Storying youth lives: centering equity in teaching and teacher education

Abstract

We argue that youth stories are fundamental to social justice, social change, and equity in education. In our focus on stories, we ask: In what ways do youth stories encourage us to better attend, or be “answerable,” to the important work of equity in teaching and teacher education, and what does this look like? To address this question, we provide an overview of research on equity in education and storying as method and practice that connect to Indigenous and humanizing research methodologies. Then, we share stories about equity from Damya and her peers–Students of Color in New York City's Harlem community. These stories speak to their resilience, which are connected to Black people's history of perseverance in the face of institutionalized oppression, inequalities, and inequities in this country. Together, we foreground how Damya and her peers use creative practices to engage in alternative possibilities for equitable teaching and learning.

keywords:

• youth stories
• youth storying
• teaching and teacher education
• equity and justice
• stories as art

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

Notes

1 Elsewhere, Valerie identifies Damya as a Black adolescent girl and not a Black female or Black woman, given the problematic, racist, and criminalizing connotation the terms female and woman denote for Black girls under the age of 21, particularly when compared to White girls” (see San Pedro & Kinloch, 2017, p. 392).

2 It is important that we distinguish between stories/storying and narratives. While narratives are important in education research and practice, and while narratives and stories/storying are deeply connected, we situate storying as a significant component of PiH. Storying is both humanizing method and humanizing practice. Storying is a reciprocal, dialogic process of hearing and being heard, of listening and being listened to, of learning and teaching that results from human interactions and relationships. Storying does not only represent the telling of stories (or the artifacts that emerge from the telling of stories), but a necessary way of listening to, learning about, engaging in, honoring, and exchanging stories of self and of/by/from others, meaningfully and vulnerably. In these ways, storying leads to relationships between people (e.g. researchers/participants; students/students; students/teachers; teachers/teachers; etc.). According to San Pedro and Kinloch (2017), storying allows us to reject “the exploitation that can occur when sharing the stories of others” and to “challenge the tendency of empirical research to separate rigor and inventiveness from relationships and humanization” (p. 376S).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valerie Kinloch

Valerie Kinloch is the Renée and Richard Goldman Dean of the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Author of various publications, her most recent edited collection is, Race, Activism and Justice in Literacy Instruction. Currently, she is working on a book on literacy, equity, and community engagement.

Tanja Burkhard

Tanja Burkhard is a qualitative researcher and Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work explores the racialized, gendered, and linguistic experiences of Black transnational women from a transnational Black feminist and anticolonial perspective.

DaVonna Graham

DaVonna Graham is a doctoral student in Language, Literacy and Culture, a K. Leroy Irvis Fellow, and Graduate Research and teaching associate at University of Pittsburgh's Center for Urban Education. She is also an experienced youth advocate and scholar activist.