“We Need a Song”: Sustaining Critical Youth Organizing Literacies Through World Humanities

ABSTRACT

This article intervenes in the long-standing conversations around which youth activism, literacies, and civic engagement take place. In an effort to expand the boundaries of activism to include the work of youth critical literacies within the classroom, this article highlights the work of four female high school students of color as they bring attention to human sex trafficking. Findings show that students are introduced to and given the space to engage in “critical youth organizing literacies” through their class project. Therefore, through similar projects, classrooms become sites where young people learn to select and critique texts in order to mobilize peers and community members.

Notes

1. Names of places and people are pseudonyms. The pseudonyms were selected by research participants (students and teachers).

2. According to the state's Department of Education, “High-poverty schools are those ranked in the top quartile based on the percentage of economically disadvantaged students. Low-poverty schools are those ranked in the bottom quartile based on the percentage of economically disadvantaged students.” (Department of Education, 2013b, p. 5).

3. Student participants provided their racial/ethnic identity on a demographic survey that I administered at the beginning of the academic year.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tamara Butler

Tamara Butler is an assistant professor of English Education at Michigan State University. Her research, which focuses on the connection between storytelling and activism, is situated in the intersections of critical literacies, culturally-sustaining education, and ethnic studies.