UCLA

The increased militarization of schools serving predominantly low-income, non-white students, post 9/11 and the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, has had significant implications for issues of educational access, equity and democracy. This dissertation is a yearlong qualitative case study of militarism and military recruitment within an urban school in Southern California, serving predominantly low-income, Latin@ students. Specifically, the study focuses on schooling policies and practices promoting military service, privileging military values and shaping the school-to-military pipeline. Also, the study is concerned with understanding the ways in which the meaning perspectives of the actors within this context inform their actions.

The methods employ approaches from grounded theory research, documentary research and critical research. Data sources used in the study include 112 formal and informal interviews, 17 qualitative fieldnotes and multiple artifacts including pamphlets, photographs, posters and newspaper articles. The analysis is situated within the larger socio-political and historical context of militarization in the United States and grounded in neo-Marxist and postcolonial theories.

Findings of the study posit that certain well-resourced institutionalized programs within the school, such as the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC), the Police Academy Magnet and to some extent the Law Magnet were intended to shape and socialize students through militarized practices. These practices were justified through classed, raced and gendered discourses about what students needed and were capable of achieving. The aforementioned programs not only reified a pedagogy of enforcement but also promoted military service as a postsecondary path and a stepping stone to careers in "security" and law enforcement.

In addition to these institutionalized programs, military recruiters frequented the school campus and were given increased access to students through the actions of certain "gate-openers." Recruiters used their access to propagate half-truths and inaccurate narratives about military service to gain students' interest. Furthermore, the heightened focus on "discipline" and "safety" issues, high stakes accountability measures and the constant militarized spectacles within the school contributed to the normalization of "military values as collective common sense" (Mariscal, 2003, p.48).

All of these factors formed a web of militarism, giving military service unparalleled promotion in comparison to other postsecondary paths within this school. In this context students internalized, challenged and appropriated militarized values and practices as they negotiated their interests within the militarized terrain of their schooling.