To Be Young, Gifted, and Wayward: Narrating Black Educational Refusal and the Reclamation of Voice and Sovereignty

Multiple Presenter Session: Panel

Abstract

To Be Young, Gifted, and Wayward reframes the literature review as a narrative study grounded in Black Feminist and Critical Race theories. This project asks: How do Black Feminist and Critical Race theories inform our understanding of systemic inequities in public education—and how do they challenge dominant narratives in education policy and practice, particularly those framed as race-neutral? Structured in three acts—Erasure, Resistance, and Reclamation—the review draws on personal archival texts, federal education reports, and feminist counterstorytelling to examine how Black girls and educators resist carceral schooling and reclaim pedagogical sovereignty. Guided by Hartman’s “waywardness,” Shange’s critique of carceral progressivism, and Lindsey’s theorization of “breaking a bitch,” this study centers refusal as theory and practice. The work insists that to be young, gifted, and wayward is to imagine otherwise, and to teach against the grain with memory, joy, and rebellion.

Sub Track

• AESA

Presenter

• Diedra Carlson, University of MN Twin Cities