Welcome to Issues in Urban Education at Long Island University- Brooklyn! Our class blog is intended to share our ideas about teaching in an urban context. In our first blog we will address the work of Leonardo and Hunter (2007) and their conceptual framework regarding how Urban spaces are imagined. For me their work is important to the preparation of new teachers as it focuses on the many unexamined assumptions we have about urban spaces and the people who inhabit them. It provides teachers with the language to articulate how they have experienced and come to understand urban spaces. More so it directs teachers to consider the importance of social context in shaping the conditions of school. My goal is for prospective teachers to create a professional teaching identity which reflects an understanding of the historical roots of the urban context in order to shape a teacher -student relationship characterized by imagining new possibilities in the structure of social relations within our society. My use of the term imagining the possibilities is taken from the scholar/historian Robin D.G. Kelly's work Freedom Dreams.
My students' posts are in response to their reading Leonardo and Hunter (2007). Here is a quote from the text.
Urban as a Blessing and Burden
Excerpt from Leonardo and Hunter (2007)
...the urban is
socially and discursively constructed as a place, which is part of the
dialectical creation of the urban as both a real and imagined space.
The urban is real insofar as it is demarcated by zones, neighborhoods,
and policies. However, it is imagined to the extent that it is replete
with meaning, much of which contains contradictions as to exactly what
the urban signifies.
Leonardo and Hunter (2007) provide 3 categories to help us understand urban as both place and space.
1. Urban as Sophisticated Space
2. Authentic Place of Identity
3. Disorganized Jungle
How have you experienced the urban space? What were (are) the implications
of the way the urban space is conceived as both place and imagined to your
educational experiences?
Natasha Mathis
ReplyDeleteTAL 801
Urban Space Blog
To be completely honest, when I heard the word “urban” I barely thought of sophistication was associated with it. Referring to the article, urban is particularly known as “the ghetto”, in which I am more familiar with. The ghetto is referred to a specific housing offered by the government to low income families. However, as I read and seen, experiencing such type of urban space in today’s society has had a bad representation. Even though I may not have lived in particular urban areas, there is a large part of negativity surrounding it. “Urban may signify the hallmark of civilization and [it’s advancement], or a burden and [a] problem of progress” (Leonard/Hunter, 2007, p. 779), but in this country ghetto is improperly used to describe a person. Throughout my K-12 educational experience, students would make fun of others that lived in the projects (also known as the ghetto) or more specifically is a student that has a bowl full of macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs for lunch, was considered ghetto. Therefore, such aspects follow under urban as proof of “real” identity and a jungle.
Authenticity and the Jungle go hand in hand in my experiences. The ghetto as a jungle consisted a mixture of minorities like Blacks and Latinos, but because of their image “in the form of media consumption, of watching television shows and music videos about them, and listening to rap or hip-hip songs” (Leonard/Hunter, 2007, p. 786), a world of institutions like the workplace and education system tried not to associate themselves to those type of people as much as possible. Regardless how educated they are because of the image depicted of the urban as a jungle consisting of gangs, violence, and unwed mothers with a train full of children, “many Americans believe[d] that spending money on urban school is a waste” (Leonard/Hunter, 2007, p. 789). Many people are so colorblind to the issue at hand that it evidently affects the children. They aren't aware of the loving environment children are surrounded by and the support they receive from local organizations.
I was able to build relationships with students that did live in such urban spaces. Somehow, I did gained some type of credibility with these students in which in result I didn’t get involved in physical encounters with them because I did not live in the ghetto. Ironically, as I went to high school in Manhattan with contained more students from middle and upper class families, students viewed me as intimidating and not to be messed with because I came from Brooklyn. Unless, I initiated conversation in no way would they speak to me. Brooklyn was seen as “the hood”, and not to mess with anyone from there. For some time and still today, “the urban [is not seen as] a place for the White enjoyment of arts, music, and dining” (Leonard/Hunter, 2007, p. 783). I think no matter the reconstruction, the urban would just be seen as a place made for the Black and poor.
I agree with Natasha, when I also heard the word urban I assume it meant people who live in the "ghetto". I referred the word ghetto as where the low income people live. Urban can be interpret both negative and positive. There are many people that lived in the urban than became very successful. As Natasha stated, when people heard she was from "Brooklyn" they assume she was from the "ghetto". I had similar encounters, for example; when people ask where do I live and I tell them they assume I was from the "hood" because of where I live. I learned people would always stereotype you if you live in a certain area.
