Racial Literacy Development (RLD) via ethnic studies: Latinx youth speaking back to and resisting Racism

ABSTRACT

This article explores student Racial Literacy Development (RLD) within a secondary Ethnic Studies (ES) classroom. It documents how one Latinx student iwas supported with developing the language and praxis to ‘read’ the existence of institutional racism and to disrupt its effects. Utilizing interviews, participant observations, field notes and literacy artifacts, this study investigates the learning and growth of this student’s racial discourse and analysis through a four-stage meaning-making process of racial literacy development (RLD) that emerged from the data. This article offers important implications for (1) supporting liberatory, justice-centered student learning (2) the creation of racially just classrooms and school communities and (3) the effective implementation of K-12 ES by highlighting the affordances of racial literacy as a curricular, pedagogical and student development goal.

KEYWORDS:

• Racial literacy
• student development
• racial justice
• k-12 ethnic studies
• Latinx youth
• secondary education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I use Latinx and Chicanx as gender-neutral alternatives to Latina or Latino and Chicano and Chicana. I utilize the terms Chicana or Chicano when attentive to historical context.

2. All names of participants and places are pseudonyms.