Black Youth Schooling Experiences in Focus: A Photovoice Project

Location

Session 2 Presentations - Literacy Education I

Proposal Track

Research Project

Session Format

Presentation

Abstract

In this dissertation study I explore how ten Black adolescents attending a summer camp and after school program perceive literacy and conceptualize critical consciousness during a photovoice project about Black youth’s experiences in schools. Photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997) is a participatory method of research in which participants document a community issue using images with a goal of influencing policy change. Youth read and discussed literature about Black youth’s experience in education dating from the 1920s though the present day as inspiration for their images. This is different from traditional approaches to photovoice since there is a specific focus on literacy learning in addition to capturing images and composing narratives. This project pushes the boundaries of photovoice as a storytelling platform by inviting youth to both read and write their social worlds. I plan lessons for literacy learning using Muhammad’s (2020) Historically Responsive Histories, Identities, Languages, and Liberation Model. HILL is a model for literacy pedagogy that centers youths’ histories to cultivate their identities, skills, intellectualism, and critical consciousness. Preliminary findings suggests that while youth hold a traditional definition of literacy, they prefer their literacy education to be approached from communal perspective that fully integrates their Blackness and that the youth experience schooling in similar ways of Black youth from. Youth today and historically demand changes be made for their educational success.

Keywords

Black Adolescents. Literacy, Photovoice, Summer Camp, After-School

Professional Bio

Glenda is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Middle and Secondary Education with a concentration in Language and Literacy from Georgia State University (GSU). Prior to and during her doctoral pursuit, she spent ten years teaching in elementary and middle grades school and four years working in summer and after-school programs in metropolitan Atlanta. In 2018, she received the 2018 Emerald Literati award for the best article in English Teaching: Practice and Critique on a co-authored manuscript. Glenda is a Southern Regional Educational Board Doctoral Fellow who also received two grants for her work with urban youth using community research methodologies.

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Oct 8th, 9:45 AM Oct 8th, 10:55 AM

Black Youth Schooling Experiences in Focus: A Photovoice Project

Session 2 Presentations - Literacy Education I

In this dissertation study I explore how ten Black adolescents attending a summer camp and after school program perceive literacy and conceptualize critical consciousness during a photovoice project about Black youth’s experiences in schools. Photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997) is a participatory method of research in which participants document a community issue using images with a goal of influencing policy change. Youth read and discussed literature about Black youth’s experience in education dating from the 1920s though the present day as inspiration for their images. This is different from traditional approaches to photovoice since there is a specific focus on literacy learning in addition to capturing images and composing narratives. This project pushes the boundaries of photovoice as a storytelling platform by inviting youth to both read and write their social worlds. I plan lessons for literacy learning using Muhammad’s (2020) Historically Responsive Histories, Identities, Languages, and Liberation Model. HILL is a model for literacy pedagogy that centers youths’ histories to cultivate their identities, skills, intellectualism, and critical consciousness. Preliminary findings suggests that while youth hold a traditional definition of literacy, they prefer their literacy education to be approached from communal perspective that fully integrates their Blackness and that the youth experience schooling in similar ways of Black youth from. Youth today and historically demand changes be made for their educational success.