The carceral imagination limits not only our beings and bodies, but also, the many fixes proposed.
Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday LifeResearch summary (based on publisher synopsis): Edited by Ruha Benjamin, this collection examines how technologies associated with incarceration and policing extend into everyday institutions,...View source →
What is the anti-racist classroom?
We met at one of the wealthiest universities in the country, Jessica while working on her Ph.D., and Sophie while working on her J.D. We became friends, colleagues, and co-conspirators through bonding over navigating a university structurally and culturally invested in white supremacy, yet one that performs a commitment to the “liberal” California norms of multiculturalism and diversity. The university only double-downed on this rhetoric in the wake of the uprisings against police murders of Black people in 2020. Yet, we saw no action taken towards lessening the normalized violence created by a white supremacist carceral state. As youth educators, we began to discuss how we’d like to see educational spaces responding to this moment.
While a movement toward anti-racism has expanded in many educational areas, we follow scholars such as Bettina Love and Dena Simmons to argue that educational spaces can’t just be anti-racist; they must be abolitionist. In Are Prisons Obsolete? Are Prisons Obsolete?Research summary (based on publisher description): Angela Davis argues for prison abolition and decarceration within a broader transformation of society. She places this proposal alongside earlier...View source → Angela Davis writes that racism is “so deeply entrenched in the institution of the prison that it is not possible to eliminate one without eliminating the other.” (p. 26) As individuals invested in educating youth in the hopes of creating a more just world, we believe that our classrooms must be abolitionist to be anti-racist.
What is the carceral classroom?
Our work has led us to understand that classrooms, as they currently function, are carceral spaces. Hackett & Turk define “carceral” as “an institution, a system, or a body of knowledge that renders people as objects and exercises control over and through them” (p. 24). Shifting Carceral Landscapes: Decarceration and the Reconfiguration of White SupremacyAbolition: A Journal of Insurgent PoliticsResearch summary (based on the primary publisher or institutional source): This critical essay examines how racialized social control can persist beyond prisons as institutions adopt alternatives to...View source → This means that classrooms are designed to treat students as objects and exercise control over them. Carcerality appears in all four of the Is of oppression (internalized, interpersonal, institutional, ideological), but as the classroom reproduces it, we see it most in its institutionalization through schools and universities and its ideological reproduction work, as it trains students to accept the little to no agency and autonomy they’re given in the classroom. Carcerality is co-constituted by white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, cisheteropatriarchy, and other systems that reproduce domination. All of these systems create hierarchies of human to less-than-human, with those at the top learning how to exercise control over those at the bottom.
What is abolition?
Abolition is a pathway to the liberation of everyone within these hierarchies, a pathway to agency and autonomy, and a pathway to a world where we are all full humans. We follow Stefano Harney and Fred Moten’s definition of the object of abolition as “not so much the abolition of prisons but the abolition of a society that could have prisons, that could have slavery, that could have the wage, and therefore not abolition as the elimination of anything but abolition as the founding of a new society” (p. 42). The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black StudyResearch summary (based on publisher synopsis preserved in library catalog): Stefano Harney and Fred Moten develop a collection of essays rooted in the Black radical tradition and concerned with...View source → In the below guide, we offer some questions about recognizing carcerality in your classroom and ways to resist and begin creating that new society in the here and now. Ruha Benjamin has written that “the carceral imagination limits not only our beings and bodies, but also, the many fixes proposed.” Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday LifeResearch summary (based on publisher synopsis): Edited by Ruha Benjamin, this collection examines how technologies associated with incarceration and policing extend into everyday institutions,...View source → We hope that together we can broaden our imagination, so our educational fixes can become limitless.
How do we see carcerality in schools?
