2 by 4

It took me a couple of tries to begin to understand the terms and main ideas in the essay "Critical Bifocality and Circuits of Privelage: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory and Design" by Lois Weis and Michelle Fine. I wasnt able to form an opinion until about page five, when Weis and Fina paraphrase Gloria Ladson Billings, essentially saying that inequality gaps in education are a call for investigation into the relationship between deficit and privelage. Weis and Fine look at the effects of the global sphere on local spaces and are interested in how, and why the elevation of one sector leads to the plight of another.  They say "we want to encourage designs that trace how widening inequaltiy gaps penetrate lives and ...

Name: Leslie Castrejon

Professor Jody Cohen

Educ. 270

Date: 10/10/14

Legal/Policy Analysis Paper

Identity: Unstable? Or Redefined?

When considering identity and access from the standpoint of an institution, it can vary depending on the institution’s mission and policies. For instance, there are some institutions that only focus on certain careers such as, liberal arts colleges vs. technical schools. Meanwhile, there are other institutions that only offer a single sex education instead of a co-education. It is because of these differences that shape an institution’s mission and policies therefore explaining why the standpoint of an institution would vary when it comes to identity and access. In order to give a better idea on how identity and access of a person can be affected by the standpoint of an institution, I will focus on Bryn Mawr College.

To think about another person’s identity and their access to an education is not easy. I’ve thought back to my family because while growing up they would always tell me to take advantage of the opportunities I had here (the U.S.) because if we had been living in Guatemala, chances were I wouldn’t be in school right now. From what I know, no one in my family from my mother’s side has successfully completed middle school/high school while in Guatemala. My father and his side of the family is from Mexico and within that side I know that I do have some family members who have been able to continue onto higher education in Mexico. However, for this post I will be focusing more on my mother and her educational experience based off of her identities.