In this book, we examine tenets of the American Dream as a merit narrative enacted in schools to better understand how beliefs about talent, hard work, and perseverance support the status quo rather than critical analysis of barriers to educational success for students of color and students from a poverty context. Using narrative methodologies, the authors explore the connections and consistencies within and between their personal narratives and the narratives of school youth and educators that work with them. Based on analysis of these shared stories, we argue for the importance of moving from individualized success stories that reify hard work and perseverance to collective, communal stories that serve to break down myths of meritocracy, critically examine inequities, and move educational advocates forward in authentic, audacious, hopeful ways.

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Drawing on their own stories as well as those of students and educators, Givens (now Givens Generett) and Olson challenge the merit narrative underlying the US school system, critiquing the emphasis on talent, hard work, and individual perseverance and the ignorance of systemic barriers to educational success. Although this call to adopt a system-based perspective in understanding students of color is not the first of its kind, the authors offer a unique narrative lens that hints at the intersectionality of race, class, gender, sexuality, and immigration status in the merit narrative rather than directly applying race analysis frameworks, such as critical race theory. Recommended. General readers through graduate students; two-year program students.