What Silence Carried: Black and Asian Solidarity as Reclamation and Refusal in Western Educational Spaces

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Social Change, Social Justice

Abstract

This session explores how Black and Asian communities negotiate imposed silence within Western educational systems, using storytelling and poetic inquiry as liberatory tools. Drawing from narrative research, racial literacy practices, and cross-racial solidarity frameworks, presenters examine how silence—both forced and strategic—shapes identity, belonging, and resistance. With an emphasis on embodiment, intergenerational memory, and artistic expression, we highlight how culturally responsive pedagogies can affirm marginalized voices and cultivate collective healing. Through performance, dialogue, and praxis-oriented reflection, this session invites educators, researchers, and community members to reimagine education as a space of reclamation, refusal, and radical solidarity.

Authors

• Darius Phelps, New York University

• Diana Liu, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Judy W. Yu, Boston College

• David O. Beauzil, Teachers College, Columbia University