Abstract

Excerpted From: Steven L. Nelson, Aaren N. Cassidy and Sheron T. Davenport, Critical Race Care, The Missing Link in the Implementation of State Takeover Legislation: A Critical Race Socio-Legal Analysis of Policy Implementation, 25 Journal of Law in Society 86 (Winter, 2025) (260 Footnotes) (Full Document Requested)

Many scholars have explored the notion of care across time, suggesting that it is universal and a fundamental human need. At the same time, scholars have contextualized care by suggesting that the concept has variable meanings and operationalizations which are based, in part, on societal mores. Nel Noddings, a pioneering scholar studying care in education, suggested that care is the foundation of all effective education and that everyone in a given community is central to ensuring that an Ethic of Care is the primary objective of education. Yet, there is not a clear focus on how education policymakers are responsible for ensuring the imposition of an ethic of care. Likewise, there are few education law and policy analyses that evaluate how education policymakers violate an Ethic of Care through the development and implementation of policies that touch and concern students enrolled in public schools. Frankly, education policymakers are missing from this list of parties responsible for implementing an Ethic of Care. In this article, we explore the ways in which the state of Massachusetts' implementation of state takeover policies in Lawrence, Massachusetts violates an Ethic of Care.

The concept of care inherently incorporates identity. Noddings notes, “... those who have succeeded in the traditional masculine structure may not easily or graciously give up their hard-won power.” We expand Noddings' conceptualization of an Ethic of Care in education to include an inherent focus on the pursuit of educational equity. Our proposed corollary to Noddings' concept requires in depth analyses of the many ways in which power within the policy process makes the policy arena fertile or barren for those who leverage an Ethic of Care in education. Many scholars indicate the critical nature of care, especially care that extends from school administrators to teachers and teachers to students. Scholars also suggest that adults should model care so that students have opportunities to bear witness to and learn how to build meaningful relationships in a way that promotes and sustains humanity. Thus, we proffer that policymakers and politicians are within the realm of those who should rely on and privilege an Ethic of Care.

Other scholars have expanded Noddings' interpretation of an Ethic of Care, stretching the Ethic of Care to incorporate ever-present and amorphous racial dynamics. For instance, Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Audrey Thompson, and Angela Valenzuela have explained how care is defined and how care is received within groups with marginalized identities. Moreover, these scholars have provided frameworks for better understanding critical care, which addresses race and power in ways that centers care for those who are disenfranchised, contained, dispossessed, dehumanized and otherwise oppressed. We take up the concept of critical care. Given that there is a dearth of literature that interrogates the intersection of critical care, especially as related to race and racism, when it comes to education policy, we contend that care is the missing link in education policy. We provide an example of the lack of care in state takeover policy impacting communities who have historical and contemporary experiences with racialized oppression.

The state officials in Massachusetts have positioned themselves as enacting care via taking over the public schools in Lawrence, Massachusetts through control of the master narrative. We create a counternarrative by examining the experiences of local policymakers and community activists in Lawrence, who are currently operating under a state receivership (or within a state takeover district). This research aims to answer the following questions: a) What role does the intersection of care and race play in state takeover policy and implementation, particularly in urban areas and b) what are the perceptions of local politicians who are members or allies of Black and Indigenous Peoples of Color and directly affected by state takeover policies and implementation in urban areas? Notably, there is a paucity of empirical legal research on care and caring relationships that consider education policy. Care and caring relationships in the formulation and implementation of education policy is the central issue of this study.

Care has a significant impact on the social, emotional, and academic development of students. Thus, one might assume that education policy is formulated with the care of those directly affected in mind. If a policy's results do not support this conception of care, then the policy should be modified, adjusted, or corrected. Simply put, our stated rule may appear reasonable and humanistic, but this is not typically the case in education policy. For example, state takeovers of public schools and districts have increased over the last couple of decades despite empirical evidence that state takeovers do not lead to states' professed goals-academic achievement. Furthermore, states' unilateral seizures of public schools and districts occur primarily in Black and Brown communities, and harsh student disciplinary practices and the expansion of neoliberal policies, especially privatization, typically follow state takeovers. We posit that the persistent and consistent use of state takeover policies leads to racialized harm and abuse. In this study we explore the intersections of race, power, and care. This study has significant implications as it is one of the first empirical legal studies to investigate the use of care in the development and implementation of education policy using a racial lens.

This article proceeds in seven parts. Following this Introduction, we offer a history of state takeovers of public schools and districts. We hope to explain how the history of state takeovers has brought us to this current historical moment. After we provide a historical overview of state takeovers, we explain the connection between race, urbanicity, and the disruption of Black and Brown leadership of municipalities. Next, we discuss the role of care in education. We follow this section with our theoretical framework for understanding the findings of this socio-legal analysis of the implementation of state takeover legislation. Next, we detail the methodology of our work, paying close attention to the ways we privileged the participants' narratives and experiences. We follow this with our findings, which have six subparts. Five subparts explain the findings and the sixth subpart provides a summary of the findings. Finally, we discuss the findings and their relationship to our theoretical frameworks.

[. . .]

Through this study, the voices of the participants were able to come through after over a decade of being faced with barriers and blockade. What I found from their perspective is that the narrative pushed out by the state is in gross opposition to what is actually happening on the ground. What the state most likely did not see taking place is the role the takeover has played in allowing care to turn into a form of activism within the community. Participants shared stories of students joining together to stand up for what they know is not right. In particular, Emilia shared that the community is seeing the injustices of the seizure unfold and are mobilizing to be heard. Coalitions, such as the Greater Lawrence Education Justice Alliance, have formed to support the effort to move out of receivership. This is the concept of care that aligns with Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Sonya Ramsey's womanist approach utilizing care as a form of activism. Emilia said it best when she stated, “Our existence is our resistance.”

Steven L. Nelson is an Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and the Chair of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Education Policy Studies at Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law.

Aaren N. Cassidy is the Assistant School Director at the University of Memphis' campus school. She has an Ed.D. in Education Policy Studies from the Leadership Department at the University of Memphis.

Sheron T. Davenport is the Assistant Director of Student Support Services at the University of Memphis. She has an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Memphis.