After the 'At-Risk' Label: Reorienting Educational Policy and Practice

摘要

One could argue that the prevention of educational risk can be a noble cause. Many educators have devoted a good part of their careers to the careful design of pedagogical interventions with the hope of collocating disadvantaged students on more hopeful paths in life. Who would deny that knowledge is empowering and that there might be new opportunities resulting from positive learning experiences and from academic achievement? Why would anyone, then, resist the use of evidence in order to avoid or solve the problem of academic risk in order to close achievement gaps? On the other hand, why does the notion of risk have such a powerful force in educators' minds, guiding behaviors and decisions with a certainty that is hardly ever questioned? Has risk always been a part of educational policy and practice? How have we arrived at current notions of risk? What are the implications of risk as a concept that has evolved over time in society? Are judgements and decisions about students' academic difficulties exclusively derived from empirical data? How does personal experience and societal notions inform our ideas of academic risk? In the book After the At-Risk Label, Keffleryn Brown (2017) provides an innovative cultural perspective to answer these questions. Abundant detail in its six chapters construct a provocative argument suggesting that there are unexamined assumptions behind school practices and educational policies that deserve careful consideration.