Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T11:45:30.700Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Confessions of a Positivist: How Foucault Led Me to a Meta-narrative About School Desegregation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Philo Hutcheson*
Affiliation:
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Extract

This address derives from the intellectual contributions of young scholars and doctoral students, in faded memory of my life as a doctoral student and young scholar. I was tempted by other topics. One was the definition of the schoolteacher as the penultimate professional from a Deweyan perspective. I decided I would be, as we like to say in the Christ-haunted South, preaching to the choir. Another choice, one that deeply intrigues me, was the college movie, but indeed that topic was continuously marred by insubstantial acting and script.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 History of Education Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Fultz, Michael, “The Displacement of Black Educators Post-Brown: An Overview and Analysis,” History of Education Quarterly 44 (Spring 2004): 1145.Google Scholar

2 Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1962/1970), 208–9.Google Scholar

3 See, for example, Hutcheson, Philo, “In the President's Opinion: Hutchins, Robert and the University of Chicago History Department,” History of Higher Education Annual 1997 17 (1998): 3351. The History Department at the University of Chicago was so uncertain about its location during the 1930s that it actually changed from the Social Sciences Division to the Humanities Division. More important, as Hayden White argues, the fundamental historical theory is the theory of narrative, as opposed to attempts at empiricism and deductive theory that characterizes at least a large portion of the work done in the social sciences. Hayden White, The Content of the Form (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), 26–57.Google Scholar

4 Novick, Peter, That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Foucault, Michel, L'archéologie du savoir (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), 1415.Google Scholar

6 Digeser, Peter, “The Fourth Face of Power,” The Journal of Politics 54 (November 1992): 993–4 on individualization, 987–90 on the disciplining power of academic disciplines.Google Scholar

7 As Horace Mann Bond observed in 1952, outside the legally segregated South, as many as 25 percent of Negro children in elementary schools, 50 percent of the Negro high school students, and 83 percent of the Negro college students were in segregated schools. Horace Mann Bond, “The Present Status of Racial Integration in the United States, with Especial Reference to Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 243.Google Scholar

8 Foucault, , L'archéologie du savoir, 178.Google Scholar

9 I am not using the essays on Foucault and history by Coloma, Roland, Butchart, Ron, and Urban, Wayne because I am going to the source, Foucault in French. I began developing this address long before their exchange in the May 2011 issue of the History of Education Quarterly, which I indeed read with interest. See Roland Sintos Coloma, “Who's Afraid of Foucault?: History, Theory, and Becoming Subjects,” History of Education Quarterly 51 (May 2011): 184210; Urban, Wayne J., “The Proper Place of Theory in Educational History?,” History of Education Quarterly 51 (May 2011): 229–38; Butchart, Ronald E., “What's Foucault Got to Do with It?: History, Theory, and Becoming Subjected,” History of Education Quarterly 51 (May 2011): 239–46.Google Scholar

10 On oral history and its meanings relative to documents, see Caroline Eick, “Oral Histories of Education and the Relevance of Theory: Claiming New Spaces in a Post-Revisionist Era,” History of Education Quarterly 51 (May 2011): 158–83. On monuments, see Foucault, L'archéologie du savoir, 14.Google Scholar

11 Indeed, there are two words for knowledge and knowing in French: savoir and connaissance. The former has deep connotations, as if one ought to utter the word with respect (I know how to read a historiographical text), while the latter is more commonplace—as in the knowledge needed to make dinner (with all due respect to Julia Child).Google Scholar

12 McBride, Alex, “Landmark Cases: Brown v. Board of Education (1954),” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_brown.html. Accessed 2 November 2011.Google Scholar

13 Foucault, , L'archéologie du savoir, 15–16.Google Scholar

14 Doddy, Hurley H., “Editorial Comment: Desegregation and the Employment of Negro Teachers,” The Journal of Negro Education 24 (Autumn 1955): 405–6. I have come to use the terms “Negro” and “African American” when discussing African Americans in historical terms because I find it arresting, a rupture if you will, that we have lost sight of the fact that “Negro” was historically a term of pride when racial slurs were common and public.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., 406.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., 406–7 on the Georgia loyalty oath, 408 on the difficult role.Google Scholar

17 Doddy, Hurley H. and Edwards, G. Franklin, “Apprehensions of Negro Teachers concerning Desegregation in South Carolina,” The Journal of Negro Education 24 (Winter 1955): 2627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Ibid., Table 1, 30–31. Fultz, , “The Displacement of Black Educators Post-Brown,” 37.Google Scholar

19 Doddy, and Edwards, , “Apprehensions of Negro Teachers concerning Desegregation in South Carolina,” Table II, 35, and 38–41 on discussion of the two items. In regard to Thompson's analysis, see Charles H. Thompson, “Editorial Comment: The Negro Teacher and Desegregation of the Public Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 22 (Spring 1953): 95101. See also Ashmore, Harry S., The Negro and the Schools (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1954). Other assessments of the preparation of Negro teachers were far less sanguine, as a report on Alabama Negro teacher education students and their literacy and arithmetic competencies, in comparison to eight-grade students, indicated. See Reva White Allman, “A Study of Selected Competencies of Prospective Teachers in Alabama,” The Journal of Negro Education 22 (Spring 1953): 136–144. See also Catherine, J. Watkins Duncan, “Pre-Service Teacher Education for Negroes in Georgia,” The Journal of Negro Education 19 (Spring 1950): 159–66.Google Scholar

