 Tough Fronts:The Impact of Street Culture on Schoolingreviewed by Maryann Dickar - 2003  Title: Tough Fronts:The Impact of Street Culture on SchoolingAuthor(s): L. Janelle Dance Publisher: Routledge/Falmer, New York ISBN: 0415933005, Pages: 187, Year: 2002 Search for book at Amazon.com Tough Fronts by L. Janelle Dance is a welcome addition to the literature that examines youth culture and its relationship to schooling and society. Dance focuses on “street savvy” African American and Latino males, two of the most maligned and misunderstood groups of students in America’s schools. By “street savvy” Dance means young men who navigate street culture and must maintain a hard exterior pose as a matter of survival though police and school officials often target such postures as criminal. Dance claims her goals are threefold, “(1) to better understand the experiences of street savvy students who act “hard” like a “gansta”; (2) to explore the implications of gangsterlike posturing on schooling; and (3) to breathe students lives into scholarly debates about the state of (urban) public education in the United States”(p. 2). Tough Fronts half meets this mission. We do learn much more about street savvy students; however, there is no significant exploration of the impact of their gangsterlike postures on schooling. There are few views... (preview truncated at 150 words.) To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropriate membership. Please review your options below:
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