contributes to understanding the cultural processes behind social inequalities. Graduate Student Paper Award Honorable Mention "'If I'm Going to be an Ally, I Have to Walk the Walk': Negotiating Occupational Activism within K-12 Educational Contexts" by Jessica Schachle-Gordon, Oklahoma State University Abstract Conservative lawmakers are increasingly passing legislation that would ban the teaching of race, gender, and sexuality within K-12 schools. Because these bills impact both teachers and students, it is important to understand how teachers perceive, and potentially resist, these bills. Building on prior conceptualizations of occupational activism, the author develops a typology to examine how some K-12 teachers may exercise their activist identities and continue to teach about race, gender, and sexuality. In interviews with 45 Oklahoma K-12 public school teachers, the author finds that teacher identity and student demographics are reasons why teachers continue to teach about these topics. Importantly, some respondents believed that teaching was synonymous with activism. This finding supports the need to expand on occupational activism to understand how workers, particularly educators, continue to exercise their activist identities in the wake of challenging social and political contexts. Contribution to the Discipline Award Winner Myron T. Strong, The Community College of Baltimore County Past Chair, Division of Educational Problems Note from the Award Committee Strong’s scholarship is creative and imaginative; his leadership in SSSP, ESS, and ASA is substantive; and his service is consequential. Not only are we grateful for Strong’s ongoing and consistent contributions to his intellectual community and the discipline of sociology, broadly speaking, but we also benefit from these contributions in numerous ways. Strong exemplifies teacher-scholarship, and inspires mentorship as a form of politically conscious action. About the Winner Myron T. Strong is an award-winning sociologist, who is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Community College of Baltimore County in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated with his PhD in sociology from the University of North Texas in 2014. His research explores Afrofuturism, race, gender and other social factors in modern comics and popular culture. Currently, Strong serves as the Pedagogy Editor for Humanity and Society. In 2019, Strong won the Eastern Sociological Society Barbara R. Walters Community College Faculty Award for his article “The Emperor Has New Clothes:? ?How Outsider Sociology Can Shift the Discipline” published in Sociological Forum. He also won the Innovation of the Year for the Community College of Baltimore County for his co-authored book Sociology in Stories: A Creative Introduction to a Fascinating Perspective, a Customized Version for The Community College of Baltimore County, which uses multiple lenses to frame the sociological stories that make up each chapter. He recently published “Changing the World: How Comics and Graphic Novels Can Shift Teaching” and “Sitting Around Grandma’s Table: Scholars Discuss the State of Education” in Humanity and Society, as well as “What the Civil Rights Legacy Means for the Future” in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. Social Media Manager Needed Step into a service role for the division by serving as the Social Media Manager for the 2024-25 academic year. This position would help enliven our division’s presence and increase our reach. Email kyla.walters@sonoma.edu for more information. Recent Books from Division Members Adriana Leela Bohm, PhD published Teaching and Confronting Racial Neoliberalism in Higher Education (2023, Routledge). This book examines the way in which professors must confront the social implications of racial neoliberalism. Drawing on autoethnographic research from the authors’ combined 100 years of teaching experience, it recognizes the need for faculty to negotiate their own experiences with race, as well as those of their students. It focuses on the experiential nature of teaching, supplementing the fields’ focus on pedagogy, and recognizes that professors must, in fact, highlight, rather than downplay, the realities of racial inequalities of the past and present. It explores the ability of instructors to make students who are not of color feel that they are not racists, as well as their ability to make students of color feel that they can present their experiences of racism as legitimate. A unique sociological analysis of the racial studies classroom, this book will be of value to researchers, scholars and faculty with interests in race and ethnicity in education; diversity studies; equity; pedagogy; and the sociology of education, teaching, and learning. More info: https://tinyurl.com/bohmbook Recent News from Division Members Bob Spires, University of Richmond, began co-editorship of The Urban Review Attend the session Bob Spires organized at the SSSP 2024 meeting @ 2:30 PM, Friday, Aug 9. Session 027: The Neoliberal Nonprofit-Trapped in a Conundrum of Care. This session offers scholars and practitioners to engage in dialogue and present work on neoliberalism and its impact on today’s nonprofit. From New Public Management, to managerialism and marketing, we intend to explore why neoliberal pressures on nonprofits have not faded despite continuous failure of late-stage capitalism. Patricia Sánchez-Connally published a chapter “Sí Puedes: Latinx Families and Higher Education” in the book Families as They Really Are (2024, WW Norton) Patricia Sánchez-Connally was featured in an exhibit “Collective Journeys: Stories of Immigration 1960 to Present” at the Framingham History Center. Patricia Sánchez-Connally organized and led a trip with ten students to El Paso as part of Border Awareness Experience during spring break. Patricia Sánchez-Connally received the Rams First Year Seminar Excellence in Teaching Award. Linda M. Waldron published in the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy Waldron, L. M., Covington, B., & Palmer, S. (2023). Critical pedagogy, counterstorytelling, and the interdisciplinary power of podcasts. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2023.2169972 Call for Papers Visit SSSP’s webpage of regularly updated calls https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/361/Call_for_Chapters,_Papers,_Proposals,_Conferences,_and_Events/ SOCIOLOGY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY PEDAGOGY SECTION CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: 10 YEAR REFLECTION AND THE FUTURE SPECIAL ISSUE Sociology of Race and Ethnicity publishes four issues a year and has a peer-reviewed pedagogy section with empirical and/or theoretical articles focused on the teaching of race and ethnicity. We are interested in advancing the teaching of race, from introductory undergraduate courses to advanced graduate courses to community-based learning spaces. All submissions should be clearly informed by the current literature on race and racisms, challenge race neutral methods of teaching, show innovative teaching methodology, and exemplify teaching effectiveness with a focus on the race/class/gender of students and instructors. This year, we are celebrating 10 years of the journal and we are curious to see how you engage forward looking conversations into your classrooms. For this special issue, we’re seeking submissions that can respond to the following: • Do you explore possibilities for the future in your classroom? Then we’d love to hear about it. • This can include activities and ideas that engage with The World We Want to See, Abolition Geographies, science fiction, content including Afro-futurism, power research and campaigns, etc. • As always, we are typically looking for information focused on race courses such as those on Black Sociology, the sociology of African and African American, Indigenous, Asian and Asian American, Latine and Latin American communities Submissions should follow the ASA Style Guide in terms of formatting and citations and should aim for approximately 3500 words in length, including references and notes. In cases where an author(s) may have a much shorter or longer manuscript that fits the goals of the SRE pedagogy section, email the pedagogy editor prior to submission (felicia.arriaga@baruch.cuny.edu). Please submit an abstract directly to Felicia Arriaga at felicia.arriaga@baruch.cuny.edu with the subject line “10 Year Reflection Special Issue” by July 15th, 2024. You will be notified by August 1st of our decisions, and we expect a full draft by September 1st, 2024 with the final submission deadline of October 1st, 2024.