20 Doddy, and Edwards, , “Apprehensions of Negro Teachers concerning Desegregation in South Carolina,” 39.Google Scholar

21 Fultz, , “The Displacement of Black Educators Post-Brown: An Overview and Analysis.”Google Scholar

22 Doddy, and Edwards, , “Apprehensions of Negro Teachers concerning Desegregation in South Carolina,” 41.Google Scholar

23 On Vanessa Siddle Walker's work, see for example Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996) and “Valued Segregated Schools for African American Children in the South, 1935–1969: A Review of Common Themes and Characteristics,” Review of Educational Research 70 (Autumn 2000): 253–85. This is an area—on African American educators in the South prior to desegregation that has developed rather substantial differences in the discussions about their roles in the schools and the communities. Siddle Walker articulates the contributions of those educators while Adam Fairclough takes a different approach, presenting both their contributions and weaknesses in education and commitment to their schools and communities (see A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007). Despite the Foucauldian analysis I employ in this address, I do not have the time or space to offer further comment about the complex historical, social constructions of agency and disciplinarity that I see in these discussions.Google Scholar

24 The District of Columbia school system was important for reasons more than its location as the nation's capitol. President Harry Truman had appointed a committee (all too often referred to as a commission) that highlighted the disparities between whites and African Americans in a variety of settings in the District, including education. See President's Committee on Civil Rights, To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947).Google Scholar

25 Cooke, Paul, “The Negro Teacher in the Washington, D. C. Integrated School System,” The Journal of Negro Education 23 (Winter 1954): 6 on characteristics of the issue, 7 on somewhat encouraging possibilities.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Thompson, Charles H., “Editorial Comment: The Negro Teacher and Desegregation of the Public Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 22 (Spring 1953): 95.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., 96 for discussion on tenure laws, supply and demand, and residential zoning; for discussion on replacing teachers, see 97–98; on report, see 99; on conclusion, see 100.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 101.Google Scholar

29 Thompson, Charles H., “Editorial Comment: Negro Teachers and the Elimination of Segregated Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 20 (Spring 1951): 136.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., 137 on New Jersey and his conclusions about the issues regarding African American teachers and administrators; on bitter end, see 139.Google Scholar

31 On the Louisville Municipal College case, see “Court Action and Other Means of Achieving Racial Integration in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 395–6, and Fultz, “The Displacement of Black Educators Post-Brown: An Overview and Analysis,” 11.Google Scholar

32 Greenberg, Jack, “Racial Integration of Teachers-A Growing Problem,” The Journal of Negro Education 20 (Autumn 1951): 586 on legal remedy and teacher salaries, 587 on Indiana, New Mexico, and the price of segregation.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 585–6.Google Scholar

34 Cooke, Paul, “Safeguards for Negro Teachers in an Integrated School System in Washington, D. C.,” The Journal of Negro Education 20 (Autumn 1951): 588–90.Google Scholar

35 Thompson, Charles H., “Editorial Note: The Courts and Racial Integration in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 229.Google Scholar

36 Ibid., 230.Google Scholar

37 Ashmore, Harry S., “Racial Integration with Special Reference to Education in the South,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 250–5; “Discussion of Papers,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 255–64; Frank, John P., “Can the Courts Erase the Color Line?,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 304–16; Marshall, Thurgood, “An Evaluation of Recent Efforts to Achieve Racial Integration in Education through Resort to the Courts,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 316–27; “Discussion of Papers,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 327–39; White, Walter, “Some Tactics which should Supplement Resort to the Courts in Achieving Racial Integration in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 340–4; Granger, Lester B., “Some Tactics which should Supplement Resort to the Courts in Achieving Racial Integration in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 344–9.Google Scholar

38 Johnson, Mordecai W., “Welcome Address and Explanation of the General Purposes of the Conference,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 233–41; Miller, Ward I., “Anticipated Problems Incident to Racial Integration in Public Schools and some Suggested Approaches,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 290 on hiring decisions, 291 on working harder. On the problematic nature of definitions of merit in hiring and renewal decisions for white and African American teachers especially in regard to the development of standardized tests, see Baker, R. Scott, Paradoxes of Desegregation: African American Struggles for Educational Equity in Charleston, South Carolina, 1926–1972 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2006).Google Scholar

39 Bond, Horace Mann, “The Present Status of Racial Integration in the United States, with Especial Reference to Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer, 1952): 244.Google Scholar

40 Ming, William R., Jr., “The Elimination of Segregation in the Public Schools of the North and West,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 274 on the need for integration to include teachers as well as students, 268 on hiring.Google Scholar

41 Ming, William R., Jr., “The Elimination of Segregation in the Public Schools of the North and West,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 272 on some educators resisting the loss of their jobs and others keeping their positions. On the discussant's comments about Negro teachers not wanting to lose their jobs, see “Discussion of Papers,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 294 for comments by Virgil Clift, head of the Department of Education at Morgan State College.Google Scholar

