EUGEO Budapest 2015 2.08.

2015
Session 56: Uneven geographies of education and learning in changing
Europe
Nora Nafaa Universit de Perpignan Via Domitia
M. A. of Geography, PhD candidate

 Research framework: Masters dissertation and exploratory methodology:

3 months fieldwork in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

12 Semi-conducted interviews with various actors
32 Surveys
Observation
Analyze of documents

United States: inefficient public services, education as a national issue

Timeline & turning points:

1960s: Desegregation laws

1980s: Beginning of education reforms
2001: No Child Left Behind Act (neoliberalization)
2007: Economic & financial crisis (of the school districts)

What is the role of education, and schools as places, in the

production of the city in a country where education is at the core
of families residential and social strategies?

Part 1: Urban education shaping metropolitan America

Part 2: School and the city, when education designs the urban
dynamics

 Geography of education and the desegregation era:

encouraging the white flight

1964

1990s

 The school market metaphor and the schools left behind

Accountability (ex: Pennsylvania School System Assessment)
Withdrawal of the state in the management of the schools
Diverse Provider Model (Educational Management Organizations: Edison Schools, Inc., Victory
Schools and Chancellor Beacon Academy)
Public school choice

 School Closures

 West Philadelphia, a diluted ghetto facing the neoliberal urbanism

African-American population in the United States: 12,6%

African-American population in Philadelphia: 43,4%

Median Family Income per Census Tract

2013

2000

School at the core of the neighborhood dynamics, the case of

Penn Alexander School

Partnership in 1998
Begins 2001-2002 school year
19% : Upenn staff and students
1330 $ per student per year

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Penn Alexander School, Nora Nafaa (May 2013)

 Penn Alexander School PSSA Results

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 An overwhelmed school catchment area

Applicants lining up in front of Penn Alexander

School, Nora Nafaa (March 2013)

Real Estate panel, Nora Nafaa

(May 2013)

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 Geography of education in the USA has participated in

designing the cities
Education is a market, schools are options and parents are
consumers
Attractivity of the school reflects the dynamics of the urban
territories but also participates in its building

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 Selective bibliography
Basu, R., (2010). Geographies of education , in. Warf, B. (ed.), Encyclopedia of geography, Thousands Oaks, Sage
Publications, p. 875-877.
Billingham, C., (2015). Parental choice, neighborhood schools, and the market metaphor in urban education
reform , Urban Studies, vol. 52, n4, p. 685-701.
Boger, J. C. & Orfield, G. (eds.), 2005. School resegregation: Must the South turn back?, Chapel Hill, University of North
Carolina Press, 380 p.
Bulkley, K E.; Henig J. R. & Levin H. (Ed.), (2010), Between Public and Private: Politics, Governance, and the New
Portfolio for Urban School Reform, Cambridge, Editions Harvard University Press, 127-164
Cohen D. K. & Moffitt S. L., (2009), The ordeal of equality, did federal regulation fix the schools?, Cambridge, Londres,
Editions Harvard University Press, 317 p.
Harvey D., (2005), A brief history of neoliberalism, Oxford, New York, Editions Oxford University Press, 247 p.
Kozol, J., (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America, New York, Three rivers press,
425 p.
Lauria, M. ; Mirn, L. F., (2005). Urban schools: The new social spaces of resistance, New York, Washington, Peter Lang,
195 p.
Lipman P., (2011), The New Political Economy of Urban Education Neoliberalism, Race and the Right to the city, New York,
Routledge, 205 p.
Spring J., (2008), The American School, From the Puritans to the No Child Left Behind, Boston, Burr Ridge, Dubuque,
Editions McGraw-Hill, 494 p.
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Nora Nafaa, PhD Candidate Universit de Perpignan Via Domitia, France

Email: Nora.nafaa@gmail.com