Joyce, Pamela Althea. (2008). School Hazard Zone: Beyond the Silence/Finding a Voice. Reviewed by Christy Wolfe, Coe College

Joyce, Pamela Althea. (2008). School Hazard Zone: Beyond the Silence/Finding a Voice. NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. Pp. xii + 273         ISBN 978-0-8204-6912-6

Reviewed by Christy Wolfe
Coe College

September 19, 2008

School Hazard Zone: Beyond the Silence/Finding a Voice, by Pamela Althea Joyce, is clearly a labor of love. And love is a precarious emotion with which to do research. Joyce’s message is clear and unwavering: the achievement gap between minority students and White students is unacceptable and must be confronted with urgency and immediacy. In the tradition of Freire, Joyce calls for action by teachers and others in positions to positively influence students labeled as underachieving. She calls on teachers to “find a voice” amidst the everyday chaos of apathy, disempowerment, and silence present in so many American schools. Then, she charges teachers to use that voice through advocacy, action, and constant reflection on the teacher’s place in the widening gap between those considered able and those considered unable in schools across the county. Her book, she writes, “calls for a paradigm shift from the apathy of the American people toward educational inequities to expanded roles people can assume in creating critical interventions concerning minority underachievement” (p. 4).

In the introduction, Joyce gives some context to her work; she explains to the reader how her race, her chosen profession, and her use of journals all shaped her conclusions and theories put forth in her book. The next eleven chapters follow chronologically under two headings. Phase 1a: Immersed in Naiveté: The Story Begins is addressed in Chapters 2 through 7, or the first three years of Joyce’s journaling. Phase 1b: Finding Voice: Battling the Roadblocks covers years four and five (Chapters 8 through 11). In the final chapter (Chapter 12), Joyce addresses the question of “what is” and concludes that schools and educators embed themselves in the “what is” and ignore the “what to do” that is necessary for true change in schools.

Her compassion and passion for students who are underserved is amazingly evident. In the introduction, Joyce notes that, upon observing and examining the racial and economic injustices present in her school, she “cried and screamed in an attempt to release some of my own pain, and afterward I knew I had to take a stand” (p. 3). This highly personal tone is evident within the first few pages, as Joyce begins the introduction with the heading: “Stop Mind Killing! Make a shift from debilitating educational conditions to empowering the minds and spirits of minority youth!” (p. xix) Joyce explains that she kept self-reflective journals during five years as a reading specialist Storm Steele Divide Division (SSDD) and used those to develop her research for this text. She is vested in the journal process and weaves her ideas about the achievement gap between minority students and White students with her own journey of frustration and persistence as she finds her voice both in her journals and in her school.

Joyce took on a heady task to try to determine themes within her journals and create categories that had either a positive or negative influence on minority achievement. She begins by distinguishing the early years, in which her journals reflect her struggle and naiveté, from the later years, in which she finds and uses her voice to advocate for those disempowered in schools. Mutually exclusive of the phases, Joyce develops ten themes and each theme has a title. Each theme also has a designation as to whether it is a positive or negative influence on minority achievement. These influences are then attached to either oneself (in this case, the teacher/Joyce), school, or society. And there are ten themes. Got it? Ten themes, three parts to each theme, all within two phases. Joyce proceeds to examine her journal entries not thematically but chronologically.

Each chapter concludes with a needs assessment, critical questions, epiphanies, and “My motivation comes from,” wherein Joyce gives credit to parents, teachers, students, and others, as well as to finding her own “voice” to make change. And, finally, almost every chapter ends with a “village recipe.” The ingredients are the same for every recipe: “1 pinch of self, 1 pinch of school, 1 pinch of society.” The directions change slightly—“join a school committee…mentor one student…enlist other parents to petition for a more inclusive atmosphere in the school….” The cooking time, however, also stays the same: “When the achievement gap has been eliminated, it is done.” Instead of becoming a vehicle for making the message stronger, the recipe analogy detracts from the seriousness of the issue and makes the issue of the achievement gap between minority students and White students sound trite. I imagine the author would cringe at the idea of being accused of being “trite” about her advocacy for change in the way we teach and the way we establish school climates. However, the problem with writing a book for a wide audience (assuming the author wants her message heard by all) is that one risks being patronizing to those in the know—parents, teachers, and administrators who struggle to best serve the underserved children in their lives.

Written as it is, the book is not for the formatting faint of heart. Various fonts, text sizes, boxes, bullets, and tables detract from any underlying text upon which the accoutrements are based. The author layers themes, years, months, phases, and educator inserts (boxes with research-based musings) throughout the book. The introduction even has artwork and some of the author’s own poetry. The problem is that the author struggles to place this text in a solid home. Based on her own journal, it has the potential to be a good autobiographical look at teaching, like Julie Landsman’s White Teacher Talks about Race or Gail L. Thompson’s Through Ebony Eyes: What Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask About African American Students (which is based primarily on her research on race relations in schools but founded in her fourteen years in public junior and high schools). But, in its current state, the book falls through the cracks between a clear autobiographical piece and a research-based text on the achievement gap in schools.

About the Reviewer

Christy Wolfe
Assistant Professor
Teacher Education Department
Coe College
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
cwolfe@coe.edu