Connected literacies of anti-racist youth organizers
English Teaching: Practice & Critique
ISSN: 1175-8708
Article publication date: 2 July 2020
Issue publication date: 11 August 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to share findings from a youth-informed study with interracial anti-racist youth activist groups in two urban high schools.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used mostly critical ethnographic methods.
Findings
The findings showed that the agency of youth activists amplified their literacies of love and resistance, organizing, critical teaching, and knowledge. More research is needed in English education related to youth organizing activities across contexts as youth organizing work is largely unknown or underused by educators and schools.
Originality/value
Overall, this research supports humanizing collectives that amplify the literacies of youth and position youth-centered education for liberation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
I acknowledge and love you, Sincere. Your work makes this work possible. You are a light and a purpose. Gratitude isn't deep enough or wide enough, but that's the word I have for the generative persistence of the youth organizers from this study who continue in varied ways in racial justice work. The youth activists who held the streets during high school stay showing out and raising each other up as we continue in struggle now, for #GeorgeFloyd, #BreonnaTaylor, and foundational changes in schools and society. Like Sincere said weeks ago, we deserve to be disrupted. In addition, thank you deeply to the guest editors of the journal, Drs. Vaughn Watson and Rob Petrone, willing disruptors, along with the reviewers, for their labor and support in the development of this paper, and finally to the critical activist scholars in the field of literacy and education.
Citation
Rombalski, A. (2020), "Connected literacies of anti-racist youth organizers", English Teaching: Practice & Critique, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 347-363. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-11-2019-0161
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited