The politics of racial integration in the Seattle Public Schools: Discourse, policy, and political change, 1954-1991

dc.contributor.authorHehnke, Jennifer Marie, 1978-
dc.date.accessioned2010-07-28T21:44:21Z
dc.date.available2010-07-28T21:44:21Z
dc.date.issued2009-12
dc.descriptionxiii, 302 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis study examines the role of narrative in racial integration politics in the Seattle Public Schools between 1954 and 1991. In 1978, the Seattle School District in coalition with civic actors implemented a mandatory student assignment desegregation policy, "The Seattle Plan," without a court order. A decade later, another similar coalition of actors came together to shift desegregation policy towards a "controlled choice" method of student movement. In 1991, with the support of the newly elected Democratic mayor, the foundation of desegregation was dismantled. In Seattle, the shifts in desegregation conflicts can be explained as the transposition of certain arrangements of ideas into policy and the concurrent shift in the arrangement produced by new alignments of actors able to find enough common ground to coalesce and make policy. This dissertation explores the complexity of ideas about racial equality and the oftentimes-surprising arrangements actors created. I analyze the way elected, elite, and non-elite actors at the local level talked about, interpreted, and re-interpreted questions of racial segregation, equality, and the role of the public schools and explore the amalgamations of ideas about race and schools that explain the unique development of policy in Seattle with a way to account for change relying on micro-political developments. I examine the discursive arrangements generated within these conflicts, the coalitions built around these ideas, and how the ideas were implemented as policy. I analyze a broad range of archival materials, newspaper accounts, and interviews with actors who were involved in these events.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipCommittee in charge: Gerald Berk, Chairperson, Political Science; Julie Novkov, Member, Political Science; Joseph Lowndes, Member, Political Science; James Mohr, Outside Member, Historyen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/10550
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesUniversity of Oregon theses, Dept. of of Political Science, Ph. D., 2009;
dc.subjectDesegregationen_US
dc.subjectSchool choiceen_US
dc.subjectPublic schools -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- History -- 20th centuryen_US
dc.subjectRaceen_US
dc.subjectSeattle (Wash.) -- Race relations -- History -- 20th centuryen_US
dc.subjectWashington (State)en_US
dc.subjectAmerican historyen_US
dc.subjectPolitical scienceen_US
dc.subjectSeattle Public Schools
dc.subjectSchool integration -- Washington (State) -- Seattle -- History -- 20th century
dc.titleThe politics of racial integration in the Seattle Public Schools: Discourse, policy, and political change, 1954-1991en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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