DeleteIt's so funny how certain behaviors/activities become racialized in certain contexts. Like, is there honestly anything more American than a bowl of out-of-the-box macaroni and cheese and cut-up hot dogs for lunch? White kids across the country eat it and it's not associated with their identity. But if you happen to be from the projects, it is associated with being "ghetto." Or when it comes to dress and appearance when combined with ethnic identity, there are so many assumptions, many negative, connected to these associations. This stereotyping is ingrained in us from early socialization in schools and it becomes the only attribute that people see. Like you said, they just see people from the ghetto with all of the stereotypes that come along with being from the ghetto, not people from loving homes who are involved in all kinds of activities. There is not only one story of what it means to grow up in the ghetto, there are multiple stories and they are complex and layered. But, as teachers, we need to constantly resist the media and social standards that reinforce these stereotypes, cause young people to internalize them, and perpetuate racism and segregation.
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ReplyDeleteI was born, raised and studies in urban space that is considered a space of contradictions, luxuriousness and poverty, good-quality services and bad ones, priority and secondary ...etc. Even though this urban city was in Saudi Arabia which is greatly different from urban cities in the United States, but it has some traits of United states' major cities. There are 5 major urban cities that are populated by million people and over. These cities share a lot of characteristics and differ from suburban areas . I lived in Jeddah city and what distinguishes this city most and make it sharing some of characteristics of United states' urban cities is the wide diversity of races since it has been the gate or the main passage of holy city of Mecca since more than fourteen hundred years. A lot of pilgrims who come from around the world prefer to stay in or around the holy city.
ReplyDeleteJeddah is unintentionally divided into parts where rich people have their own neighborhoods that have better infrastructure, more care and regular maintenance and poor people (generally from other races and nationalities) who have their own neighborhoods that suffer a lot of problems. The Saudi government doesn't segregate deliberately. Thus, this gap between the Saudi Citizens and legal and illegal immigrants was formed slowly by the relocating of wealthy Saudi families to newer neighborhoods leaving their older neighborhoods to the other races to live and thrive. The economic factor is the main reason of this division in the city, it's not racially segregated. Because Saudi Arabia is a developing country, the priority is normally to the upper-class neighborhoods in almost everything but this doesn't mean a neglect of the poorer areas.
In schools, I used to study in a governmental school that offer free fees study. I used study with people from Africa like Nigeria; Chad; and Egypt, and people from Asian countries like Pakistan, India and other Arab countries. We were equal and the administration treated every student perfectly regardless of their poorness and their social class. I found it a very precious experience to have friends from different backgrounds. And what I like most is the equality of teaching to everybody. Of course it is different to study in a private school where the quality of learning most of the time is better, but it's not because any discriminatory reason as it's because financial matters. Also private schools do not discriminate since we Muslims believe that everybody is equal regardless of the race. When I attended university in United states, I found it very interesting to see how different students from different races interact freely and treated equally and this has fascinated me because of the huge difference between the past and current time in America. As long as all social classes observe the urban as melting pot between cultures, the life in all its aspect will be beautiful and more productive.
I lived in the urban are for a long time, going back to when I was in my country. The Urban area of Haiti is Port-au-Prince. The space in that urban area i grew up in was a slum. It would be considered a ghetto in the U.S. due to its overpopulation. New York city is not that different in terms of population. The difference is in its developed infrastructure. Urban life here is very different because there are a lot of cultures that clash. You get to meet many different people from different cultures which gives you a little taste of the world. My first visit to Times Square was amazing. The area is booming with activity, people, skyscrapers, you can almost touch the affluence. On the other hand, when you look at Harlem the area is degraded, broken down buildings and poor people. it made me feel like it is not the same area when Times Square is rather it looks like an extension of the Bronx. The history of Harlem is the beauty of Harlem now a days. Urban life is segregated but it seems as if because both sides meaning the rich and the poor have access to all parts no one seems to question or work to change that segregation.
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DeletePrince Timothee, I can clearly indentify with your experiences as an urban dweller and as an immigrant from the Caribbean. Your comparison to Harlem and Times Square bears striking resemblence to the Capital city of my country where within that small space two often conflicting cultures are forced to co exist. It's like you are getting a taste of both worlds. In the midst of the city, the urban has the definition of overpopulation, poverty, crime, makeshift plywood houses, limited amenites and infrastructure. Across the street urban takes up another face. Thats the one of affluence, booming business, education and the like. Thus, I agree of your notion of segregation in the urban space and the seemingly equity in he distribution of the essentials. But prevailing superior thinking by those of affluence will always draw a divide between themselves and those who are different socially.This kind of mentality has always been an irritant to me and the rhetorical question stands,"How can people who live within five minutes away from each other live such a different lives in the same small space?"