Historically
In today’s classrooms, students regularly see and experience the limits carcerality imposes on imagination. For communities of color, in particular, U.S. schools have historically been spaces of oppression expressed through many forms, including forced assimilation and cultural genocide, US Residential SchoolsResearch summary (based on source article): The Indigenous Foundation provides an overview of Native American boarding schools in the United States and their role in forced assimilation. It describes...View source → militarization, The Military Views Poor Kids as Fodder for its Forever WarsNew RepublicResearch summary (based on source article): This New Republic essay critiques military recruitment among young people facing limited economic opportunities. It begins with the author's experience of...View source → youth criminalization, Setting Values: Establishing a Foundation for Restorative & Developmental JusticeView source → and limits imposed on critical and creative thought. Efforts to Ban Critical Race Theory Now Restrict Teaching for a Third of America’s KidsEducation WeekResearch summary (based on source article): Education Week reports a UCLA study of campaigns and policies opposing teaching about race, racism and gender. Surveys and news analysis identify districts...View source → Even attempts to better education, though well-intentioned, have resulted in preservation through transformation. In the 1954 case Brown v. Board, the supreme court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. Despite such “efforts”, today, schools are more segregated than ever. Take New York state, home to some of the country’s largest and most diverse school districts — it is also the most segregated state for Black students in the nation. Report Shows School Segregation in New York Remains Worst in NationResearch summary (based on research news release): The UCLA Civil Rights Project summarizes an updated analysis of school segregation in New York using 2018 data. It reports extensive racial...View source → Moreover, post-Brown v. Board, communities of color experienced a significant loss of cultural competence in schools and a continued lack of investment and resources in the most high-need areas. 66 Years After Brown v. Board, Schools Across the South Still Separate and UnequalResearch summary (based on source article): The Southern Poverty Law Center examines persistent educational inequality in the South on the66th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Family...View source →
Physically & Practically
In a physical sense, many schools across the U.S. look like prisons. Concrete buildings and play spaces, high fences, no windows, bars on windows, complete lack of green space, metal detectors, blank walls, colorless design, school police carrying weapons, probation officers, and police dogs. Death Trap: Windowless Schools, Ventilation, and NYC ReopeningResearch summary (based on source article): Gothamist investigates concerns about ventilation in New York City schools preparing to reopen during the pandemic. A largely windowless school designed in...View source → A Philadelphia School’s Big Bet on NonviolenceThe AtlanticResearch summary (based on reported magazine feature): Jeff Deeney profiles a Philadelphia middle school's shift toward nonviolent conflict resolution after a charter takeover. The account describes...View source → I Can’t Breathe: The Condition of School Infrastructure Is a Racial, Social, and Environmental Justice IssueForbesView source → In practice, carceral classrooms look like random search policies and surveillance, school bells, cops on school campuses that have no mental health or arts professionals, bans on books and knowledge (CRT, indigenous studies, and LGBTQ+ history and studies), inability to fulfill basic human needs like hunger and using the bathroom, and the racially disproportionate application of exclusionary discipline policies. Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff Is Harming StudentsResearch summary (based on the primary publisher or institutional source): The ACLU analyzes federal school data to compare access to counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers with the...View source → In extreme cases, discipline practices include corporal punishment or less explicit but equally harmful practices like “quiet rooms:” isolation rooms described as reflection spaces. Corporal Punishment in SchoolsThe New York TimesView source → Illinois School Seclusions, Timeouts, and RestraintsResearch summary (based on investigative reporting series): The Quiet Rooms is a joint ProPublica Illinois and Chicago Tribune investigation into the isolation of children in Illinois schools. The...View source → In other cases, schools have called the cops on children for throwing a skittle or put a child in handcuffs for kicking an orange near a school resource officer. Where Students Can Get Arrested for Throwing SkittlesResearch summary (based on source article): Vocativ reports allegations that routine student misconduct in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish schools was being handled through arrest and juvenile...View source →
Cops on Campuses
In terms of cops on school campuses, there is hardly a more evident example of how prison-like schools can be. Many argue their presence is necessary, especially in the wake of tragic school shootings and the lost lives of so many innocent people. But, police are a reaction, not a solution. We ignore the root causes of such violence and refuse to invest in preventative measures. Schools continue to decrease mental health funding while increasing investment in school police, who are not trained or equipped to adequately support struggling youth. Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff Is Harming StudentsResearch summary (based on the primary publisher or institutional source): The ACLU analyzes federal school data to compare access to counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers with the...View source → This is where they put the budget, rather than investing in school mental health professionals, despite evidence showing that youth are struggling more than ever. 2022 State of Student Wellness ReportResearch summary (based on the original source text): Whitaker and Lopez-Perry report surveys of more than 1,200 California students across 45 districts during 2020 and 2021. Quantitative and...View source → Not to mention, cops do not keep students safer. In Parkland, the school officer that ran away during the attack was charged with neglect for failing to protect students during a mass shooting. Though a court found that the officer did have a duty to attempt to stop the shooting, when it came to the sheriff’s department, the decision was not the same. Parkland Shooting Lawsuit Ruling: No Duty to ProtectThe New York TimesView source → The court found that the sheriff’s department had no duty to protect the students during the mass shooting. If school police are not there to protect children, what are they there for?
How can we create abolitionist classrooms?
Imagining Solutions Together & Fostering Imagination
Students know what they need to thrive. Asking students to develop creative solutions to these problems collectively teaches critical thinking and will likely restore agency to many of them. This could look like together addressing practical issues within the school, or it could look like using media to think more significantly about social problems. Creating a new world requires us to unlearn our carceral imagination. Today, media is the primary site where most youths engage with creativity and imagination. Teaching them to be media creators and critical consumers can prepare them to “interrogate texts, question myriad oppressive social structures, and unpack and analyze how stereotypes and prejudices are communicated through media” (p. 463). Black Girls and Critical Media Literacy for Social ActivismEnglish EducationResearch summary (based on the verified ERIC indexed abstract): Sherell McArthur argues that critical media literacy can help Black girls identify and challenge racialized, gendered, and class-based...View source → Creating an environment that fosters imagination enables youth to think of solutions outside the box.
