Critical Racial Literacy and Intersectionality: Undoing Multiple Oppressions in Developmental English

• In Event: 67.067 - MTCC Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 67.067-5 - Critical Literacy and Arts in the Development of Culturally Conscience Curriculum

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the process of introducing a critical racial literacy (CRL) approach in a developmental English course. This CRL approach was intended to interrupt official silences about racism and intersecting oppressions. This work was inspired by my realization that a student expectation for this course, “learning how to deal with racism in college,” was conspicuously absent from the curriculum. Using a lens of intersectionality, this paper shows how official blindness to race, class, and gender in developmental English functions as a hidden curriculum that normalizes oppressive ideologies and hierarchies.
Previous studies have not examined the intersection of oppressions in developmental English courses. This study calls for reexamining the underlying logic and purpose of developmental English.

Author

• Ramon Vasquez, SUNY - College at New Paltz