Work matters: The educational, cultural and economic ecology of two Gulf-Coast communities

Abstract

This dissertation explores the connections between the institutions of work, family, and school as revealed through a team ethnography study of two southern Louisiana communities. The study focused on the gathering of first-hand accounts of the cultural, social, and economic continuum of changes that local households and individuals are experiencing in relation to the vicissitudes of employment in the oil and gas industry and the various ways in which household members negotiated, accommodated, and resisted the impacts. This dissertation also reports on a collaborative research methodology that employed a "funds of knowledge" approach that situated public school teacher-researchers as crucial local members of the project team. Their position as insiders within the local schools and households grounded the research process and provided the team with multiple member checks that helped to validate and authenticate the research. As a background to the analyses undertaken here, this study reviews the relevant literature on structure and agency as well as critical educational studies of social reproduction and cultural production. Finally, suggestions are made as to possible directions public schools might take to critically connect schools to work and communities.