DeleteSvetlana Kezerashvili
ReplyDeleteTAL801
Imagining the Urban
Blog Post 1
Zeus Leonardo and Margaret Hunter have posted an intriguing parallel defining meaning of Urban as a place and space. At two opposing spectrums however, urban means sophistication, richness, and attraction perceived as space where the latest trends are represented. One the opposite spectrum is an idea of less attractive, “negatively” represented place, associated with poverty, and daily struggles.
I have experienced Urban Space in an imaginative world in a form of makeup products such as Urban Decay Makeup, clothes, and street cool, stylish environment. I have to be honest, Urban has typically been associated with “positive” in my experience. As I entered Education Program at College of Staten Island, I was introduced to urban in a sense of poor schools for multiethnic, Hispanic and African American students, unavailability of resources, unqualified teachers or struggling teachers, underfunding, and submerged in poverty districts. There is a doubled criterion when it comes to the meaning of urban place and urban space. Recently, some of the Brooklyn regions are intensely becoming urban space with fashionable stores, brick-walled cafes, and bookstores.
In my educational experience, urban space was my High School in Brooklyn; our school was densely occupied by immigrant students, I did not particularly feel poverty. I had only positive feelings about that overcrowded space since I found myself among people who shared not only my language but culture as well. As it comes to my home country, Russia, urban space was shared between similar backgrounds and economic positions; urban was a place and space where everyone wanted to be since it represented progress and development.
Natasha Mathis
DeleteTAL 801
Urban Space Blog: Reply to Svetlana Kezerashvili
Svetlana makes a good interpretation of the meaning of urban as a place and space in a positive and negative aspect. Even though urban space is seen in primarily 3 categories: Sophisticated, Authentic, and Jungle, they either have good or bad connotations in today’s society. I never thought to think of urban space as a sophisticated space in which there’s “forms of makeup products”, as Svetlana stated, to play this imaginative role and embrace the stylish and sophisticated environment that was really made for whites and not the minority community. In my opinion, that is not realistic and hard to believe at times because regardless of the financial situation, I think more people can relate to the negative connotation of the daily struggle and poverty within an urban space seen as proof of identity and disorganized jungle. Educational experiences as high school for me and Svetlana helped the exposure to such urban spaces easy and difficult at the same time. Easy because you have people in your same situation trying to progress through the assistance of the government and hard because you need to prove to others that you’re real and been through the trials and tribulations like them and you’re smart but don’t get the time and day. Your urban space can help to develop you into a better person, but it takes the time to see such “progress and development”, as Svetlana stated.
The idea of being able to buy urban makeup and street wear goes back to the exoticizing and commercializing of the Other to market it to whites (and sell it back to blacks and latinos) that Kelley talked about, which is not a new phenomenon. The idea of urban as something you can possess and communicate through fashion/style is interesting. It is the marketing of the idea of an "authentic" urban to those who are on the outside of it (and also those who are on the inside).
DeleteThe urban jungle was only a few blocks away on Flatbush Ave. When I would venture to Macys, Sears or Loehmans on Flatbush Ave, this to me was a true urban space and my hood though diverse was an imposter. Funny, today my area in Cortelyou Road –Ditmas Park is completely gentrified, there are more real estate agencies, condos, restored Victorian houses, Food Coops and Health food stores, daycares, restaurants and bars, block parties, farmers market, Yoga studios and flea markets-Things that only some can afford. When I think of the Urban Sophisticate I never saw it as white and exclusive instead associated it to the arts, and bohemian. Urban life was equated with culture and Art was color-blind and beautiful and should be available and appreciated by all. I would love to go to areas such Brooklyn Heights and just walk around all the brownstones imaging the people living there and enamored with the idea of being a glamorous urban sophisticate. It was goal to live there, having a mini suburbia with access to the best of what city has to offer.
