Equipping Future Black Literacy Leaders to Cultivate Literacy, Identity, and Learning

• In Event: Exploring the Interplay of Identity, Learning, and Literacy

Abstract

We are deeply committed to equipping future Black literacy leaders. In our project, “future literacy leader” refers to both Black elementary literacy instructors and Black elementary boys. This intentional simultaneous framing of educators and students as future literacy leaders is central to our literacy model and work as literacy educator-scholars. The literacy model we describe is modeled after historically Black literary societies and generated unique opportunities for future literacy leaders to learn, grow, and sustain their literacy excitement in a supportive collaborative learning environment. 19th Century Black literary societies were committed to supporting the personal and intellectual growth of its members. In other words, our research was guided by “a collective spirit of accountability, love, and purpose" (Love, 2019, p. 48), beyond grades. According to the National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 25% of U.S. of all students are reading at advanced levels. Within this context, we firmly believe “literacy” has been too narrowly defined and only captures a snapshot of the dynamic nature of what “literacy” has been and ought to be. What is captured by state-sanctioned assessments, in many ways, minimizes the beauty and deep meaningful possibilities of literacy learning and instruction. Assessments and the schools are missing the mark in meeting the literacy needs of both students and teachers. Therefore, during this 20-month ethnographic case study, we chronicle the interplay of the literacy, identity, and learning experiences of future Black literacy leaders (n=125) across an elementary school and university setting in the midwestern United States. By closely examining our “literacy shifts” as we individually taught Black elementary boys and collectively reflected about our literacy instruction across 2 academic settings, we found 6 “literacy shifts”: (1) seeking understanding, (2) affirming experiences, (3) provoking mindfulness, (4) building relationships, (5) cultivating literacy confidence, and (6) and improving literacy performance. We noticed these shifts in the precision of their questions about literacy research, the development of Black boys, and how they communicate their understandings and practices to educators. The shifts also pushed the authors to reconceptualize planned experiences, selected readings, and collaborative literacy learning and identity engagements. This study may serve as a model for equipping future leaders with a discipline-specific focus on literacy.

Authors

• Sakeena Everett, University of Georgia - Athens

• Tamara Moten, University of Georgia