Garry S. Mitchell, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He earned his Ph.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he was a Stone PhD Scholar in Inequality and Wealth Concentration at the Kennedy School and an Ethics Pedagogy Fellow at the Safra Center for Ethics.
With a background as a middle school teacher in New York City, Garry’s commitment to educational justice is deeply intertwined with his identity as an African-American male, descended from enslaved peoples in the United States. His work aims to elevate our understanding of education’s role in shaping equitable societies.
Garry’s research focuses on educational justice and operates at the intersection of history, sociology, and philosophy of education. His work examines the punishment-to-privilege spectrum in K-12 schools and the role of elite education as a catalyst for social, economic, and racial mobility. He also explores the ethical dimensions of college preparatory school programs (CPSPs) that support low-income, minoritized students as they navigate elite educational spaces.
His current research, based on 150 interviews and 500 hours of observational data, investigates the role of CPSPs in shaping the identities and worldviews of upwardly mobile students. This project explores how these programs sculpt students’ experiences in elite secondary schools, focusing on how they navigate gains and sacrifices along their mobility journeys. By revealing the ethical and personal costs of upward mobility, Garry’s work challenges the notion of “mobility as equity,” particularly within elite educational environments.
