After-School Learning at a Predominantly Latinx-Serving High School: Engaging Academic/Disciplinary Literacy, Inquiry, and Affect

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Explorations of Equity and Identity in Humanities Classrooms

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates the literacy affordances of a school-based after school activity undertaken in a small, urban high school serving mostly low-SES, Latinx students. Drawing on observations, interviews, instructional materials, and student work, this research features situated analyses of an event known as the War Room in which students, cast as Hawks or Doves advising the U.S. president, debate the necessity of military aggression in Vietnam, World War II, and the Cold War. Findings examine the ways in which the War Room supported disciplinary literacy, dialogic discourse, and student engagement. The study demonstrates the promise of novel learning environments that extend and energize learning beyond the classroom thereby enhancing opportunities to learn for Latinx youth.

Authors

• Steven Z. Athanases, University of California - Davis

• Marnie Curry, University of California - Santa Cruz