Identity, Literacy, and (Re)Positioning Practices in a New York City "Second-Chance Program"

• In Event: A Nation at Promise: Challenging Deficit Constructions of Male Youth Labeled "At-Risk"

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: PURPOSE

This presentation challenges deficit constructions of young men of color in a second-chance secondary program in NYC. Analysis of the young men’s connections between identity, literacy, and agency are discussed in relation to how individual young men negotiate and resist deficiency discourses (Moje and Luke, 2009). Specifically, this work documents how these young men understand themselves to be positioned within conversations of educational and literacy “crisis” (Haddix, 2010). The young men’s strategies and practices pay our attention to their agency as they navigate prevalent negative discourses of race, gender, and class in and out of school, and inform public and school-based pedagogies that seek to be responsive to minoritized young men’s lives (Kirkland, 2013).

THEORETICAL FRAMING

This research is situated within conversations about literacies that engage both self-determination and social structures, recognizing systems of power that shape and are shaped by people within local cultural contexts (Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007). To resist the enduring power of “at-risk” raced and gendered framings (Alvermann, 2002) that locate deficiency or deviancy within some learners (Ladson-Billings, 2006), this work employs positioning theory (Harré & van Langenhove, 1999), exploring the myriad ways people can be positioned by others, institutions, or by/within discourse. Given that an individual can accept, refuse, or negotiate a proffered position (Holland & Leander, 2004), positioning theory provides a theoretical perspective well-suited to the exploration of identity negotiations and resistance.

DATA SOURCES/METHOD

Data include: narratives culled from focus groups and individual interviews with 12 young men between the ages of 17 and 21, examples of student writing from journals, and field notes taken during an associated participatory action research project. The young men’s narratives were rendered for structural and thematic analysis (Gee, 2014; Riessman, 2008), and analysis focused on the ways in which the young men take up, challenge, and negotiate dominant discourses on who they are and who they can become, as well as who they are perceived to be within educational and societal “crises.”

FINDINGS

The findings speak to trends amongst the young men’s negotiation of the deficit framings they encountered in and out of formal education, and explore individual strategies of resistance and (re)positioning through a focus on three young men in particular. These young men’s (re)positioning strategies build knowledge on how minoritized young men work to interrupt prevalent negative discourses of race, gender, and class in and out of school, informing public and school-based pedagogies that seek to be responsive to marginalized learners.

SIGNIFICANCE

This work goes beyond simply critiquing deficit models and positioning practices; it serves as a call for deeper recognition and valuing of minoritized people’s resistance, negotiation of, and individual strategies regarding harmful discourses on race, gender, and class. This recognition and valuing can inform opportunity structures in and out of formal schooling. More importantly, this work demonstrates that the positions marginalized male youth (and others) are interpellated within need not and should not be understood as entrenched dispositions.

Author

• Noah Asher Golden, Chapman University