Affirming the Phonological Genuis of Black Language: Linguistic Justice in Foundational Literacy

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 9:45 am
  In Poster Session: Teaching in the Key of Liberation: From Jim Crow to AI Literacies

Abstract

This paper critiques the anti-Black foundations of phonemic awareness, which often pathologizes Black Language and privileges White Mainstream English. Through the analysis of a pedagogical vignette from a first-grade classroom, the paper examines how phonemic awareness tasks marginalize Black students’ metalinguistic awareness. Grounded in BlackCrit and linguistic justice, this analysis illuminates how foundational literacy instruction reinforces linguistic hierarchies and offers a (re)claiming of phonemic awareness as a site for transformative possibilities. The paper calls for foundational literacy instruction that affirms students’ metalinguistic knowledge and centers Black students’ full linguistic repertoires as requisite for equitable, pro-Black literacy development.

Author

• Jasmyn K. Jones, University of Memphis