Take a Little Trip on the AZ Side: Examining a Pedagogy of Surveillance within the Structure of Schooling

Studies have shown that high school students feel “othered” within schools. This is particularly true of working-class communities. The former dominates the literature in relation to social class within educational studies. What needs to be addressed is how surveillance is enacted within pedagogy in everyday practices within schools. This paper draws on an empirical study of 17 high school students and 5 teachers who were interviewed through semi-structured interviews and platicas. Three key themes arise from their conversations covered in this paper:security, social distance, and the understanding of discipline. I argue that the most holistic way to understand such phenomena is to apply an interdisciplinary approach, through education, ethnic studies, and spirituality, but it is not limited to these. The paper concludes that we must interrogate the genealogy of education and what is seldom scrutinized as a norm, the structure of schooling.