Beyond "Race Talk": Minoritized Youth's Racial Literacy(ies) as Critical Race Praxis

• In Event: Vice-Presidential Session. The Pursuit of Truth "Turnt Up": Considerations for Advancing Racial Literacy Beyond This Space and Time

Abstract

As Price-Dennis and Sealey-Ruiz remind us, “Knowledge about structural racism and the other interlocking oppressions that impact [students’] lives is an important aspect of students’ navigation of [their world(s)]” (p.21). Building on the significance of “knowledge” in cultivating students’ racial literacies, findings from this study underscore ES as a potential site for the development of a social action based/civically engaged racial literacies that are an application of this classroom cultivated “knowledge.” In other words, this study documents that affordances of conceptualizing and intentionally supporting students’ racial literacies as a praxis-centered process to disrupt the racial status quo. This study challenges watered-down conceptualizations of racial literacies and especially of underscoring how racial literacies necessarily moves beyond “race talk” and even the classroom-cultivated structural analyses of racism in order to truly “hold white supremacy accountable” (Author, In Press). Finally, this paper extends the scholarship on racial literacies by providing a classroom-level exploration of how racial literacies that are responsive to the intersectional racialized experiences of working class Latinx youth and their communities are fostered.
This exploration of the development of students’ racial literacies for this paper was undertaken through a qualitative critical ethnographic (Carspeken, 1996) approach. Utilizing observation and interview protocol adapted from Rogers & Mosley’s (2006) findings on racial literacy, data were collected via participant observations (Merriam, 2014) 40 minute- one hour, semi-structured phenomenological interviews (Seidman, 2013) of students and teachers and document collection (Glesne). I utilized axial coding (Saldana, 2013) to compare and contrast cases across focal students and teachers.

Data for this paper came from a larger qualitative critical ethnographic study (Carspeken, 1996) that took place a comprehensive high school in the US Southwest.
¬¬Through ES teachers’ racially literate pedagogical practice students’ racial literacies were supported across two factors: a) their structural analysis of racism as it intersects with factors such as language and citizenship, and b) their ability to connect that analysis to engage in or towards social action. Teachers facilitated the connection between supporting students with “naming” manifestations of institutional racism and social action by engaging students in participatory action research projects of their choosing. Moreover, students were provided multiple opportunities to imagine themselves and practice engaging in community responsive transformation with a direct connection to the discourse and theory they learned in their ES classes; these opportunities were provided through presentations by community activists/cultural workers and leaders and school-based clubs promoting community responsive social action sponsored by their ES teachers. Findings relevant to teacher pedagogy included, a) teachers’ “sustained and strategic” (Skerrett, 2011) racial literacies were central to developing students’ structural analyses of intersectional forms of racism, b) teacher’s praxis orientations and intentional bridging of historical legacies of racism and resistance with current intersectional socio-political experiences were key to supporting students’ racial literacy development.

Author

• Arturo Nevárez, California State University - Stanislaus
  Presenting Author