Community-based standards and community cultural wealth in freedom schools

ABSTRACT

This project contributes to the understanding and support of the social and academic development of racialised, minoritized students using criteria grounded in community goals and standards for their children. Results are from a 2-year case study of a Children’s Defence Fund-sponsored Freedom School (FS) in the US that engaged in critical multicultural education and culturally relevant pedagogy. Collaborative research worked to identify 1) FS staffs’ criteria for themselves, each other, and their students, 2) forms of cultural capital in this FS summer programme, and 3) to understand the relationship between staffs’ standards and the identified forms of cultural capital. The importance of such efforts for oppressed communities’ claims to educational sovereignty is highlighted.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational sovereignty
• community-based standards
• cultural capital
• Freedom Schools
• culturally relevant pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The term ‘communities under pressure’ is used instead of more common terms like ‘living in poverty’ and/or ‘communities of color’. The goal is to disrupt deficit discourses as well as to foster readers’ consideration of what words and phrases make invisible.

2. We do not cite sources to protect anonymity.

3. More recently, the titles have become more multicultural, reflecting the increasing presence of Latinx students and families.

4. A Kiswahili word meaning ‘all pull together’. The whole FS gathers each morning for a session of singing, chanting, dancing, announcements, and celebrations of successes. The songs and chants focus on liberation and resilience.