“I, Too, Sing…”: Methodologies Centering Black Children’s Voice in Education Research

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session explores what can be learned from children's voices and how the methods or methodologies we engage support the cultivation of "what" we actually learn. In privileging the perspective of Black children, a population whose voice is marginalized as per their race and their youth, panelists will not only examine how Black children’s voices evidence the limits and possibilities of public education across historical time and distinct educational spaces (i.e., charter schools, alternative schools, suburban schools, Afro-centric schools) but to explore disciplined, nuanced, and innovative methods by which Black children’s voices might be distinctly and profoundly captured. Methods explored include ethnography, and ethnohistorical methods.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research Focus on Black Education

Chair

• Karolyn D. Tyson, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Papers

• "They Don't Want Me to Win": Revealing Black Girls' Perspectives Through Ethnographic Research - Alaina Neal-Jackson, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• "That's What I Want It to Look Like": Honoring Black Children's Knowing in Ethnographic Research - Natalie R. Davis, Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy Learning Sciences

• Youth (In)Action? An Exploration of Young People's Definitions of Activism in Racially Contentious Contexts - Marlo A. Reeves, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• "This Is Love Down Here": Methodologies to Reclaim Unstoried Once-Childhoods in Rosenwald School History (1950–1963) - Kimberly Charis Ransom, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Discussant

• Michael J. Dumas, University of California - Berkeley