Us Versus Everybody: Black Children's Dynamic Conceptions of Community, Opportunity, and Transformation Amid Declared "Crises"

• In Event: 30.066 - Educational Research and the (Re)Construction of Black Educational Opportunity in Public Discourse and Civic Action

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to share select findings from a larger study which examined the relationship between liberatory pedagogical models and Black student agency in two urban-based elementary schools. Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and student illustrations, I present analyses which make evident participants’ complex understandings of community, opportunity and transformation within and across contexts. I argue that these nuanced articulations from children , though wrought with stories of racial strife, constitute a counter-narrative of possibility not wholly or appropriately represented by public media outlets (Delgado, 1989). Finally, I draw conclusions about the possible implications for this work, as relevant to political action, teacher practice and humanizing scholarly research (Paris & Winn, 2013).
Scholars have argued that a rigorous, equitable education for African American children must include attention to students’ socio-emotional and sociopolitical well-being. Many have contended, that a truly liberatory education necessarily creates opportunities for Black students to analyze and critique the social and political forces which have bearing on their lives (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 1999; Ladson-Billings, 2014; McIntyre, 2000; Potts, 2003). Although the theoretical literature in this domain is robust, existing research has not adequately attended to implementation and experience. Consequently, we know very little about how the theories translate into real-world practice, and, are ill-equipped to understand how varying iterations of liberatory pedagogy might serve to animate Black student consciousness and agency in distinct ways. I situate this analysis of student perceptions within schools who make explicit their commitment to counteracting oppression and disrupting, rather than reifying, cycles of inequality. These institutions endeavor to create figured worlds of possibility (Holland et al, 1998), and support Black students in reimaging their potentiality in a world where their bodies are vulnerable and intellect too often discounted.
The setting for this study is a large Midwestern city which has been represented via public outlets as a city in decline, ripe with corruption and in desperate need of revitalization. This is a city perceived as being in crisis, and, deemed incapable of effective local control of its schools and agencies. Situated within this context, I collected ethnographic field notes and conducted over 70 semi-structured interviews with Black children (primarily grades 4/5th), teachers and administrators over a 15-month span. Students attended either an African-centered school, or one employing a community-oriented, place-based curriculum. Students also composed drawings to supplement our conversations of race, racial identity, opportunity and schooling.
For this symposium, I illuminate key findings from this study. First, I show that young children are already attuned to the Black “struggle”. And yet, these renderings are complex and would suggest that students are working to reconcile knowledge of gross inequities with their own imaginations and ambitions. Finally, although children are keenly aware of the real and imagined crises of their communities, they characterize their schools as spaces modeled for their enrichment and safety. The emphases of each school, whether it be Black excellence or brave critical awareness (of self and world), are understood and taken up by children.

Author

• Natalie Renee Davis, Northwestern University- SESP