The Physical Environment
When transforming the physical classroom, the possibilities are endless. California schools are currently experimenting with getting rid of school bells. Saved by the Peace and Quiet at a Growing Number of California SchoolsEdSourceView source → In Baltimore, meditation rooms have replaced detention. Baltimore School Meditation Rooms Replace DetentionCNNResearch summary (based on source article): CNN profiles a West Baltimore elementary school's use of a meditation room as an alternative response to some student conflicts. Children describe...View source → For quick fixes, try rearranging your classrooms aimed at fostering community. Do student desks currently face the front placing the teacher as the only holder of knowledge? Can students be seated in a circle, or might they have the opportunity to not sit at all? Stanford Study Finds Walking Improves CreativityResearch summary (based on university research news article): Stanford describes four experiments involving 176 adults that compared creative thinking during walking and sitting. Walking supported...View source → Bring nature into the classroom or take the classroom outside. Studies show that experiences with and in green spaces provide greater emotional well-being and lower anxiety, anger, exhaustion, and mood disturbance occurrences than in urban environments with little to no nature. The Nature Gap: Confronting Racial and Economic Disparities in the Destruction and Protection of Nature in AmericaResearch summary (based on source article): The Center for American Progress examines racial and economic disparities in access to nature and exposure to its loss. The report connects unequal...View source → Despite this knowledge, low-income and BIPOC communities in the United States continue to have decreased access to green spaces. To mitigate the harms brought on by such inequity try engaging in biophilic design or design rooted in nature which “can reduce stress, improve cognitive function and creativity, improve our well-being and expedite healing.” 14 Patterns of Biophilic DesignResearch summary (based on the primary publisher or institutional source): This design report organizes relationships among nature, human responses, and the built environment into fourteen patterns...View source → Finally, ask whether the images and media in your classroom reflect your student body. Who does your classroom center (celebrate), and who does it make invisible? Critical Media ProjectResearch summary (based on educational resource description): The Critical Media Project provides curated media examples, discussion prompts, playlists and curriculum resources intended to support...View source →
Practicing Ungrading
Grading and ranking systems are tied to an inherently white supremacist, ableist, and classist ideology of industrial rationality. It is easy to see the ways it enacts profound psychological violence on students, tying their sense of worth to a numerical value and telling them that their value as a person is linked to the performance of intelligence. This way of thinking comes back to prisons and the structural anti-Blackness of the carceral state, which has taught us that people are not inherently worthy and can be disposed of. Forms of Ungrading include contract grading, Contract GradingView source → feedback logs, fewer gradations: e.g., turned in (one gradation), pass/fail (two gradations, strong/satisfactory/weak (three gradations., grade-free zones: e.g., the first 1/3 of the term be ungraded, peer assessment, portfolios/conferences/exhibits, process letters: students describe their learning and how their work evolves over the term, self-evaluations, and student-made rubrics.
Meeting Basic Needs
A (perhaps) quick classroom fix is ensuring that all students have the space and support to meet their basic needs. Rest and decompress areas have allowed youth to step back, calm down, and assess and communicate their needs. Baltimore School Meditation Rooms Replace DetentionCNNResearch summary (based on source article): CNN profiles a West Baltimore elementary school's use of a meditation room as an alternative response to some student conflicts. Children describe...View source → Snacks in the classroom can help mitigate the effects hunger has on learning. State of America’s Children: Child HungerResearch summary (based on advocacy report section): The Children's Defense Fund's 2021 report section describes child food insecurity before and during the COVID-19 emergency. It presents...View source → Allowing students to use the restroom and get water whenever they want or need it creates a sense of trust and understanding that we all have basic human needs. This also means differentiating between students and engaging in trauma-informed and culturally responsive teaching.
Discipline Practices (Rethinking “Bad Behavior”)
Punitive and exclusionary discipline practices only cause harm. ACLU, 2020 When creating holistic classroom settings, educators must engage in teaching and supporting every aspect of the learner. This means seeing mistakes or what is often labeled as “bad behavior” as learning opportunities. Educators might attempt to eliminate the hierarchy and authority embedded in traditional discipline systems by engaging in restorative justice or peer mediation. Restorative Justice ResourcesResearch summary (based on practice resource guide): Edutopia assembles resources for introducing restorative justice in schools and classrooms. The guide describes practices that bring affected...View source → Moreover, educators should avoid youth interaction with law enforcement at all costs, as interaction with law enforcement at a young age results in an increased chance of ending up in the criminal injustice system.
Not all of these are easy to turn into action items; many require institutional support or access to resources. If unsure where to start, we recommend beginning with the following questions:
- How can you create a classroom that prevents the reproduction of carceral ideology?
- Who do you center in the classroom? What knowledge do you assume your students have or don’t have?
- How can you recognize and name the harm the outside world brings into the classroom?
- How can you regularly practice identifying and treating your students as equals?
- How can you guide students to find the agency to “freedom dream”?
Further Resources
- Abolitionist Teaching Network
- Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools (webinar)
- Against Cop Shit - Jeffrey Moro
- Arts Justice | ACLU of Northern CA.
- Feminist Data Manifest-NO | DREC
- Freedom Dreaming
- Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators by The Education for Liberation Network & Critical Resistance Editorial Collective
- Privacy for Students | Surveillance Self-Defense
- Repurposing Our Pedagogies (webinar)
- Snooping Where We Sleep — STOP - The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project