“Urban” Schooling and “Urban” Families: The Role of Context and Place

Conceptualizations of urban context and place in research, practice, and policy are relational, ranging from spatial dimensions to cultural practices of children, families, and communities in metropolitan areas. In this article, we focus on the inherent complexity of these conceptualizations and long-standing debates in education and social science research that label urban as a point of both identity and designation. We position urban context itself as a genre of thinking and imagining; challenges complicated in research, scholarship, and policy; practice and pedagogy; and public will and political rhetoric, influencing educational options and spanning issues from poverty to schooling.