Poetic Justice: Using Poetry as a Research Methodology to Explore Black Masculinities in Urban Public Schools

• In Event: 21.020 - Reimagining Intellectualism: Challenging Academia to Sustain Pluralistic Productions of Knowledge

Abstract

This study explores the use of poetry as a research methodology to investigate the intersections among race, Black masculinities, urban education and literacy practices. Coupled with the qualitative method of portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 1997), visual images of four Black male participants were constructed through poetry, journal entries and recorded face-to-face conversations over a 4-month period. The former public high school experiences of Black men in urban New York City schools were examined through the methodological/theoretical intersections of, poetry, portraiture and Critical Race Theory counterstories (Solórzano &Yosso, 2002). Utilizing a poetry-as-research methodology intentionally disrupted traditional conceptions of scholarship and research. As such, the work is often viewed as anti-intellectual and non-critical within higher educational institutions and among peer reviewers of highly- ranked academic journals, although the findings prove otherwise. The purpose of the study was to get a nuanced understanding of how a select group of Black men navigate public school settings through unconventional literacy practices and its enduring impact (if at all) on their lives thereafter. These unconventional literacy practices included but were not limited to: African American Vernacular English (AAVE), fashion choices, and cultural ways of being and knowing. Unconventional literacy practices speak directly to a New Literacies framework that centers “literacy as an embodied practice” (Pahl & Roswell, 2011, p. 4). Poetry was chosen as the primary methodology to investigate the men’s lives, due to the researcher’s poet-researcher positionality, and to foster new and intentional, critical race-based and creative spaces in educational research. Although previous educational research has incorporated the use of poetry to explore Black male literacies (Kirkland, 2013), where my study differs is the creation of pre and post poetic portraits written specifically about each man, based on transcribed audio recordings, that was connected to the data analysis and research process. The poetry analysis specifically addresses poetic transcriptions written at the beginning of the research process and at the end, as way to challenge the researcher’s assumptions before and after data collection, specifically as a Black woman doing research about and alongside Black men. Findings reveal a number of insightful interpretations which include: 1) Black men have endured oppressive teaching and learning practices at the secondary level in New York City, which has long lasting effects on their respective identities; 2) Literacy is often constructed as a “one-size-fits-all” curricular model in urban schools; 3) Oppositional literacies, such as the the use of AAVE in the classroom are perceived as threatening to the hidden curriculum agenda. As a result, the significance of this study is insightful for youth, pre-service/in-service teachers, educational scholars and policymakers alike.

Author

• Crystal Belle, Rutgers University - Newark