TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose – This chapter explores a necessarily ambivalent approach to gang members at an inner-city alternative high school, Choices Alternative Academy (CAA), as staff must both accommodate and monitor their often troubled students.Methodology – The methodology of this study is ethnographic, drawing from participant observation carried out over the course of four years, and 65 informal, semistructured interviews of a theoretical, purposive, snowball sample.Findings – Staff in schools dominated by gang members must both accommodate and control them, which are often contradictory practices.Research limitations/implications – As a case study of a single alternative school, the study is limited in scope, but comprehensive in depth, as observations were conducted over a four-year period. Future research may focus on the relationship of teacher experience and expertise to the desire to acknowledge the presence of gangs.Practical implications – The chapter advocates the utility of an ambivalent approach toward gang members in policy discussions, acknowledging the wide variety of discourses possible in regard to gang members.Originality/Value of the Paper – While most studies of schools and gangs focus on large, mainstream schools, this study is unique for focusing on a school that specifically serves gang members and the difficulties and dilemmas involved in that task.
VL  - 17
SN  - 978-1-84950-737-0, 978-1-84950-736-3/0196-1152
DO  - 10.1108/S0196-1152(2010)0000017008
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-1152(2010)0000017008
AU  - Garot Robert
ED  - Mark Peyrot
ED  - Stacy Lee Burns
PY  - 2010
Y1  - 2010/01/01
TI  - The gang's school: Challenges of reintegrative social control
T2  - New Approaches to Social Problems Treatment
T3  - Research in Social Problems and Public Policy
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 149
EP  - 176
Y2  - 2024/05/15
ER  -