Encuentros: Teenagers Constructing Afro-Latinidades With the Curricula of Home, School, and Beyond

• In Event: Teaching, Interrogating, and Dismantling Historical Injustices

Abstract

The polarized nature of U.S. discourse around race in the classroom poses challenges for educators and limits but does not foreclose students’ opportunities to see themselves reflected in school learning. Youth who identify as Black, Latinx, or both must negotiate their identities amid anti-Black, xenophobic, and racist nativist rhetoric and policies. In this paper, I interrogate how Afro-Latinx youth make sense of the complements and contradictions between the curricula of their world history course, their families’ racial socialization, and other spaces (namely, their city and social media platforms). This paper is part of a larger Design-Based Implementation Research study aimed at designing history curriculum that reflects the embodied knowledges and espoused beliefs of Afro-Latinx youth, their families, and other influences.

Author

• Eliana Castro, Boston College