CANCELLED. Mahogany Adolescent Literacy Identities: Nurturing Relationships With Literacy as if Our Lives Depended on It

• In Event: 56.081 - Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: 56.081-17 - Perspectives on Black Student Success in K–12 Education

Abstract

This study investigated how 9th grade students who identify as Black, i.e., African American, Caribbean, and African, in an urban comprehensive public school characterized their relationships with literacy. A narrative analysis methodological framework was utilized to examine the students’ primary and secondary literacy exposures. The theoretical lens of New Literacy Studies and critical literacy were employed to elucidate how formative in-school and out-of-school literacy experiences influenced minoritized students’ attitudes towards reading and writing. Drawing upon multiple data sources: 1) students’ self-authored literacy autobiographies; 2) semi-structured interviews; 3) 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) assessment scores; and 4) 9th grade ELA report card grades enabled me to capture a nuanced description of students’ literacy identities, achievement, and relationships with academic literacies.

Author

• Twila Ainsworth, University of Pennsylvania