Risky Literacy: Collective Meaning Making With Black Boys Labeled Dis/abled

• In Event: Pursuing Racial Justice Through Intersectional Inclusive Education

Abstract

Purpose
In many United States locales, educators often struggle to recognize and embrace the gifts Black boys with and without dis/ability labels bring into learning environments (Author, 2022). This is an injustice and a matter that demands urgent attention. Designing schools that meet the academic, sociocultural, and psychological needs of Black boys requires—at the minimum—intentional and concerted efforts by educators to demarginalize the voices, histories, cultures, and perspectives of Black boys in their respective schools (Smith & Hope, 2020). The purpose of this paper is to reveal what is possible when Black boys labeled dis/abled are provided the opportunity to co-construct a learning community centered on literacy and identity development. Further, this paper aims to underscore the importance of accepting Black boys for who they are without attempting to fix them.

Theoretical Framework
I, the author, used disability critical race theory (DisCrit), Waitoller and Kozleski’s (2013) notion of inclusive education, and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to design the study and analyze the activity within it. CHAT helped me recognize my and my participants’ psychological development as embedded within a dynamic social and cultural-historical context. It also helped me conceptualize and design a learning space that recognized and embraced the cultural-historical assets of nine Black boys labeled dis/abled. DisCrit and Waitoller and Kozleski’s notion of inclusive education helped me examine issues of power (e.g., how racism and ableism intersected in ways that limited the boys’ opportunities to learn in school).

Methods
I used critical qualitative methods to understand how the identities of a group of nine Black boys labeled dis/abled—from various states across the country—mattered in the context of their schooling experiences. The boys and I co-constructed a community of practice on Zoom. We read and discussed a fiction book (that foregrounded topics such as racism, ableism, bullying, and policing) in the context of their identities and lived experiences. An audio version of the book supported the hardcopy. I also engaged the boys in interviews and focus groups and took fieldnotes during our virtual sessions. I analyzed data using the constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 1990).

Results and Significance
I found that, as the boys and I strove toward creating an inclusive learning space, the boys engaged in what I call “risky literacy” practices. The boys took the risk of being vulnerable with each other and me as we constructed meaning of the text and shared our experiences and perspectives. We co-created a space in which we nurtured the boys’ critical literacy skills (e.g., understanding of racism) by having our perspectives, actions, and experiences probed and sometimes challenged. The boys were largely responsible for the ways inclusion was negotiated in our community of practice.
These results are significant because they challenge the common misconception that Black boys, especially those labeled dis/abled, are academically, socially, and emotionally deficient. These findings are also important because they show what can be accomplished when Black boys are provided opportunities to be and learn in community with other Black boys.

Author

• William A. Proffitt, Montclair State University