Keeping It 💯: Teaching in Times of Crisis and Other Times Too

• In Event: Moving Through/to Possibilities: Navigating Uncertainties, Pathologies, and Anxieties in Troubling Times

Abstract

This paper addresses reconceptualizing curriculum in response to current social realities such as COVID-19 and the upsurge of anti-Black violence in 2020 that amplify longstanding inequities. Drawing on the “urban” concept of “Keeping it 100,” and critical theories such as racial literacy, we present five units of study conceptualized by two curriculum theorists and designers spanning topics of identity, critical inquiry, empathy, racial literacy, and patriotism. These units were implemented by teacher-collaborators across the US with varied student demographics. We include teachers’ reflections on their and their students’ engagements with these units that indicate the necessity of reconceptualizing curriculum to equip students to participate in efforts that advance social and educational justice and transformation.

Authors

• Allison Skerrett, The University of Texas at Austin

• Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia