"It's Too Boring Now": Contested Participation and Identify Conflicts in a Critical Literacy Classroom

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-13 - When School Matters: Critical Literacy Spaces by and for Black and Latino Youth

Abstract

“Da'uud,” a Somali sixth-grader in a critical literacy program, was absent from his class's public performance after declaring it “too boring now.” Using writing as methodology to weave together contexts (e.g., race, gender, and transnational identities), theories, and Da'uud's participation (from critical ethnographic data), I examine Da'uud's interactions as counterstory (Delgado, 1989). This highlights how identities are co-constructed in classrooms and how Da'uud was both an active, brilliant participant and contested roles peers and teachers asked him to play. Positioned in ways conflicting with his identities, Da'uud used his agency to oppose the classroom's power and social organization. For classroom practices to move toward justice rather than repeat oppressive storylines, we must understand such social and cultural contexts.

Author

• Shannon McManimon, Science Museum of Minnesota