Connected literacies of anti-racist youth organizers

Abstract

<jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>This article aims to share findings from a youth-informed study with interracial anti-racist youth activist groups in two urban high schools.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p>The study used mostly critical ethnographic methods.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title> <jats:p>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.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p>Overall, this research supports humanizing collectives that amplify the literacies of youth and position youth-centered education for liberation.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Something You Can See, Hear, and Feel: A Descriptive, Exploratory Mixed-Methods Analysis of Youths’ Articulations About Racism

“…While useful in exploring the ways individuals internalize and reinforce racial prejudice, programs that only focus on anti-bias do not build youths' ability to identify, critique, and challenge institutional and structural forms of racism. As an alternative, youth participatory action research projects (Aldana & Richards-Schuster, 2021), youth organizing efforts (Rombalski, 2020), and youth leadership programs (Muniz, 2018) that help youth interrogate systemic inequality that affects their lives move beyond implicit bias and prejudice to build their capacity to interrogate institutional and structural racism. Designing youth programing with a multidimensional definition of racism will better prepare youth to challenge racism in all its forms.…”

Advocacy Stories: Equity Literacy Practices of White Low Income Mothers Navigating School Reform

“…Reading, writing, speaking, discussing, and demonstrating can be leveraged to promote social justice (Rogers, 2009) and equity (Panos et al, 2021; Patel, 2021; Swalwell, 2011). We build on the work of literacy scholars who have described and conceptualized youths’ activist literacies like organizing, writing, storytelling, circulating petitions, boycotting, and speaking publicly in and out of schools as they advocate for equity, understanding, and justice (e.g., Haddix et al, 2015; Rombalski, 2020). Indeed, the power of equity literacy is not held by individual advocates, but instead “agency emerg[es] in and through collectivities” (Campano et al, 2020, p. 224).Advocacy groups are powerful, and yet, in family literacy studies, low income mothers are typically positioned as in need of education and help from teachers and schools.…”