Critiquing the corporeal curriculum: body pedagogies in 'no excuses' charter schools

• Published in: Journal of youth studies Vol. 23; no. 10; pp. 1330 - 1346
• Main Author: Stahl, Garth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 25.11.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 'no excuses' (NE) charter schools; Body pedagogies; Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002); Charter schools; Curricula; Disadvantaged; Discourse analysis; Habitus; Low income areas; Low income groups; Militarism; neoliberalism; Schools; Socialization; Surveillance; the corporeal curriculum; United States > US
• ISSN: 1367-6261; 1469-9680
• DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2019.1671582

Descriptions of charter schools as militaristic 'boot camps' continue to animate popular discourses. Recently, the upper echelons of the charter school sector, commonly known as Charter School Management Organizations (CMOs), have come under intense scrutiny for their controversial 'no excuses' disciplinary practices. These socialization practices are regarded as investments whereby students are expected to become both adept test takers and 'good', 'disciplined' aspirational citizens. As most 'no excuses' (NE) charter schools operate within segregated, low-income urban communities in the U.S., it can be argued that these schools function as vehicles for behavioral scrutiny and bodily surveillance shaping the lives and subjectivities of economically disadvantaged students of color. A curriculum focused on body control raises significant ethical questions regarding the educative practices for low-income children of color in the United States' divided society. Drawing on discourse analysis, this paper focuses on bodily control portrayed in key texts (handbooks, videos, etc) used by some charter schools before drawing on Bourdieu's tool of habitus to show how a codified corporeal curriculum may work in CMOs, where bodily control is deemed a prerequisite for academic excellence.