Call for Papers: Urban Education and Neighborhood Revitalization

Posted by on April 18, 2011

[posted from Comm-Org list]

From: “Silverman, Robert” <rms35@buffalo.edu>

CALL FOR PAPERS
JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS

Special Issue on “Urban Education and Neighborhood Revitalization”

Special Issue Editors

Kelly L. Patterson
School of Social Work
University at Buffalo
klp27@buffalo.edu

Robert Mark Silverman
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
University at Buffalo
rms35@buffalo.edu

Paper proposals are being accepted for a special issue of the Journal of Urban Affairs. The special issue focuses on the link between urban education and neighborhood revitalization. The issue will highlight papers that describe, analyze, and interpret innovative strategies to develop public policy that links urban education reform to neighborhood revitalization.

In cities across the United States, neighborhood decline and the demise of public education often occurs in conjunction. Efforts to revitalize neighborhoods are hampered by perceptions of underperforming schools. This results in a vicious cycle where cities are unable to sustain housing, related tax bases, and subsequently improve schools that depend on these resources to deliver quality educational programs. At the same time, students who attend schools in declining neighborhoods suffer from exposure to risks in the physical environment they experience on a daily basis. In part, there are direct impacts from student exposure to deteriorating neighborhoods, such as health and safety risks. In addition to these issues, students can be disempowered by exposure to a physical environment that they cannot have a positive impact upon.

This special issue examines a variety of approaches to public policy that address the nexus between urban school reform and neighborhood revitalization. Papers will be included that examine the following topics:

*The use of service learning and community engagement approaches to connect students with the physical environments that surround schools (this topic will include an analysis of programs like school-based:
community gardens, public arts projects, neighborhood planning proposals, and community service projects).

*Innovations in teacher training that include community engagement, collaboration with nonprofit community-based organizations, and community service as a component of teacher education.

*The development of full service schools and the coordination of wrap-around services with schools, such as: social welfare, child care, after school, public safety, and public health programs.

*The coordination of economic development and neighborhood revitalization efforts with school planning, design, reconstruction, and capital improvements.

*The development of educational pipelines and cradle to college programs that prepare students for the workforce.

*The relationship between the public sector, the nonprofit sector, public higher education, local school officials, and local government in the development of strategies to address school and neighborhood
problems collaboratively.

*The scope of federal and state aid available to assist schools and communities affected by historic patterns of decline due to funding disparities, poverty, and racial discrimination.

If interested in contributing, please send an abstract, not longer than 500 words outlining the topics to be addressed, methodologies used, and how the paper will contribute to the general theme of the special issue
to: Kelly Patterson (klp27@buffalo.edu) by April 30, 2011. When submitting include “JUA – SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBORHOODS” in the subject line. Authors will be notified by June 10, 2011 as to whether they will
be invited to prepare a full paper.

Final submissions of the papers will be expected by December 16, 2011 and then will be submitted through the usual refereeing process used by the Journal of Urban Affairs.

(A printer-friendly PDF version of this Call for Papers can be downloaded at http://www.udel.edu/uaa/pdfs/JUA_Special_Issue_Call_for_Papers.pdf.)