Four Individual Narratives on Forgiveness, One Collective Narrative on Violence

• In Event: Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: Using Literacies: Multiple Literacies to Explore Students’ Identities and Experiences

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how participation in a curricular intervention promoting forgiveness affects the ability of urban youth of color to critically disrupt collective cultural narratives that normalize violence in their contexts. Based on qualitative data and analysis (interviews and classroom discussion) of case studies of four African American first year high schools students, the study shows that increased reflection on collective narratives and on the possibility of disrupting those narratives through forgiveness, exposure to examples illustrating the negative consequences of unforgiveness as well as models of forgiveness being enacted, and the ability to name and understand the steps of the forgiveness process may be important. Implications exist for curriculum aimed at addressing urban violence.

Authors

• Sharon M. Chubbuck, Marquette University

• Michalinos Zembylas, The Open University of Cyprus