Abstract
How smartness is defined within schools contributes to low academic achievement by poor and racial/ethnic minority students. Using Holland et al.’s (1998) [Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (Eds.) (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.] concept of “figured worlds,” this paper explores the “figuring” of smartness through the perspectives of marginalized youth. The youth made key distinctions between being book smart vs. street smart. This distinction is a direct challenge by the youth to the dominant discourse of smartness or “book smarts” as it operates in schools. To the youth, “street smarts” are more important because they are connected to being able to maneuver through structures in their lives such as poverty, the police, street culture, and abusive “others.” This distinction is key because street smarts stress agency in countering social structures whereas, for many of the youth, book smarts represented those structures, such as receiving a high school diploma. Implications for schools and pedagogy are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Nuusa Faamoe and all of the youth for allowing me to come into the classroom and learn from their perspectives and stories. George Noblit, Bryan Brayboy, and the anonymous reviewers provided insightful comments and/or feedback, which I appreciate very much.
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B.A. earned from Indiana University – Bloomington, Masters and Ph.D. earned from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Beth Hatt Fis an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Foundations at Illinois State University where she teaches research methods and social foundations of education. Her current research explores smartness as a cultural construct in schools and the media.
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Hatt, B. Street Smarts vs. Book Smarts: The Figured World of Smartness in the Lives of Marginalized, Urban Youth. Urban Rev 39, 145–166 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-007-0047-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-007-0047-9