Prudence Carter of Stanford University will speak on “The Paradox of Opportunity: Race, Class, Culture, and Boundaries in South African and U.S. Schools” on Tuesday, February 2 at 12:30 p.m. in Thompson 620. The talk is part of the Center for Public Policy and Administration’s Mellon?funded Grants Workshop Speaker Series and is co?sponsored by the Department of Sociology at UMass.
Carter is Associate Professor in the School of Education and (by courtesy) the Department of Sociology at Stanford University. She also co?directs the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) and is the award?winning author of Keepin’ It Real: School Success beyond Black and White.
Drawing on four years of ethnographic, interview, and survey research in schools across the United States and South Africa, Carter will discuss the contradictions inherent in desegregation policies that focus primarily on spatial proximity and shared academic resources without regard for sociocultural practices and ideological structures within schools. The implications of her findings are important not only for policymakers in the U.S., but also for school leaders in South Africa who are currently drawing on over four decades of American experience with racial desegregation to redress educational and social disenfranchisement in their country.
While at UMass, Carter will also mentor Assistant Professor of Sociology Melissa Wooten, who is developing a grant proposal for support of her research on school referrals of children to after?school academic and cultural programs.
All CPPA talks are free and open to the public. Brownbag lunches are welcome.