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How Student Activism Around the Pcvs School Closure Influenced Youths’ Life Experiences, Views on Power, Political Engagement, and Personal Agency

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How Student Activism Around the Pcvs School Closure Influenced Youths’ Life Experiences, Views on Power, Political Engagement, and Personal Agency RESISTANCE REVISITED: HOW STUDENT ACTIVISM AROUND THE PCVS SCHOOL CLOSURE INFLUENCED YOUTHS’ LIFE EXPERIENCES, VIEWS ON POWER, POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT, AND PERSONAL AGENCY A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright by Ferne Cristall 2018 Master of Education in Educational Studies Graduate Program, 2018 May 2018 Abstract Resistance Revisited: How Student Activism around the PCVS School Closure Influenced Youths’ Life Experiences, Views on Power, Political Engagement, and Personal Agency Ferne Cristall This study examines how student activism around the closure of Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School (PCVS), an inner-city school in a medium–sized Ontario town has influenced youths’ life experiences, views on power, political engagement, and personal agency. Following a critical narrative methodology, this qualitative study, conducted four to five years after the school closure, focuses on interviews with fourteen participants who were part of the high-school group Raiders in Action and explores both what they learned from their protest and its influence on their lives over the ensuing years. The study identifies the researcher’s subjective position as a teacher and an adult in solidarity with the group’s work. Critical pedagogy, critical youth studies, and feminist approaches inform the researcher’s perspective. This project is inspired by an image of young people as citizens who actively challenge and change educational institutions to create a more participatory democracy in our city, country, continent, planet. Keywords: student activism, school closure, youth organizing, critical pedagogy, critical youth resistance, neoliberalism, power, youth agency. ii Acknowledgements When I decided to go back to school on the eve of my retirement, I was immensely lucky – serendipity followed me from start to finish. First, Robert Clarke, my life and love partner of 36 years, was also a PCVS grad, is a professional book editor, and remains a deep admirer of the Raiders in Action student group for their radical and reasoned passion. He has lived this journey, and supported me each and every step; he is my heartrock. When I met my supervisor Luigi Iannacci (Lu), I was directionless. Little did I know that his heart was as big as his brain. He wandered willingly into the tangled routes and roots of my untamed ideas, holding up theoretical lights and helping me find a critical narrative road forward. For his deep commitment to democratic hope and youth resistance, his unwavering and generous support, his brilliance and humour in the midst of the swamp – I can’t thank him enough. My sincere thanks to all of my other professors, too – Nicole Bell, Blair Niblett, Karleen Pendleton Jiménez, and William Smale – for their stimulating courses that led to this project. I am especially grateful to Blair Niblett and Karleen Pendleton Jiménez for being on my thesis committee, and appreciative of their careful analytic responses to my work and for their emotional care for the Raiders in Action participants. Their supportive suggestions both broadened and narrowed my thinking path, helping me over theoretical and ethical hills. And speaking of helping me over the bumps, I thank Alison Peek, the administrative wonder-woman of the M.Ed. Program, as well as Dana Capell and Andrea Maxie of the Trent Academic Skills Centre, who helped me wrangle my thesis document into a presentable format. I appreciate the financial support of the Trent Masters of iii Education program, which awarded me grants for conference travel and some of the thesis expenses. I want to sincerely thank the Chair of my thesis defence committee, Dean Cathy Bruce, for her full-hearted support throughout the intense day. Immeasurable thanks also to Professor Kathryn Hibbert of the University of Western Ontario not only for her willingness to be the external examiner on my thesis, but also for her thoughtful and stimulating guidance, and deep valuing of the Raiders’ stories. Thanks also go to the people I met in my classes. Our conversations took me to new places, showed me new viewpoints, and was so often fun. And especially to Nansi Harris, Natalie Gillis, and Kaviq Kaluraq – for friendship, ideas, and tea-drinking talks. My parents, Boom and Ellie Cristall, both died near the turn of the century, but they started me off in “red diapers” and stirred my desire for a socially just world. I am so fortunate to be their daughter. And so it is too with my children, Gabrielle Clarke (and Peter Barbour), and Jonah Cristall-Clarke (and Alexander Gates), whose artistic visions, wise critical minds, fierce humanity, and deep love, goodness, and support (with everything from technological matters to understanding trauma and matters of the heart) teach me the way forward every day. I must also shout thanks to my niece, Katrina Cristall, who shared invaluable pieces of thesis-writing advice, helped me with her technological know-how, and is simply a joy. My cousin Gary Cristall offered humorous and sage advice as I attempted to wrestle my unwieldy work into a containable presentation during the early stages. I spent most of my teaching career at PCVS and I want to recognize the inspiring people in that spectacular learning space; this thesis would not exist otherwise. Thanks to iv Cam Douglas, Cecily Ugray, David Roberts, and Karen Christie for suggesting names of and ways to contact some of the Raiders in Action. Thanks also to Jeff Macklin for sending me the invaluable document, The Closure of PCVS: The Community Response – Jan. 2100 – Feb. 2103, and to Ray Dart and Jonah Cristall-Clarke for the recording equipment. Scott Walling offered me his insider’s photographic record of the Raiders in Action activities, and Alexandra Bilz also gave me photographs. I thank them both. Many friends have been there for me all along the way: thanks to Deborah Barndt, Stephanie Benn, Su Ditta, Barbara Emanuel, Krista English, Marlene Kadar, Arlene Moscovitch, and Joy Simmonds. My mentor and friend dian marino, who died many years ago, remains an inspiration always. This paper would not exist if not for the tenacity, generosity, intelligence, and creativity of the fourteen youth participants from the Raiders in Action group – who, as students, persistently resisted the closure of their beloved school. As Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame said, “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic.” I thank them all for sharing the magic of their stories of resistance with me. v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction—Back to the Beginning: Why this Story? ................................... 1 Researcher’s Role ........................................................................................................... 6 Purpose and Significance ................................................................................................ 8 Defining Terms ............................................................................................................. 10 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Frameworks ............................................. 14 School Closures and Neoliberal Reform ...................................................................... 14 Perceptions of Pupils—Language Lessons: From Deficit Stereotypes to Dignity ....... 30 Youth Organizing, Student Voice, and Resistance: The Personal, the Political .......... 33 Theoretical Frameworks: Critical Pedagogy and Critical Youth Studies ..................... 40 Critical Pedagogy .......................................................................................................... 40 Critical Youth Studies ................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 3: Methodology and Methods, My Role, Sources, and Ethics ............................ 44 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 44 Methodology: Dialogic Listening, Blurred Ways of Knowing and More .................... 47 Site Selection ................................................................................................................ 49 Participants .................................................................................................................... 51 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 53 vi Methods ........................................................................................................................ 56 Data Sources/Data Collection ....................................................................................... 58 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 60 Ethics ...........................................................................................................................
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