Handling a Horrid History: Students Narrate Connections Between Racism and Slavery

• In Event: 47.028 - Diverse Perspectives on Social Justice Inquiry in Education and Psychology

Abstract

Although research has suggested that students tend to invoke dominant narratives of progress and freedom when tasked with telling the story of the American past, few studies have examined how students speak or write of a “difficult history” like slavery. To explore the relationship between understanding race and understanding history, I apply critical race theory analysis to analyze how 50 secondary school students expressed racial literacy in their narratives of the history of enslavement. Drawing on Werstch’s (2002, 2004) schematic narrative templates, I examine how students constructed notions of progress and freedom in their narratives. While students were able to identify and describe various permutations of racism, they tended to marginalize the role of racism in slavery and its aftermath.

Author

• Justine Hwei Chi Lee, University of Maryland - College Park