Humanizing Youth Literacies: A Schoolwide Approach for Culturally Relevant, Queer-Inclusive Pedagogy

• In Event: Humanizing and Mattering of Adolescents

Abstract

Motivated by the desire to understand a site that has been striving to promote humanizing literacy learning experiences, the authors each conducted a study–one on schoolwide literacy practices (Author 1) and one on queer-inclusive literacy pedagogy (Author 2), to ask, What practices emerge from one school’s efforts to develop and implement a culturally relevant, queer-inclusive literacy pedagogy? How do students respond to this pedagogy? Data analysis revealed a humanizing literacy vision which centered students’ identities, focused on meaningful relationships, and prioritized high academic expectations for each learner. Their two studies also show how students engaged in agentic inquiry and humanizing discourse about race, gender, and sexuality—guided by the school’s vision to grapple with sociopolitical issues and to augment students’ literacy.

Authors

• Chantal Francois, Towson University

• Jen McLaughlin Cahill, University of Pennsylvania