Amplifying Voices: Using Dialogue to Humanize Black Youth in Elementary Classrooms

• In Event: Critical Consciousness Perspectives on Race and Racism

Abstract

This methodological paper serves to illustrate how engaging with Black youth through utilizing the Projects in Humanization (PiH) (Kinloch & San Pedro, 2014) approach centers their voices in ways which aid in disrupting prevailing narratives around who Black students are and are expected to be within the urban elementary classroom. Part of a larger study exploring the science identity work of elementary students of color, this paper presents three illustrative vignettes to show how these student collaborators utilized dialogue to reposition themselves as agentic youth within their classroom, thus humanizing themselves. Analyses of each vignette are shared along with practical implications for how this work can be taken up within classrooms teacher education programs, and educational research writ large.

Author

• Terrance Burgess, Michigan State University