Critical Questions in Education 2nd Annual Theme Issue At the Crossroads of Policy and Poverty: A Critical Look at Homelessness and Youth in America

Critical Questions in Education
2nd Annual Theme Issue

At the Crossroads of Policy and Poverty: A Critical Look at
Homelessness and Youth in America

Guest Editors:
Jessica A. Heybach, Aurora University
Ann de Aviles Bradley, Northeastern Illinois University

Special Issue Proposal
The second annual special theme issue of CQIE will be dedicated to the
problems of homelessness, poverty, and the impact of the
McKinney-Vento Act on youth. Consider the following:

On a single night 633,782 people are homeless in the United States
On a single night 38% of all homeless are those in families
On a single night in New York City 21,000 children experience homelessness
Last school year 18,669 homeless students were identified by Chicago
Public Schools.

Since 1987, the landmark McKinney-Vento legislation has provided a
crucial framework to address the needs of America’s most vulnerable
population—those struggling to provide basic necessities such as food
and shelter. McKinney-Vento has, like all civil rights legislation,
commanded the attention of the legal community for advocacy and
enforcement, but remains at times obscure to many educators unless
circumstances arise that warrant their attention to McKinney-Vento.
This legislation seeks to solve the problems associated with those who
find themselves living in unstable circumstances. In particular,
McKinney-Vento addresses the question, how do individuals in abject
poverty access education, health care, and other social services? Yet,
beyond the rhetoric of official legislation and mandates lies a
complex social problem that goes in and out of focus in the
educational mainstream, a community that is currently focused on
standardization, accountability, and corporate reform rather than the
human dilemmas always at stake in education.

This issue sets Bowles and Gintis’s Schooling in Capitalist Society as
a point of departure, and seeks to renegotiate their structuralist
analysis of economic wealth and schooling in America as it relates to
educational policy and homeless youth. Further, the editors of this
special theme issue seek articles that interrogate the following
questions:
How has the educational landscape changed economically since the
publication of Bowles and Gintis’s seminal work in regards to the
experience of homeless youth?
Who is (or isn’t) being impacted by the policy shifts associated with
homelessness, in particular, urban, suburban, and rural youth?
What have been the consequences of neoliberal economic policies on
homeless youth, and the educational rights of those who lack resources
and accumulated social wealth?
What can be done to continue the long fought battle for equal rights
and opportunity in a social, political, and economic climate that
continues to be unable to meet the needs of the most vulnerable?
In what ways do factors of gender, class, race and sexuality intersect
and shape the experiences of homeless youth?
How have communities across America responded to this issue at the
local level? (e.g. facilities, programs).

Finally, this issue aims to highlight the root causes of
homelessness—jobs that don’t pay a living wage, inadequate benefits
for the unemployed, access to affordable housing and healthcare—and
the impact these variables have on the educational prospects of our
youth.

General Timeline
Proposals due December 1, 2013
Proposal Guidelines:
Submit 300 word abstract and list of key references to Jessica Heybach
at jvivirit@aurora.edu
Proposal acceptance notification by January 1, 2014
Draft papers due June 1, 2014
Revision process (June-August 2014)
Anticipated publication date Fall 2014

Direct any questions regarding the issue to: Jessica Heybach,
jvivirit@aurora.edu and/or Ann de Aviles Bradley,
a-avilesdebradley1@neiu.edu.