Processing Social Justice: A Queer Enactment of Learning From a Middle School Class

• In Event: Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Investigating the Influence of K–12 Educator Perceptions on Curriculum and Practice

Abstract

The author will share findings from a post-critical ethnography and Participatory Action Research study of a social justice-based math class, focused on one queer form of student enactment: processing. This study combined queer pedagogy with other critical pedagogies because of their emphases on critical consciousness, dialogue, reflection, and social action. The primary elements of processing found through data analysis were dialogue, reflection, and engaged play. Examples of each element of processing will be discussed. This study shows teachers that allowing students to discuss topics in loosely-structured ways allows for deeper exploration and greater rewards. Through processing, students were engaging in their own learning practices that allowed them to both seriously engage with and playfully consider social justice topics.

Author

• Summer Pennell, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill