Participatory Methodologies in Neoliberal Contexts: Struggling for Sustainability Through Counternarratives to Family Literacy

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 40
  In Roundtable Session: Neoliberal Forces on Families, Eco-Justice, and Formations of Smartness

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of engaging in participatory methodologies to sustain family literacy programming in neoliberal contexts. While early proponents framed family literacy programs as a way “to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty,” such notions rely on deficit discourses about “urban youth” and ignore the social contexts underlying poverty. Through a critical participatory action research project that engaged high school students of color and their children as active researchers, this study adds to the growing body of research on critical policy studies; reflects upon the complex relationships of race, sexuality, and class that surfaced through the project; and shares insights from struggles for self-determination and intergenerational social justice education.

Author

• Stacey Krueger, University of Illinois at Chicago