“They can learn it through us”: Youth seeking racial justice through a community‐based book club

Abstract

In the summer of 2020, amidst state‐mandated social distancing and protests for racial justice, youth participating in an ongoing YPAR initiative sought to design and facilitate a book club for the residents of their subsidized housing community to increase community awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. Through interviews, youth shared their plans to design and facilitate a book club differently than they had experienced in English classroom settings. Through the lenses of critical literacy and civic praxis, the youths' imaginings reveal a desire to talk about books that were relevant to their lives, involve discussions that were participant‐led and democratic, and lead to meaningful, tangible outcomes. Implications encourage teachers to re‐examine their classroom book club practices and consider ways to center student desires.