Meaning-Making About the Salience of Race in Middle School Among Adolescent Students of Color

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Momentum and Change: An Exploration of Schools and Youth Systemically Employing Critical Race Theory (Table 16)

Abstract

Current efforts to regulate discussions around race in classrooms pose a threat to the well-being of students with racially marginalized identities, especially when considered against the backdrop of historic racial oppression and hegemonic whiteness. Using a phenomenological and critical race lens, we examine the salience of ethnicity-race for five students of color in a suburban middle school where White students constitute a large percentage of the population. Transcripts of individual interviews with students were analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Analyses generated experiential themes that illustrated students’ meaning-making around race in their school: the value and complexity of navigating diversity, awareness of racialized treatment, and the salience of ethnic-racial identity. School-based strategies for ethnic-racial solidarity will be discussed.

Authors

• Tina M. Durand, Boston University

• Efe I. Shavers, Boston University