Name/Title
Citizen, Student, SoldierEntry/Object ID
LIB.2023.4Secondary Title
Citizen, Student, Soldier: Latina/o Youth, JROTC, and the American DreamDescription
Since the 1990s, Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) programs have experienced unprecedented expansion in American public schools. The program and its proliferation in poor, urban school districts with large numbers of Latina/o and African American students is not without controversy. Public support is often based on the belief that the program provides much-needed discipline for "at risk" youth. Meanwhile, critics of JRTOC argue that the program is recruiting tool for the U.S. military and is yet another example of an increasingly punitive climate that disproportionately affects youth of color in American public schools.
Citizen, Student, Soldier challenges the reductive idea that the students who participate in JROTC programs are either dangerous youths who need discipline or victims being exploited by a predatory program. Rather, their participation is informed by their marginal economic position in the local political economy, as well as their desire to be regarded as full citizens, both locally and nationally. Citizenship is one of the central concerns guiding the JROTC curriculum; this book explores ethnographically how students understand and enact different visions of citizenship, and it grounds these understandings in local and national political economic contexts. The book also highlights the ideological, social and cultural conditions of Latina/o youth and their families, who both participate in and are enmeshed in vigorous debates about citizenship, obligation, social opportunity, militarism, and ultimately, the American dream.Context
Includes studies of Lorain, Ohio.Book Details
Author
Perez, Dr. Gina M. DDate Published
2015ISBN
978-1-4798-0780-2