ERIC Number: EJ1079243
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0159-6306
EISSN: N/A
Neoliberal Common Sense and Race-Neutral Discourses: A Critique of "Evidence-Based" Policy-Making in School Policing
Nolan, Kathleen
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, v36 n6 p894-907 2015
The author of this paper uses critical discourse analysis and draws on critical social theory and policy studies to analyze the interdiscursivity between neoliberal common sense discourses around crime and safety and race-neutral discourses, "evidence-based" policy, and the research that supports school policing programs. The author offers a macro-sociological analysis of how neoliberal common sense and race-neutral discourses shape crime policy. Next, the author discusses the rise of "evidence-based" policy formation. She argues that evidence-based policy serves to narrow the scope of what constitutes "scientific" research and delegitimize research that uses race as an analytical lens. Then, through textual analysis of samples of the "evidence" supporting school policing, the author illustrates the ways in which neoliberal common sense discourses around crime and safety and race-neutral discourses become the ideological starting point for the research and internalized within research documents. The result is the creation of a hegemonic "evidence-loop" that privileges ideologically driven research that assumes a "scientific" stance and obscures racial bias while it excludes the critical research on the school policing.
Descriptors: Police School Relationship, Police, Discourse Analysis, Critical Theory, Social Theories, Neoliberalism, School Safety, Race, School Policy, Policy Formation, Evidence Based Practice, Ideology, Research Methodology, Racial Bias, Educational Research, Best Practices
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A