ReplyDeleteMy high school was mainly Italian, very few people of color. The faces of Howard Beach, Yusuf Hawkins, Abner Luweema, AL Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Tawana Brawley, David Dinkins, were my frame of reference. Policy brutality was the constant. The riots in LA during my senior were perceived by most of my peers in school as not racial but the social norm and “blacks folk are not seeing what they think they see with their own eyes” (Leonard and Hunter) resonates as what most felt. Most my peers had the sentiment that Yusuf Hawkins got killed because he provoked those nice Italian boys by bringing his Italian girlfriend to an Italian neighborhood and had it coming. Watching the news as kid there was disinterest to black on black youth crime or even doubt to some extent but more on personal safety from urban violence. Not too many interactions with Blacks in my daily life, essentially seen as one-dimensional. We all experimenting with urban fashion, clothing, language and of course music was ok with “Luxury of being urban without the burden and losing privilege unlike Blacks. I was completely ignorant (my parents) of real movements in urban communities organizations, grassroots movement, for any attempts at improvement life. Images I received by society was that Poor black kids are hopeless, wild and uneducable and do not have much to offer society. Judgments and opinions were constantly spewed that “Blacks” are in their position in life for the life choices they made. The “underclass culture” of laziness, victimhood, lack of responsibility, family values etc.” and generally the deviancy of their culture is what got them here.---poverty etc. This was the discourse during my high school years about the urban jungle.
Yes we as a people all project or internalize race and what being urban means. We may attribute all the good that urban space has to offer to only white or white qualities and deem it sophisticated or all the bad as crime, violence, drugs, poverty to mostly Black ghetto. Obviously, this puts people in division mode from the start. Since the urban is not “ a shared venture between white and people of color, between the rich and the poor”. Given the views of my time (and today), how educators view the urban student was either from a place of decline and only in rare cases from a place of possibility. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion, but not their own facts. And fact of the matter is it has reached epidemic proportion. This we vs. them attitude is our societal problem that holds consequences with potential to damage to youth self-concepts, future goals and plans, relations with peers, creates divisions with other races, academic achievement, self-efficacy. Biases, attitudes and stereotypes are reinforced. Both Blacks and whites interlize what they see around them and subconsciously or consciously communicated to student that White is right, a imparts the overall message of why even bother to try to them, you are hopeless just like the urban jungle you came from.
Abdullah Althomali
ReplyDeleteTAL801
Urban space
After reading Imagining The Urban : The Politics of Race , Class , and Schooling
( Leonardo and Hunter 2007 ) my view changed for the urban space . I became able to
analyze my life in school and neighborhood in the small town where I was living with
a lot of people from all colors and races. Also, after coming to study in USA , I realize
similarities and differences to my old community in Saudi Arabia in education and
daily life . I think the problem of racism in USA is more related to " skin color " ,
while in my country the problem of racism is more related to the huge gap between
rich people and poor people and the difference among their lives .
In the field of education , I have lived and studied with students from different
nationalities and different color and races such as , Egypt , Syria, Yemen , and also
from African counties like Sudan and Nigeria . The nice thing that the Saudi
government did not differentiate in the treatment of Saudis and non-Saudis in the
education , so it was free including books . However , there were a lot of differences
in the school environment and entertainment factors that available for students
between schools in rich neighborhoods and schools in poor neighborhoods .For
example , my middle school did not contain a soccer field although it was the first
game favored by students in the class of sport. As a result , students were spending
this class in running and boring gymnastics games. On the other hand , some schools
in rich neighborhoods include more than two or three soccer practice field!! .
These differences between rich and poor people extended to the standard of living,
security , and infrastructure in neighborhoods . In the poor neighborhoods you can see
old buildings , poor organization in the parking , negligence in cleaning streets ,
frequent thefts , and lack of security presence . Unlike in rich neighborhoods, streets
are nice and clean , crimes are few , police cars frequently present , and a lot of
available parking .
I grew up during the 60s and 70s in Brooklyn, NY. I had the chance to witness about urban space during my childhood. During the 70’s there was a lot of different types of action happening in my part of town which was on the board line of Bed-Stuy, Brownville, and Crown height neighborhoods. The word “ghetto” had originated from the Jews to my understanding it was how they live in an area call slumlords. Although where I grew up at was call the “ghetto “a since of a community because one look out for each other. Despite of the violence and busyness in my “ghetto” or “urban space” it fostered a family environment because everyone looked out for the next person. We did not allow any one to come into our community and do what they pleased.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I realized that the neighborhood I grew up in should not be labeled as the”ghetto” or “hood. My neighborhood was like any neighborhood because there was a sense of community and trust among everyone. You should not just look at the person and judge them because the color of one skin or where they live at. My neighborhood did not define me as a Black woman, but it enhanced my sense of the black family, heritage, and culture within urban space.
