Hopeful Girls Troubled Boys

This book is an ethnographic study of Carribean youth in New York City to help explain how and why schools and cities are failing boys of color.

An exciting revision of a classic book, Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boysfocuses on the life histories of the largest immigrant group in New York City, the youth from the Dominican Republic, the West Indies, and Haiti, to explain why girls of color are succeeding at higher rates than their male counterparts. Nancy Lopez brings to life the attitudes, feelings, and expectations of these teens, and shows that girls maintain optimistic outlooks on their lives, while boys are ambivalent about the promises of education. This fascinating account explains how and why our schools and cities are failing boys of color.

An exciting revision of a classic book, Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boysfocuses on the life histories of the largest immigrant group in New York City, the youth from the Dominican Republic, the West Indies, and Haiti, to explain why girls of color are succeeding at higher rates than their male counterparts. Nancy Lopez brings to life the attitudes, feelings, and expectations of these teens, and shows that girls maintain optimistic outlooks on their lives, while boys are ambivalent about the promises of education. This fascinating account explains how and why our schools and cities are failing boys of color.

Beyond Acting White broadens the extant conversation on the Black-White achievement gap that has been dominated by the notion that Blacks underperform in school because they fear (being accused of) 'acting white.' The authors elucidate the limitations of this explanation by presenting new research that theorizes race as a social phenomenon, unmasks the heterogeneity of the Black experience, and contends with the specifics of social context in the culture and organization of schools and communities.

Drawing on extensive research with a diverse group of seventy teen girls, Zaslow offers a critical account of the girl power moment in which feminism and femininity are shrink-wrapped together in one market-friendly package. With a focus on pop-music and television, Zaslow skillfully explores the negotiative processes of teen girls as they make sense of girl power's new cultural narratives of femininity as well as its failure to offer strategies for real social change. Written in highly accessible language, this book charts new territory as it offers a rich account of the ways in which teen girls understand style, sexuality, motherhood, and feminism in girl power media culture, and how their desires, social experiences, and imaginings of the future are shaped in their relationship with a neoliberal girl power discourse.

Anita Harris creates a realistic portrait of the "new girl" that has appeared in the twenty-first century--she may still play with Barbie, but she is also likely to play soccer or basketball, be assertive and may even be sexually aware, if not active. Building on this new definition, Harris explores the many key areas central to the lives of girls from a global perspective, such as girlspace, schools, work, aggression, sexuality and power.

Gender analysis remains central to understanding social life, yet focusing on gender alone is inadequate. Recent feminist sociological scholarship highlights how gender intersects with other systems of privilege and oppression. In this book five themes are carried forward throughout the text: the social construction of gender differences; gendered inequalities; intersections of gender with other systems of privilege and oppression; a relational global perspective; and the necessity of working toward social justice.

This book is an in-depth study which examines the lives of fifty ambitious Latino/a high school seniors in the San Francisco East Bay Area, following their entrance into college and career pathways over several years. This book examines the social forces that contributed to near-universal college attendance among these mostly low-income Latinos/as, all of whom attended fairly typical public schools. In an era of increased economic insecurity, decreased funding for schools, and rising college tuition, this book provides a balanced look at the individual choices and systemic constraints influencing today’s “college-for-all” orientation, while pointing the way toward possibilities for making college pathways smoother for all.