Minding the Gap: A Rhetorical History of the Achievement Gap arose as an inquiry into the rhetorical congestion around the phrase achievement gap in public discourse. Having been used in support of multiple, often competing, education agendas, the phrase seems versatile almost to the point of emptiness, and yet it seemingly retains its persuasive power. Examining the history of the phrase, I reveal that the notion of the achievement gap is rooted in the logic of segregation and the rhetoric of disability, and serves to construct students in ways that paradoxically undermine efforts to expand access to educational opportunity. Although achievement gap is most frequently invoked in the name of educational equity, I argue that its rhetorical force can be infelicitous, erecting a discursive boundary that contains and limits students who are understood to be on the wrong side of the gap. This project is the first analysis of gap rhetoric, focusing on its heretofore-unexamined origins in the 1950s and the way its inheritances shape discourse since the 2001 No Child Left Behind act. I demonstrate that even equity-driven uses of achievement gap carry the baggage of the phrases history, which operates to re-marginalize already marginalized students and to construct educational equity as an unattainable goal.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-05312013-084246 |
| Date | 20 June 2013 |
| Creators | Jones, Laura Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Weinstein, Susan, Rollins, Brooke, Heifferon, Barbara, Denny, R. Kenton |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-05312013-084246/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0109 seconds