Michael Gottfried, with Gilberto Conchas of UC Irivine, has co-edited Inequality, Power and School Success: Case Studies on Racial Disparity and Opportunity in Education (Routledge, 2015).
This volume highlights issues of power, inequality, and resistance for Asian, African American, and Latino/a students in distinct U.S. and international contexts. Through a collection of case studies it links universal issues relating to inequality in education, such as Asian, Latino, and African American males in the inner-city neighborhoods, Latina teachers and single mothers in California, undocumented youth from Mexico and El Salvador, immigrant Moroccan youth in Spain, and immigrant Afro-Caribbean and Indian teenagers in New York and in London. The volume explores the processes that keep students thriving academically and socially, and outlines the patterns that exist among individuals—students, teachers, parents—to resist the hegemony of the dominant class and school failure. With emphasis on racial formation theory, this volume fundamentally argues that education, despite inequality, remains the best hope of achieving the American dream.
“In this important new volume, Conchas and Gottfried demonstrate why placing race at the center of analyses of education and inequality is so essential,” Writes Pedro A. Noguera of New York University. “Rather than reducing racial inequality, education in the US is too often implicated in its reproduction. Through carefully analyzed case studies the authors demonstrate how this occurs and point to what it might take to reverse these patterns. For those interested in advancing the possibility that education can serve as a force for equality and social justice, this book will be an invaluable resource.”
Michael Gottfried is an associate professor in the Department of Education at the Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Gottfried’s research focuses on the economics of education and education policy. Using the analytic tools from these disciplines, he has examined issues pertaining to peer effects, classroom context, and STEM. Dr. Gottfried has published numerous articles in these areas and won multiple scholarly awards for his research, including the AERA’s Outstanding Publication in Methodology Award (2010 and 2012) and the Highest Reviewed Paper Award (2013).