Critical Race Literature Circles as Nuanced Methodology: Examining Young African American Children's Sociopolitical Knowledge and Racial Awareness

• In Event: Pedagogical and Methodological Approaches to Facilitating Critical Conversations With Elementary-Aged Children in Literacy-Rich Contexts

Abstract

Children of color in the U.S. are born into a highly racialized climate, one wherein it is essentially impossible for them to remain colorblind. Studies of early racial awareness and attitudes (Clark & Clark, 1939; Jordan & Hernandez-Reif, 2009; Park, 2011; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001), which have predominantly been either observational or experimental in design, have for decades centered on the development of young children’s self-esteem, biases, or friendships. Yet, researchers and practitioners know little about young children’s sociopolitical knowledge concerning race and inequality, namely issues like incarceration, enslavement, and policing, which transcend an interpersonal conceptualization of early racial concepts and knowing. As numerous early literacy scholars have found (Luke & Freebody, 1999; Souto-Manning, 2013; Vasquez, 2004), sociocultural approaches to literacy pedagogy and facilitation offer a useful, appropriate paradigm for engaging young children in their ideas about society.

Building upon early racial awareness and critical literacy (Norris, Lucas & Prudhoe, 2012; Shor, 1999) research, this paper addresses the following question: What are the possibilities and constraints of using literacy circles as a methodological and pedagogical tool to access young children’s sociopolitical racial awareness and knowledge? Highlighting African American children’s substantial capacity to articulate and analyze racial situations and issues around them, I discuss outline and detail the literacy circle--a focus group-like environment constituted by open discussions, multicultural children’s literature, and a variety of literacy modalities (e.g., listening, responding, dialogue, drawing, writing, and dictating)-I developed in empirical pursuit of the research question.

Methodologically informed by African American oral traditions (Collins, 1989) and theoretically and analytically grounded in central tenets of Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1992; Delgado & Stefancic, 2017; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), and sociocultural literacy studies (Barton & Hamilton, 2000; Campano, Sanchez, & Ghiso 2013; Street, 1984), this paper draws upon qualitative data from a larger study with five first grade African American children enrolled in an independent, community school to detail the affordances and constraints of literacy circles. To analyze the circle session data, I carefully reviewed, re-read and reflected on the notes and researcher memos that were generated during the data collection cycle. I also replayed and closely listened to all literacy circle audio-recordings, attending to both generative discussions and less productive moments of engagement. The analysis yielded the following: the literacy circles were fluid, developmentally responsive, and sustained engagement of topics between and across weeks. On the whole, the literacy circles provided a dialogic, sociocultural literacy space wherein the children could articulate their experiences, provide detail and nuance to our understanding of their interpersonal experiences, and engage ideas about the sociopolitical and the institutional, assert counternarratives of empowerment, and critique the status quo.

This research presented in this paper is significant in that it: 1) expands educators’ and researchers’ notions of what young African American children know about race and racism, 2) offers a nuanced methodological approach for conducting early racial awareness research with all children, and 3) provides a developing framework for early childhood educators to engage in critical, race conscious discussions with students.

Author

• Wintre Foxworth Johnson, University of Virginia