Cultural and Critical Teaching: Why Black Studies Matter

• In Event: 47.096 - MTCC Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: 47.096-4 - Welcoming, Encouraging, and Celebrating the Authentic Voices of K–12 Students of Color

Abstract

This paper examines and discusses how practices rooted in the Black experience and culturally relevant pedagogies challenge understandings of achievement, identity and critical consciousness for racially diverse students in a co-constructed high school classroom. The study in which this paper focuses seeks to develop a model for infusing black cultural studies into public school curricula while investigating the significance of critical literacy. A guiding research question is: How can a focus on Black culture help students investigate race, culture, power, and personal/public assumptions about Blackness in ways that promote critical analysis, positive self- identity development and academic achievement?

The utilization of culturally relevant (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995) and culturally sustaining (Paris, 2012) frameworks joined with the home and community practices (Lave Wenger, 1991; Kinloch, Nemeth, Patterson, 2014) , histories, and activities of students and communities of color as well as dominant ones create spaces for students to think critically about themselves and the society in which they live in meaningful ways that do not devalue either in the process.

Within English 12: African American Voice, a high school English course created and taught by myself, a Black woman educator whose identity and epistemology was not reflected in my own traditional education, diverse students in a suburban school district in the U.S. Midwest are exposed to the ways in which Blackness has contributed to, has been influenced by, and has transformed America. At the same time, students learn to grapple with historical moments, cultural differences, and lived realities within academic settings in rigorous, culturally relevant ways. This creation of an academic space where no ‘space’ naturally exists provides a space and/or ‘community of practice’ in which Black contributions are valued and in which the voices of students of all races, ethnicities, and sexualities are welcomed, encouraged, and celebrated.
This study relies on narrative inquiry to examine how a mixed group of racially and ethnically diverse high school students understand questions related to identity as they study Black cultural and literary texts, histories, and practices.

The data was collected from a three-year long qualitative, participatory action research study conducted in a high school classroom and includes audio recordings from class sessions, participant student interviews, student multimodal artifacts and teacher/researcher reflections.

Findings from this study emphasize how Black historical and social ways of knowing contribute greatly to youth identity re-construction and to cultivating students’ and teachers’ racial, social, and educational critical consciousness. Students demonstrate that exposure to cultural literature and perspectives empowers students to value the beauty and greatness associated with Blackness and to therefore, value themselves as they learn of the interrelational and interconnectedness that exists between all mankind.

The implications of this work emphasize ways teachers and researchers can reframe traditional pedagogical practices and research agendas to include the lived experiences, perspectives, and identities of students while centering the study of Black and/or cultural studies.

Author

• Donja Thomas, Gahanna Jefferson Schools