We Deserve It: Informing Literacy Instruction through Black Youths’ Educational Beliefs

• In Event: Unapologetically Centering Youth in Theory, Practice, and Praxis

Abstract

Amid the changing educational landscape of laws operating against students learning about race, this study provided a synthesis of projects created by Black youth centering their identities and histories. The purpose of this study is to explore Black youths’ perceptions of learning and the ways Black youth demonstrate learning when learning in ways that are culturally responsive. In this paper, I discuss how Black youths’ semester long projects on the strengths and challenges of their educational experiences might be used as a model to create literacy teaching and learning experiences. I also discuss how their experiences and artifacts might also offer insight into curriculum development for the benefit of Black youth and potentially all youth. I asked two research questions.

Author

• Glenda Chisholm, Georgia State University