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Pursuing Humanizing Teaching Practices Within a Dehumanizing Educational System: "Regarding Lovingly" the Literacy Practices of Black Boys

Sun, April 15, 8:15 to 9:45am, New York Hilton Midtown, Floor: Third Floor, Petit Trianon

Abstract

Dominant conceptualizations of Black boys often draw on metaphors of criminality and deficiencies (Ferguson, 2001). Dumas and Nelson (2016) argue that that even well-meaning educators and scholars, influenced by the construction of Black boys as problems and in perpetual crisis, “become preoccupied with order and discipline, paying minimal or no attention to boys’ experiences of play or peer friendships or caring” (p. 35). In this paper, I explore what happens when educators instead begin with a stance of recognizing, embracing, and “regarding lovingly” (J. Staples, personal communication, April 18, 2015) the humanity of Black boys. To do so, I explore how a teacher created a responsive instructional context in which the boys marshalled their literacy resources in the service of inquiry, reflection, and action in response to what they perceived as an inequitable situation.

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