Speaking from Arizona: Can Scholarship about Education Make a Difference in the World?

Abstract

Abstract:On April 30, 2011 the University of Arizona hosted the inaugural Arizona Anthropology and Education Exchange (ANEX). A version of this article was presented as the closing keynote. Arizona citizens represent a range of opinions, but a hostile climate has been created by public discourses and legislative actions that target immigrants, privilege the English language, defund public education, ignore research findings and evidence in favor of ideology, and flout the Constitutional allocation of powers to distinct sovereigns. Analysis of mythologies that mask reality demonstrates how powerful forces narrowly define a safety zone of acceptable cultural and linguistic difference, relegating most difference to a danger zone where it can be marginalized or criminalized. What is going on in Arizona? What are educators invested in social justice and a diverse, civil society up against? How do we maintain hope that scholarship can make a difference?