Highlights from ASA 2013 in New York City

The URBAN Sociology node facilitated a highly successful series of events at the 2013 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting held this August in New York City. We used the conference to build our network and to promote discussion and ongoing collaboration around research connected to pressing social justice concerns.  This post provides highlights from URBAN Sociology’s organizational and planning meetings, two educational workshops, and a series of roundtables co-hosted with the Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology.

URBAN Sociology Organizational Meeting

Thirty people attended our organizational meeting. We considered this an excellent turnout given that multiple conference receptions were held at the same time.  Mark Warren and Jose Calderon reported on the progress of building URBAN nationally and within ASA. We had serious and spirited conversation about the value of engaged scholarship and its role in sociology and the academy.

We talked about various ways that URBAN Sociology could advance this kind of scholarship as it builds itself. We reaffirmed our purpose as building a network and a space to advance this kind of research and advocate for its value in the academy. A number of participants signed up to volunteer for various activities and to join the planning team. Specific activities are discussed in the Planning Team meeting highlights below.

URBAN Sociology Planning Team Meeting

The URBAN Sociology planning team decided to pursue several lines of action related to use of social media, engagement of graduate students, URBAN Sociology’s relationship with ASA, publication of community-based research, and potential events at the 2014 ASA conference.  The planning team is working on the following next steps:

• Establish a social media subcommittee
• Establish a graduate student subcommittee to organize and serve the needs of graduate students
• Engage ASA more formally in a discussion of URBAN’s role within the association
• Establish a publications committee to pursue avenues to promote the publication of community-based research
• Plan a series of events for ASA in 2014.  Possibilities include a tour, a session co-sponsored with the Section on Community and Urban Sociology, roundtables with the Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology, and a workshop for graduate students, among other ideas

If you are interested in volunteering to serve on one of these committees, please let us know!  Contact Mark Warren (mark.warren@umb.edu) and Jose Calderon (jose_calderon@pitzer.edu).

Education Workshops

On Monday, August 12^th, URBAN was a co-sponsor of an interactive session, “Media and Politics in the School Reform Movement” that brought together teachers, school administrators, and leaders of parent and community groups.  The workshop discussed contemporary school reform trends as a contest between what some progressives have labeled “the corporate school movement” and “a counter-movement” that attempts to build a broad coalition of teachers, parents, and community groups concerned with improving the quality of K-12 education and overcoming social inequalities.

In the first half of the workshop, the participants focused on the questions:  “If you had the best school in the world, what would learning look like?” and “What would teachers and students need to make this happen?’  Some of the common responses included:

• Schools need to be inclusive
• The training of teachers and staff needs to include a framework that develops a connections of collaboration between schools, parents, and local government entities
• School issues, problems, and policies need to take into consideration the larger picture of concerns that affect education including the quality of environment, health, housing, and economic development
• The larger picture needs to include the need for resources that allow for smaller classrooms, collaborative teaching, and time for teachers to interact with parents and their communities.

In the second part of the workshop, in response to the question of “What would teachers and students need to make this happen?”  Some of the responses included:

• Need for alternatives to the dominant models of choice and accountability that promote segregation
• Investment in pre-school programs
• Need for research on “no-child left behind” initiatives and publicizing its effects on students
• the need for strategies to influence the media, politicians, and larger public on positive models that that have used diverse methodologies in teaching diverse students with diverse strengths.  In particular, the need to research and publicize models that have run contrary to the “teach to the test” trend and have been effective in advancing critical thinking, multiculturalism, and multi-lingual skills.

At the end of the workshop, various “listeners,” including Cassie Schwerner of the Schott Foundation for Public Education and Alan Gartner of the NYC Public Schools, echoed the outcomes of the workshops by summarizing that there was an overall need to bring “joy” back to the meaning of education for children.  They proposed that, in the last thirty years, there has been a tendency in our educational system to promote the “achievement gap” as part of methods of testing and assessment that tend to blame teachers and students for the outcomes – rather than focusing on the “opportunity gap” approach that places primary importance on the overall quality of life of a child.  The “listeners” proposed the need for a movement of educators, parents, students, and researchers to build a new leadership of political power that takes into consideration the impact of poverty and structural racism on educational achievement and that advances a broad range of transformative proposals for equitable public school reform.

Roundtable Sessions

URBAN organized four one-hour roundtable sessions in cooperation with the Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology.   The roundtables were intended to “explore potential collaborations and ongoing work both among those attending and the larger URBAN network.”

The first round-table, led by Susan Ambler of Maryville College on “Community Based Research (CBR) as a Teaching Tool” was well attended with close to a dozen participants.   They discussed the kinds of relationships one has with community organizations in order to offer a CBR assignment and the kinds of issues or problems that have emerged in collaborating with organizations.

Daina Cheyenne Harvey of College of the Holy Cross held a discussion that focused on the work of public sociologists on environmental activism and environmental issues facing cities. Participants addressed different avenues to highlight the relationship between intersectionality, disaster recovery, and grassroots activism. The relationship between public sociology and urban-environmental issues was also discussed. Participants ended the discussion by agreeing to organize a session for the Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology on disasters and activism.

John Diamond of Harvard University held a session about educational inequality in U.S. schools.  Discussants explored potential collaborations designed to create more just and equitable educational opportunities and outcomes. Such efforts may include (but are not limited to) partnerships between universities and urban school systems, collaborations across institutions (e.g. university, government, non-profit organizations), and connections that build community-based leadership for educational change.

Finally, Thomas Pineros Shields of Brandeis University held a discussion among core researchers who have engaged in a participatory action research project called “The 14^th Amendment Project” which included interviews by undocumented immigrant young adults about themes and practical logistics of conducting research with undocumented immigrant student political activists.

Image by American Sociological Association