"These Kids Are Rebelling": A Student-Led Transformation of Community and Critical Literacy

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Discipline and Redemption: Grounded Perspectives on School Reform

Abstract

This paper draws on classroom observations and interviews during a residential summer enrichment program for gifted students. We focus on an English class when students engaged in a class debate and afterwards staged a community-based rebellion. We examine the ways that both “community” shaped this rebellion and “critical literacy” helped to resolve it. “Val,” an English teacher, scheduled a class debate on political correctness. During the activity, students began using racist slurs, and Val did not intervene during, or debrief with students afterward. In response, students formed a new community, from which Val was initially excluded, in response to what they deemed Val’s failure to the class community after a class debate.

Authors

• Stephanie Anne Shelton, The University of Alabama

• Kelsey H. Guy, University of Alabama

• April M. Jones, University of Alabama