Building Critical Literacy Communities That Amplify Youth Critical Consciousness

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Eighteen
  In Roundtable Session: Building Justice-Oriented Communities in Education (Table 15)

Abstract

This paper draws from a critical ethnographic study of a youth participatory action research project to investigate the pedagogical approach that established a classroom critical literacies community, as well as the influence of that community on youth critical consciousness. Analysis demonstrated that viewing youth as important knowledge producers, dialogic pedagogical practices, and meaningful social relationships facilitated an environment where youth could extend their inquiries and amplify their existing critical consciousness. This study adds to the evidence that youth, and especially BIPOC youth, have a crucial need to engage social topics in school and that, when permitted, critical teaching and learning emerges from this rather than being imposed from the top down, as recent anti-CRT public discourse and policy implies.

Author

• Aimee Hendrix-Soto, Texas Woman's University
  Presenting Author