How Do We Live Within It All? Black Curriculum Theorizing Within the American Prison State

• In Event: Working From Marginal Spaces: Multifaceted Curricula to Resist Hegemonic Structures

Abstract

While there are many studies that examine the relationship between schools and prisons and its impact on Black youth, there are few studies that utilize the voices of Black people who have experienced incarceration to discuss schooling, education, and prison. In light of this, this study uses the qualitative methodology of Portraiture through the theoretical lens of Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) to focus on the schooling and educational experiences of three exonerated Black males (Exonerees) who were wrongfully incarcerated as youths in the state of Ohio. This study uses data from the Exonerees’ schooling and educational experiences to contribute to theorizations of Blackness and the radical possibilities of Black curriculum even within the anti-Blackness of the American prison state.

Author

• Rachel McMillian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign