Blackness as intervention: Black English outer spaces and the rupturing of antiblackness and/in English education
25 Oct 2021-English Teaching-practice and Critique (Emerald Publishing Limited)-Vol. 20, Iss: 4, pp 454-484
About: This article is published in English Teaching-practice and Critique.The article was published on 2021-10-25. It has received 4 citations till now.
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TL;DR: In this paper , the authors present findings from an empirical study that sought to understand how Black teachers collectively built a Black affinity space in response to the antiblackness they faced in their school sites, and draw on notions of fugitivity from Black Studies to theorize this space as a pro-Black fugitive space.
Abstract: ABSTRACT This article presents findings from an empirical study that sought to understand how Black teachers collectively built a Black affinity space in response to the antiblackness they faced in their school sites. Analyses of interview and participant observation data point to the importance of Black teachers creating spaces reminiscent of a homeplace, where they can speak and act with their full selves through play, humor, and various expressions of Blackness. The article argues that the concept of affinity spaces is insufficient to describe what the teachers in the study collectively built. Instead, we draw on notions of fugitivity from Black Studies to theorize this space as a pro-Black fugitive space. We argue that these Black teacher fugitive spaces are rehumanizing and sustaining for Black teachers, offering implications for Black teacher support and retention.
1 citations
TL;DR: Using Octavia Butler's prophetic writing, specifically passages from her Parable series, as a conceptual lens, this article explored the ways one Black girl uses multimodal literacies to imagine new worlds that center and celebrate her Black girlhood.
Abstract: ABSRACT Using Octavia Butler’s prophetic writing, specifically, passages from her Parable series, as a conceptual lens, this article will explore the ways one Black girl uses multimodal literacies to imagine new worlds that center and celebrate her Black girlhood. An exploration of her multimodal literacies shows how she simultaneously confronts reality, what exists under this earthly sun, and, in turn, also imagines and shares a new world, under a new sun, built for and by Black girls. This article builds on data collected from a practitioner research study of writing collaborative for girls of Color and applies feminist of Color analyses to create a narrative portrait that explores Black girl literacies as portals to new suns.
1 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored an after-school writing club for middle school girls of Color (GOC) and argued that GOC consistently leverage incisive critiques of schooling through multiple literacies, including embodied and experiential ways of knowing and communicating.
Abstract: Through an exploration of an afterschool writing club for middle school girls of Color (GOC), this article puts forth the argument that GOC consistently leverage incisive critiques of schooling through multiple literacies, including embodied and experiential ways of knowing and communicating. However, oftentimes, these critiques are ignored because their literacies are marginalized, ignored, and misread. As informed by their lived and felt experiences, it becomes apparent how school has failed them and how they continue to persist in their learning, their work, and their building toward the futures they deserve and desire, sometimes in ways that are recognized by schools, sometimes in resistance to school standards. Further, the article puts forth a model of what education can look like when GOC multiple literacies are centered and celebrated. Educators, researchers, and policy makers must understand GOC as hopeful and desiring learners and create spaces that honor and respect their multifaceted literacies.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article , the authors present two composite Afro-futurist counterstories developed by Black high school students in a summer writing course, which confront antiblackness and disrupt the ways the regime makes educators complicit in seeing Black youth as nonhuman/superhuman.
Abstract: Abstract Antiblackness, and the dominant stories it produces about Black humanity, creates distorted images of Black humanness that are used to justify violence against Black youth in schools and society. However, Black youth have different stories to tell about their being in the world that stems directly from their lived experiences and are inherently counter to damaged center narratives intertwined with Black suffering. Using the theoretical framing of BlackCrit and theorizations of Afrofuturism, I share two composite Afro-futurist counterstories developed by Black high school students in a summer writing course, which confront antiblackness and disrupt the ways the regime makes educators complicit in seeing Black youth as non-human/superhuman. The research provides insights into Black youth futurity in relation to schooling in an anti-Black world.
References
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a culturally relevant theory of education for African-American students in the context of collaborative and reflexive pedagogical research, and explore the intersection of culture and teaching that relies solely on microanalytic or macro-analytic perspectives.
Abstract: In the midst of discussions about improving education, teacher education, equity, and diversity, little has been done to make pedagogy a central area of investigation. This article attempts to challenge notions about the intersection of culture and teaching that rely solely on microanalytic or macroanalytic perspectives. Rather, the article attempts to build on the work done in both of these areas and proposes a culturally relevant theory of education. By raising questions about the location of the researcher in pedagogical research, the article attempts to explicate the theoretical framework of the author in the nexus of collaborative and reflexive research. The pedagogical practices of eight exemplary teachers of African-American students serve as the investigative “site.” Their practices and reflections on those practices provide a way to define and recognize culturally relevant pedagogy.
5,427 citations
TL;DR: In this article, critical race theory can inform a critical race methodology in education and the authors challenge the intercentricity of racism with other forms of subordination and expose deficit-informed research that silences and distorts epistemologies of people of color.
Abstract: This article addresses how critical race theory can inform a critical race methodology in education. The authors challenge the intercentricity of racism with other forms of subordination and exposes deficit-informed research that silences and distorts epistemologies of people of color. Although social scientists tell stories under the guise of “objective” research, these stories actually uphold deficit, racialized notions about people of color. For the authors, a critical race methodology provides a tool to “counter” deficit storytelling. Specifically, a critical race methodology offers space to conduct and present research grounded in the experiences and knowledge of people of color. As they describe how they compose counter-stories, the authors discuss how the stories can be used as theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tools to challenge racism, sexism, and classism and work toward social justice.
3,102 citations
TL;DR: The notion of culturally sustaining pedagogy was introduced by as discussed by the authors, who argued that teaching and learning relevant and responsive to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference and (in)equality.
Abstract: Seventeen years ago Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) published the landmark article “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I, like countless teachers and university-based researchers, have been inspired by what it means to make teaching and learning relevant and responsive to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference and (in)equality. Recently, however, I have begun to question if the terms “relevant” and “responsive” are really descriptive of much of the teaching and research founded upon them and, more importantly, if they go far enough in their orientation to the languages and literacies and other cultural practices of communities marginalized by systemic inequalities to ensure the valuing and maintenance of our multiethnic and multilingual society. In this essay, I offer the term and stance of culturally sustaining pedagogy ...
1,921 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Ladson-Billings reflects on the history of her theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and the ways it has been used and misused since its inception.
Abstract: In this article, Ladson-Billings reflects on the history of her theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and the ways it has been used and misused since its inception. She argues for the importance o...
1,383 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Tuck calls on communities, researchers, and educators to reconsider the long-term impact of "damage-centered" research, which intends to document peoples' pain and brokenness to hold those in power accountable for their oppression.
Abstract: In this open letter, Eve Tuck calls on communities, researchers, and educators to reconsider the long-term impact of "damage-centered" research—research that intends to document peoples' pain and brokenness to hold those in power accountable for their oppression. This kind of research operates with a flawed theory of change: it is often used to leverage reparations or resources for marginalized communities yet simultaneously reinforces and reinscribes a one-dimensional notion of these people as depleted, ruined, and hopeless. Tuck urges communities to institute a moratorium on damage-centered research to reformulate the ways research is framed and conducted and to reimagine how findings might be used by, for, and with communities.
1,345 citations