Bang on the System: RevCrit Praxis, Youth Resistance, and the End to Dispossession

• In Event: 47.046 - (Re)Visiting and (Re)Imagining Youth (Transformational) Resistance

Abstract

This paper seeks to pair critical race theory (CRT) with the litany of radical democratic analysis guiding the social practices of various revolutionary movements. In this reframing Camangian and Stovall propose a new theoretical and pedagogical framework that deploys a mutually informed critical race praxis as the basis for engaging historically dispossessed youth in their own learning. Referencing the framework as RevCrit, the authors pull from disability critical race theory (DisCrit) and critical race spatial analysis to build on existing manifestations of CRT by naming the social system of Western hegemony that gave rise to acts of resistance by people of color. As RevCrit, the construct pulls from theories from local, national, and international revolutionary formations to make suggestions for classroom praxis. From the interrelatedness between revolutionary theory and critical race praxis, the authors seek to develop a pedagogical framework for subverting the legacy of colonialism in communities and schools that serve students of color. This lens will be utilized to examine interpretive case studies from a corpus of existing qualitative data collected through pedagogical and teacher action inquiries in some of California’s most underserved schools. Specifically, they will examine the role of RevCrit as a form of critical race praxis to mediate student resistance in schools.

Authors

• David O. Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Patrick Camangian, University of San Francisco