"Just Tryin' to Keep My Head Above Water": Adolescents in the Juvenile Justice System Navigate Shifting Identities and Literacies

• In Event: School Discipline to Prison to Reentry: (Up)Setting the Pipeline

Abstract

This roundtable centers on the experiences of three adolescent males who are currently involved in the juvenile justice system in the Southeastern region of the United States. Drawn from a larger, on-going critical ethnography exploring the literacy practices of justice system involved youth, this paper focuses on the ways in which the participants, who all have a background in rap music, shift their literacies and identities in sophisticated ways that are reflective of their current surroundings. However, the dichotomies inherent in the shifts present challenges in conducting authentic and humanizing research with this population of youth.

Authors

• Judith M Dunkerly-Bean, Old Dominion University

• Thomas W. Bean, Old Dominion University

• Barbara J. Guzzetti, Arizona State University

• Julia Morris, Old Dominion University