A powerful discursive formation claims 'bad parenting' amongst the poor predisposes their children to educational underachievement. A small number of children in poverty succeeding within early education potentially undermines this construction of 'parent blame'. This requires an explanation which perpetuates the dominant discourse about…

An intersectional approach to human development emphasizes the multiple social categories individuals occupy, some of which confer privilege (e.g., being White) and some of which confer marginalization (e.g., being poor). This approach is needed especially in critical consciousness scholarship, and particularly in regard to understanding whether…

This paper argues that race and class inequalities cannot be fully understood in isolation: their intersectional quality is explored through an analysis of how the White working class were portrayed in popular and political discourse during late 2008 (the timing is highly significant). While global capitalism reeled on the edge of financial…

Although teen pregnancy and birth rates in the United States declined for ten straight years during the 1990s and were less than half of comparative figures from 1957, the year of the all-time high of teen pregnancy, nearly one in ten teenage young women still became pregnant in 2001, with half of these young women giving birth. Teen pregnancy…

The divergent views of poor and working-class African-American and White men regarding the causes of their current condition are presented. Different "biographies of race" encourage African-American men to blame the economy and racism but White men to blame Black males for the economic plight of White men. The ways in which the two…

Focusing on young adult working class and poor African American women and white women, who currently live in a largely inhospitable economy, this paper examines where these women lodge social critique (where they place the cause and imagine the remedy for their troubles). Data from indepth interviews indicate that respondents see the world with a…

This collection of papers examines the crisis in public education, focusing on poor and minority children. There are seven chapters in two parts. After "Introduction: Silenced Voices and Extraordinary Conversations" (Michelle Fine and Lois Weis), Part 1, "Scenes of Silencing," includes: (1) "Silencing and Nurturing Voice…