Envisioned Futures: Urban Youth of Color's Visual Counternarratives in an Era of #BlackLivesMatter

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Envisioned Futures: Transformative Work With Young People

Abstract

This paper explores how youth of color create counternarratives of urban youth and public education. Data included student assignments from two university summer courses focusing on social justice and urban education. Using Harper's (2015) work on visual counternarratives, we found that youth in this study created texts as counternarratives to push back against deficit notions of urban youth and urban education. Specifically, we found that youth counternarratives: (1) reaffirmed asset-based conceptions of self, (2) imagined possibilities of empowerment for urban schools, and (3) deconstructed society’s image of urban communities and education. This research has implications for research, teaching, and teacher education, as it calls for the construction of scholarship and curricula centered on the counternarratives and voices of youth.

Authors

• Mary L Neville, Michigan State University

• Vivek Vellanki, Michigan State University

• Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Michigan State University