Critically Conscious Talk: African American Youth Use Discourse to Make Sense of Race, Racism, and Language

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Race Matters: The Intersection of Race and Education Policy and Practice

Abstract

This case study investigated a teacher’s asset-based pedagogical approach to teaching and learning. Within this case study, I explored three African-American student’s critical consciousness building, during what I have termed Culturally Sustaining Talk (CST). CST allowed students opportunities to reference or draw on out-of-class experiences related to race, racism, and language in an English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. The teaching and learning are explored to suggest that when an asset-based approach is used that African American students may have both positive and productive experiences during literacy learning. Because of the study’s importance, it could serve as a framework because it may make visible a real teacher’s enactment of CST and what a teacher can do in an ELA classroom.

Author

• Davena Y. Jackson, Michigan State University