There are simply not enough texts that look comparatively at the two foremost experiments with questions of race, culture, and class in the English-speaking world, the United States and South Africa. Prudence Carter's work is simultaneously scholarly and compassionate. It helps us see, in these two benighted but globally important societies, how easily things break, but also how well, when ... Read morestructures are in place and when human agency takes flight, individuals and the groups to which they belong flourish and grow.
Crain Soudien, Professor of Education, University of Cape Town
In this ambitious mixed-method study, Carter analyzes the social and symbolic boundaries that account for disparate educational experiences by race in the United States and South Africa. Resources are only part of the answer; equally important, she argues, are the cultural and institutional conditions that make students feel they are valued contributors of the community. Thus, school policies about hairstyle, dress codes, tracking, extracurricular activities, and language use are among the important dimensions that enable or discourage engagement in students. Educators, policymakers, and scholars alike have much to learn from this agenda-setting work.
Michele Lamont, Harvard University Author of The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Immigration
Prudence Carter's remarkable book shines a light on the often invisible patterns that perpetuate educational disparity in both the United States and South Africa. Stubborn Roots reveals how racial and ethnic divides are often reinforced, even in supposedly 'integrated' schools and even when many people of good will, try to eradicate them. Carter's insights illuminate how educators and schools can address these issues by becoming increasingly attuned to the socio-cultural worlds in which their students live. This book paves the way for the changes needed for historically disadvantaged groups to receive equitable, high-quality educations.
Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University
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