Chapter 2: A Time To Grow: Workplace Mobbing and the Making of a Tempered Radical

Clearly, there are groups of children who experience being ostracized within our American public schools due to racial identity, sexual identity, class, language, immigration status, ability, and other differences (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Noguera, 2008; Oakes, 1985; Small & Newman, 2001; Lugg, 2003). When children from historically marginalized groups are compared to their White middle-class counterparts, children who are marginalized experience higher rates of being identified as needing special education services, as well as significantly lower standardized achievement scores, allocation of educational resources, and lower expectations (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olsen, 2001; Banks, 2006; Delpit, 1995; Kozol, 2005; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Ortiz, 1997). Children served in America’s inner-city schools endure wider social conditions, living under oppressive circumstances (Epstein & Dauber, 1991; McLaren, 1998). The education of children from oppressive conditions is becoming increasingly important to countries around the world (Banks & McGee Banks, 2003).