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Latent Conflict in Urban Public Education: Silent Domination and the Institutionalization of Discriminatory Organizational Forms

Saatcioglu, Argun
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1182798714

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Organizational Behavior.
Why is there no controversy concerning inequality in urban education? Segregation and entrenched non-school problems (poverty, neighborhood deterioration, and family dissolution) in urban districts are key drivers of inequality in a society that views public education as the “great equalizer.” The problem is the failure of the predominantly white affluent to sacrifice their privileges, which has subverted the interests of poor black children, resulting in latent conflict. Urban school desegregation was aimed at equalizing education by replacing the “neighborhood school” with the “integrated school.” It failed because it was banned from expanding into the suburbs and was undermined by worsening non-school problems. However, desegregation must be evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of the schools to counteract non-school problems. To this end, a model and several hypotheses, drawing upon the sociology of education and the neo-ecological approach to poverty, are proposed. School desegregation also offers a chance to extend organizational neo-institutionalism. This theory emphasizes manifest conflict in the examination of the politics of organizational legitimacy. However, the prevailing legitimacy of the “neighborhood school” indicates latent conflict. It is hypothesized that neighborhood schools were re-institutionalized in the 1990s due to restricted opportunity for manifest conflict and were legitimated through a discourse cloaking the nature of inequality. Hypotheses were tested on data from the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD), which implemented desegregation between 1979 and 1993, re-segregating between 1994 and 1998. Yearly records for 305,706 students were available. Also, 1,557 articles on schools from the Cleveland Plain Dealer (CPD) between 1993 and 1998 were collected to examine the discourse. CMSD archives were used for econometric analysis. CPD content was used for frame analysis. As hypothesized, desegregation made the schools more effective in counteracting the non-school problems of blacks, while whites were largely unharmed. The policy failed only when non-school deprivation reached extreme levels in the late 1980s. However, instead of expanding desegregation into the suburbs and addressing non-school problems, CMSD was allowed to re-segregate. The discourse in the 1990s justified inequality by emphasizing individual initiative in educational success, along with several inconsequential reforms. Eventually, segregated neighborhood schools became a taken-for-granted organizational form.
Eric Neilsen (Advisor)
553 p.
Urban education; school desegregation; power; organizational institutionalism

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Saatcioglu, A. (2007). Latent Conflict in Urban Public Education: Silent Domination and the Institutionalization of Discriminatory Organizational Forms [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1182798714

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Saatcioglu, Argun. Latent Conflict in Urban Public Education: Silent Domination and the Institutionalization of Discriminatory Organizational Forms. 2007. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1182798714.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Saatcioglu, Argun. "Latent Conflict in Urban Public Education: Silent Domination and the Institutionalization of Discriminatory Organizational Forms." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1182798714

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1182798714
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.