Reenvisioning, Reconstructing, and Recasting Racial and Ethnic Identities in the High School English Classroom

• In Event: Roundtable Session 110
  In Roundtable Session: The Complex Reality of Marginality in K-12 Schools

Abstract

This paper draws on a year-long qualitative study exploring how a group of students, attending a high school with shifting demographics, write and talk about race in the English classroom. Blending two methodologies, including ethnography and the design and implementation of a race-conscious curriculum, this study examines how one group of students constructed their own racial and ethnic identities within the context of the classroom. Findings suggest that many White students hybridized, remixed, or borrowed their racial and ethnic identities while students of color tended to assert or affirm their identities. This study may complicate notions of how racial and ethnic identity operates in schools with shifting demographics while also highlighting the importance of bringing race-conscious curriculum into English classrooms.

Author

• Meredith DeCosta-Smith, Arizona State University