And Then the Wall Rose: Counter Narratives of Black Males\u27 Experience of Elementary Schooling in Urban Georgia

This is an inquiry into my experience of working with black males in an urban public elementary school in Georgia. Theoretically drawing on critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Delgado, 1995; Dixson, & Rousseau, 2006; Ladson-Billings, 2003, 2009; LadsonBillings & Tate, 2006; Yosso, 2006), I explore institutional racism and obstacles that hinder black males’ academic achievement and push them further to the margins. I challenge deficit discourse (McWhorter, 2001; Ogbu, 1990; Payne, 2005)to illustrate how public schools and policies perpetuate the underachievement of black males by denying their access to critical literacy and equitable opportunities. Methodologically, I utilize counter-storytelling (Bell, 1990; Delgado, 1995; Rousseau, & Dixson, 2006; Solorzano & Yosso, 2009) and fiction (Avi, 2010; Doll, 2000; Ellison, 1995; He, 2003; Wright, 2009), to create five composite black male characters. I fictionalize settings, events, time, and places based on my lived experience with black males both personally and professionally to challenge majoritarian stories. Six findings emerged from this inquiry. Public schools are racialized spaces that reproduce power structures and perpetuate inequalities that negatively affect black males’ academic achievement. Stereotypes, meritocracy, racism, white privilege, testing, tracking, deficit theories, and discipline policies contribute to the failure of black males. Historically, black males have been denied access to literacy and equitable opportunities and burdened by hardships, disadvantages, and vulnerabilities.Counter-storytelling empowers black males and other disenfranchised individuals to challenge majoritarian stories and to understand the sources of inequality, inequity, and injustice. Schools need to develop a critical pedagogy to help raise critical race consciousness within black males that empowers them to understand their locations in schools and societies and to develop strategies to fight against injustices. Educators need to develop a culturally relevant pedagogy of caring and justice and create hopes, dreams, and equal opportunities for all students to reach their highest human potential. Instead of disciplining their bodies and imprisoning their minds, educators need to create an environment where black males and many others are motivated, organized, and liberated to become active participants and positive change agents that promote equitable human conditions in an unjust world

Methodological dilemmas in social justice research in the U.S. South

Work published in International Journal of Curriculum & Social Justice

Turning Dissertations into Books: Works-in-Progress

This is a works-in-progress session where multiethnic practitioner researchers in the Ed. D. in Curriculum Studies Program at Georgia Southern explore creative ways to dive into life, write into contradictions, and turn dissertations into books derived from programs of research on the life of schools, families, and communities in the U. S. South. The book series editors and authors will work with prospective authors from diverse research paradigms on multiple forms of inquiry and representation in educational research. The book series editors will work with prospective authors particularly on the cultural, linguistic, and political poetics of personal, community, and historical narrative to liberate academic writing. The potentials, contributions, concerns, and future directions of various inquiries and representations are also discussed. Specifically, the book series editors and authors will work with the prospective authors chapter by chapter. Published books in the series will be used as examples for the prospective authors as they compose a book prospectus, a mission statement, market questionnaires, book contract, and any other relevant documents for the submission of book manuscripts to the book series editors. The purpose of this work session is to explore creative ways to write about research and to recognize the importance of, and ways of engaging in such writing to embody a particular stance in relation to integrity, beauty, humanity, and freedom, to move beyond traditions and boundaries, and to embed inquiry in school, neighborhood, and community life to transform research into social and educational change