I had started my educational journey in my neighborhood school from kindergarten through fifth grade. My mother did not feel that I was able to survive within the neighborhood junior high school because it was rough. She transferred me to a junior high school within a predominantly white neighborhood in Brooklyn. Therefore, I was able to experience two different types of neighborhoods within the urban spaces of NYC. When I reflected on those educational experiences, I think it truly shaped my values and beliefs on how the education system is divided into privileged and underprivileged. Students who lived in a privileged neighborhood are taught to a masterly level therefore it allows them to attend Ivy League colleges. On the other hand, the underprivileged students are socially promoted therefore they may attend the community college.
After reading your posting (to Jennifer). I believe that you are very aware of the problems associated with the neighborhoods in general and the one you lived particularly and how it affected the educational process in general and your education specifically because you have been experiencing this case since the 60s. The urban space you lived in looks like a typical example of what i'v been reading in my curriculum. you see your urban space as a community full of love and care and you don't prefer to call it a "ghetto" because it's just a name given from other people who may be different in social class or race.
DeleteYou have studied in two different schools in two different urban spaces and that has given you a powerful and precious experience. You stated that "I think it truly shaped my values and beliefs on how the education system is divided into privileged and underprivileged. Students who lived in a privileged neighborhood are taught to a masterly level therefore it allows them to attend Ivy League colleges. On the other hand, the underprivileged students are socially promoted therefore they may attend the community college". You lived the problem of (segregation or division) between the two kinds of schools 1- the schools in "ghetto", 2- the schools in socially or racially privileged urban space. This realization must be a huge motivation to you as a teacher to fix that problem if found in your school. I enjoy your participations in class since you provide examples from long time ago and current examples and that's very beneficial to me
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ReplyDeleteDepending on context, “urban” can take on multiple and contradictory meanings. These meanings usually function in opposition to something else. For example, as discussed in class, “urban” is often code for ghetto or poor, black and brown people in opposition to “suburban” describing middle-class and wealthy whites. Geographically, it describes a densely populated space in opposition to “rural”. Culturally, it represents the cutting edge in opposition to the mainstream and it also represents hip-hop and black and brown street culture. It is fast paced, social and isolated, loud, beautiful and ugly, historic and contemporary, industrial and modern. Urban spaces are gridded and divided, but also places of intersection and interaction. They are layered and complex dynamic spaces where visible and invisible elements of the urban are in constant flux. The complexity of urban space in terms of considerations of the influence of power, history, geography, infrastructure, culture, diversity, capitalism, language.... etc, makes it extremely difficult to discuss urban inhabitants generally in a way that is not reductive.
ReplyDeleteLeonardo and Hunter expand on some of the different meanings of the urban in “Imagining the Urban” (2007), focusing on three aspects of what signifies urban: Urban as Sophisticated Space, Authentic Place of Identity and Disorganized Jungle (p. 779). Speaking to different interpretations of urban based on individual race, class, gender and other perspectives, Leonardo and Hunter examine how power relations shape different definitions of urban.
The imagined urban space is the result of the power relations and multiple perspectives that shape the city. Even the physical experience of the “real,” as in the material, bricks and mortar city is imagined in that in any part of the city, there is an awareness of the existence of other parts that are not visible in that space. These hidden parts of the city are revealed through intersection and interaction with people moving from or to those spaces. Every experience of the “real” aspects of the city are shaped by the individual’s perspective and different from another’s experience. Even when you are standing still, the city is alive and shifting around you and your experience and perspective is unique in that moment.
As inhabitants of the city, we carry the reductive and stagnant analyses of urban dweller typologies with us. In urban classrooms, expectations of students are shaped by assumptions made by skin color, gender, economic status, culture, language. Even the students’ expectations of each other and their educators are shaped by these power relations. As teachers, we must constantly fight against the tendency to fill in the blanks about people based on reductive assumptions about them. All of the complexities of the urban are reflected in the people who inhabit urban spaces and only through getting to know each individual can we transcend the reductions and stereotypes that will allow us to shift power dynamics and allow for real (not imagined) equity in education.
Z. Leonardo and M. Hunter. 2007. “Imagining the Urban.” W.T. Pink and G.W. Noblit (Eds.). International handbook of Urban Education. 779 - 802. Springer.
The term "Urban" can be described as a community of mixed culture and races with rapid transportation and high rised buildings. To people who may live in an urban setting, they may desrcibe it a ghetto or under represented areas. To describe a suburban will be just the opposite, even in education. The geographic jurisdictions of urban areas show constant changes in jerrymandering and zoning. These changes have a negative and psoitive reaction to academics, lifestyle and social class. Urban jurisdictions are divided by money and power which all forms a category called class. This is also represented in urban school districts. Therefore, the term urban is self-defined by one's own experience and imagination or one's reality or illusion.
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