42 Bustard, Joseph L., “The New Jersey Story: The Development of Racially Integrated Public Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 284.Google Scholar

43 Lewis, Andrea, “Oral Histories of Black Educators,” Southern History of Education Society, Morrow, Georgia, March 2010. Bustard was Assistant Commissioner of Education, In Charge of the Division Against Discrimination, State Department of Education for New Jersey, so one might expect his enthusiasm for the Garden State's accomplishments.Google Scholar

44 Discussion of Papers,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 299 on hiring patterns, 303 on workshops.Google Scholar

45 Court Action and Other Means of Achieving Racial Integration in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Ibid., 384–89.Google Scholar

47 Court Action and Other Means of Achieving Racial Integration in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 397.Google Scholar

48 Ibid., 409 for discussion about training and hiring Negro teachers, 401 and 402–403 for discussion about colleges.Google Scholar

49 Jenkins, Martin D., “Problems Incident to Racial Integration and some Suggested Approaches to these Problems—A Critical Summary,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 413.Google Scholar

50 Ibid., 416 on working harder; on tenure laws, see 419.Google Scholar

51 Nabrit, James M., Jr., “An Appraisal of Court Action as a Means of Achieving Racial Segregation in Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 421–30; John LaFarge, S. J., “The Development of Cooperative Acceptance of Racial Integration,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 430–3.Google Scholar

52 Bond, Horace Mann, “The Present Status of Racial Integration in the United States, with Especial Reference to Education,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 242.Google Scholar

53 See, for example, the fine work of Patterson, James T., Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) as well as the Spring 2004 issue of the History of Education Quarterly. I have made the same argument about the Washington-Du Bois debate, observing the facility with which we historians have demonstrated that those two men represented powerful contrasting arguments about curriculum and racial uplift reflected in institutional choices about curriculum, when in fact Negro colleges often pursued both vocational education and liberal education. See Linda Buchanan and Philo Hutcheson, “Re-Considering the Washington-DuBois Debate: Two Black Colleges in 1910–1911,” in Southern Education in the 20th Century: Exceptionalism and its Limits, ed. Wayne Urban (New York: Garland Press, 1999), 7799.Google Scholar

54 Foucault, , 144–145. I wish to thank David Alexander, a doctoral student in my department, for bringing this concept to my attention in his review of L'archéologie du savoir. Google Scholar

55 Thompson, Charles H., “Introduction,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 231–33.Google Scholar

56 Knoll, Erwin, “The Truth About Desegregation in the Washington, D. C., Public Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 28 (Spring 1959): 96 on 1948, 111 on 1959.Google Scholar

57 Ibid., 111.Google Scholar

58 Record, Wilson, “Racial Diversity in California Public Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 28 (Winter 1959): 23.Google Scholar

59 Record, Wilson, “Racial Integration in California Schools,” The Journal of Negro Education 27 (Winter 1958): 2122 on numbers of Negro and white teachers, 21 on respect, 22 on uncertainty and status loss.Google Scholar

60 Greenberg, Jack, Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Twelve Tables Press, 2004 Anniversary edition), 421–2.Google Scholar

61 White, Walter, A Man Called White: The Autobiography of Walter White (New York: Viking Press, 1948), 361.Google Scholar

62 White, Hayden, Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), 207.Google Scholar

63 Johnson, Mordecai W., “Welcome Address and Explanation of the General Purposes of the Conference,” The Journal of Negro Education 21 (Summer 1952): 239.Google Scholar

64 Eick, , “Oral Histories of Education and the Relevance of Theory,” 158–183.Google Scholar

65 Merton, Robert K., “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action,” American Sociological Review 1 (December 1936): 894.Google Scholar

66 Anderson, James D., “Race, Meritocracy, and the American Academy during the Immediate Post-World War II Era,” History of Education Quarterly 33 (Summer 1993): 154.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., 900.Google Scholar

68 Ibid., 898.Google Scholar

69 Ibid., 899.Google Scholar

70 Ibid., 902.Google Scholar

71 Ibid., 904.Google Scholar

72 In addition to the previously cited works of Fairclough, Baker, and Siddle Walker, see Christina Collins, “Ethnically Qualified”: Race, Merit, and the Selection of Urban Teachers, 1920–980 (New York: Teachers College Press, 2011).Google Scholar

73 Ladson-Billings, Gloria, “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools,” Educational Researcher 3 5 (October 2006): 312.Google Scholar

74 Record, “Racial Diversity in California Public Schools,” 23.Google Scholar

75 Dittmer, John, Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994); Jack Dougherty, “From Anecdote to Analysis: Oral Interviews and New Scholarship in Educational History,” Journal of American History 86 (September 1999): 712–23.Google Scholar

76 Oleneck, Michael R., “What Have Immigrants Wanted from American Schools? What Do They Want Now? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigrants, Language, and American Schooling,” American Journal of Education 115 (May 2009): 379406.Google Scholar

77 Foucault, , L'archéologie du savoir, 29.Google Scholar

78 Novick, , That Noble Dream, 7.Google Scholar