"What Are We Trying to Accomplish?" Student Resistance as Epistemic Wisdom

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 35
  In Roundtable Session: Race, Rights, and the Educational Experience: Revisiting the Role of Resistance as Epistemic Wisdom

Abstract

This work analyses a grade 9 English Language Arts classroom discussion for moments of resistance and asks, what does student resistance accomplish when viewed as racial wisdom? Analyses was conducted from two levels: the surface level (the function of what is stated) and the resistance level (the breach accomplished) and grounded in a discourse analysis approach. Results indicate student resistance transformed the discussion by destabilizing a process that on one level met institutional criteria of acceptable student responses, but continued to perpetuate racial and social myth. From this new space, students shared their embodied experiences. Our work demonstrates the importance of situating resistance as evidence of a developing and expressed social understanding and its importance in collaborative and critical learning.

Authors

• Mark Latta, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Teresa Sosa, Indiana University - IUPUI