The Stories We Tell: Toward an Understanding of Black Male Youths' Co-Constructed Identities Within a Culturally Relevant Classroom

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: African American Male Students and Notions of Self and Success

Abstract

Social researchers have drawn attention to the ways in which Black males are imagined within society and social science research. Within society’s collective imagination, Black males have been characterized as dumb, deviant, and dangerous on one hand and cool on the other. While there have been various efforts to disrupt the storylines circulating about Black males within society, there is no barrier preventing these discourses from being present within schools. Culturally relevant pedagogy has the potential to disrupt some of these narratives. This paper examines the ways in which discourses about Black males influence the identities Black male students co-construct within the classroom of a culturally relevant teacher intentional about supporting their academic, social, and cultural development.

Author

• Keisha McIntosh Allen, University of Maryland - Baltimore County