Affirming Black Students’ Lives and Literacies

Drawing on the authors’ experiences as Black parents, researchers, teachers, and teacher educators, this timely book presents a multipronged approach to affirming Black lives and literacies. The authors believe change is needed—not within Black children, but in the way they are perceived and educated, particularly in reading, writing, and critical thinking across grade levels. To inform literacy teachers and school leaders, the authors provide a conceptual framework for reimagining literacy instruction based on Black philosophical and theoretical foundations, historical background, literacy research, and authentic experiences of Black students. This important book includes counternarratives about the lives of Black learners; research conducted by Black scholars among Black students; examples of approaches to literacy with Black children that are making a difference; conversations among literacy researchers that move beyond academia; and a model for engaging all students in literacy. Affirming Black Students’ Lives and Literacies advocates for adopting a standard of care that will improve and support literacy achievement among today’s Black students by rejecting deficit presumptions and embracing the fullness of these students’ strengths.

Book Features:

• A counternarrative of Black literacy history, lives, and learners.  
• Narrative examples of Black literacy scholarship, by Black scholars who embrace their faith-walk as an integral part of their holistic approach to literacy teaching and learning.
• Discussion questions to spur conversations among school administrators, parents/caregivers, politicians, reading researchers, teacher educators, and classroom teachers. 
• An array of extant Black scholarship that should inform literacy praxis and research. 
• A conceptual framework, CARE, that is applicable for all learners with a focus on Black literacy learners.

Arlette Ingram Willis is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, division of Language and Literacy. Gwendolyn Thompson McMillon is professor of literacy and chair of the Department of Reading & Language Arts at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Patriann Smith is a professor of literacy studies at the University of South Florida.

“ Affirming Black Students’ Lives & Literacies: Bearing Witness challenges readers to think about

teaching Black students with intentionality, purpose, and first and foremost, love.”

—Teachers College Record

“Exceptionally well organized and presented, Affirming Black Students' Lives and Literacies: Bearing Witness is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to school district, college, and university library Black Studies and Contemporary Educational Studies collections.”

—Midwest Book Review

“This book should be mandatory reading for all teachers, teacher educators, and pre-service students. It is a theoretically and historically grounded book. It provides a powerful, heartbreaking, and textured window into what happens to Black children who go to school more than prepared to learn. It indicates how we, as a society, can develop an ethic of care for Black children and youth.”
—Theresa Perry, professor of Africana Studies and Education, Simmons University

“Affirming Black Students’ Lives and Literacies is a fine book. It is a riveting portrait of Black epistemology, history, and lives as a prelude to explanations of why it is important to learn about Black literate lives. It is, in my opinion, an extraordinarily important book, and it is being published at precisely the right moment.”
—Patricia A. Edwards, professor, Michigan State University

“The quest for literacy among those of African descent documented within these pages offers both dismay and inspiration. The personal narratives and current research interwoven here with historical examples are critical for understanding that an individual’s or group’s literacy now and in the future is inextricably tied to elimination of institutionalized ‘isms’ such as racism, post-colonialism, and future iterations of subjugation. Willis et al. lay the foundation for understanding and deconstructing literacy among the African Diaspora.”
—Violet J. Harris, professor emerita, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Contents

Foreword Theresa Perry ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xxi

1. Introduction: Theoretical Perspectives 1
Black Epistemology, Ideology, and Theory 2
Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations 2
Conceptual Foundations: Moral Courage and Moral Licensing 4
Theoretical Foundations: Black Liberation Theology, Black Radical Tradition, Critical Race Theory, and Decolonization 7
Black Liberation Theology 8
Black Feminism 10
The Black Radical Tradition 12
Critical Race Theory 13
Decolonial Theories 15
Reading Research and Black Students 16

2. Black Women Activist Teachers 19
Literacy and Freedom 21
Literacy and Civil Rights 35
Literacy and Liberation 40
Literacy and Justice: Black Independent Schools 45
Our Teachers 50
Conclusion 50

3. The Mis-Education of a High-Performing Black Girl 53
Shawyn’s Narrative: A Summary 53
The Study 55
Aesha 56
Discussion 64
Conclusion 67
In Conversation 68
Critical Discussion Questions 72
Suggested Readings 73

4. Cultural Dissonance in a First-Grade Classroom 75
Gwen’s Narrative: A Summary 75
Setting 76
Tony 77
Travis 80
A Closer Look Inside Ms. Rudolph’s First-Grade Classroom 83
Conclusion 92
In Conversation 93
Critical Discussion Questions 99
Suggested Readings 100

5. Transcending (Dis)Belief: Black (Immigrant) Youth Literacies 101
Patriann’s Narrative: A Summary 101
An Invitation From a Black Immigrant Educator 102
Black Immigrant Educator Literacies 105
Jorge: A Black Immigrant Latinx Youth 107
Black American Youth Literacies 110
Excerpts From Black American Youth 112
Conclusion 118
In Conversation 119
Critical Discussion Questions 122
Suggested Readings 123

6. It’s Never Too Late 125
Arlette’s Narrative: A Summary 126
It Is Never Too Late . . . 126
A Brief Backstory 127
Meeting Clemente 129
Twenty Years Later 132
Perspective 134
Conclusion 135
In Conversation 136
Critical Discussion Questions 139
Suggested Readings 140

7. Conceptual Framework: Toward a Standard of CARE 141
Foundations 141
Race and Culture 143
Equity Pedagogies 146
CARE 148

References 159
Index 175
About the Authors 183

Arlette Willis, winner of 2021 LRA Oscar S. Causey Award for Outstanding Contributions to Reading Research