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#BLACK LIVES MATTER – INVESTIGATING THE IN-SCHOOL AND OUT-OF-SCHOOL LITERACY ENGAGEMENTS OF BLACK ADOLESCENT MALES: CASE STUDIES OF FOUR YOUTH IN TWO SPACES
ABSTRACT
In an era of increasing low literacy and high dropout among Black adolescent males (BAMs), this study investigates the ways in which BAMs negotiate their in-school and out-ofschool literacy engagements. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of socio-cultural theories of literacy, New Literacy Studies and third space theory, this study reports upon four BAM high school students’ literacy engagements in-school and out-of-school. The study examined the influence of space on the adolescents’ transactions with literacy. Also examined was the ways in which the participants constructed meaning through music, art, sport commentary, poetry and rap. Data collected from field notes; observations of in-school and out-of-school literacy engagements; drawing and writings from the classroom, non-classroom and afterschool program spaces; and interviews with the participants were analyzed and organized into recursive themes illustrative of the ways they negotiated their in-school and out-of-school engagements. Analysis revealed that these BAM participants did so by drawing on and making sense of authentic texts as well as enabling texts and by “getting by.” Generally speaking, the BAM participants viewed their in-school and out-of-school literacy engagements as far removed from one another. Largely, the participants’ out-of-school literacy engagements were not recognized or valued in the classroom. Further analysis revealed a significant commonality among the participants –
Black Lives Matter.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… viii
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ix
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………………1 Prologue ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1
Coming to the Research Topic ………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Rashad ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1
My Brother …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
Dropout ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8
“Writ[ing] about stuff that don’t be meaning nothing…”: Dropout Indicator? ………………….10
Literacy ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12 Problem Statement ………………………………………………………………………………………………………14 Rationale for the Study ………………………………………………………………………………………………..16 Purpose of the Study ……………………………………………………………………………………………………17
Research Questions ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..18 Definition of Terms ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..19 Significance of Study …………………………………………………………………………………………………..21 Organization of the Study …………………………………………………………………………………………….23
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………………………………24 On Adolescent Literacy and Literacy Engagement ………………………………………………………….25
On Literacy In-School and Out-of-School ………………………………………………………………………30 In-School Literacy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………31
Out-of-School Literacy ……………………………………………………………………………………………..32
On Spaces and Literacy Practices ………………………………………………………………………………….33
Studies on Out-of-School Literacy Practices ………………………………………………………………..34
Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………………………………………………………..39 Socio-cultural Theories of Literacy …………………………………………………………………………….39 New Literacies Studies (NLS) …………………………………………………………………………………….42 Third Space Theory …………………………………………………………………………………………………..45 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………………………………………………49
Research Site ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………49 College Town High School ………………………………………………………………………………………..49
Secondary English Education Department: Courses, Teachers, Texts, and Practices …………50
Recruitment of Participants …………………………………………………………………………………………..52
Gaining Entry into Research Site: Meeting and becoming acquainted with Black
Adolescent Males (BAMs) at College Town High School ……………………………………………..52 BAM Recruitment within AASC ………………………………………………………………………………..55
BAM Recruitment within College Town High School …………………………………………………..56 Why Case Study? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………60
Research Questions ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..62
Data Collection and Procedure ……………………………………………………………………………………..62
Interviews ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..63 Participants’ Interviews ………………………………………………………………………………………….63 Participants’ English Teachers’ Interviews ……………………………………………………………….66 Informal Interviews ………………………………………………………………………………………………..66
Follow-up Interviews and Transcriptions ………………………………………………………………….67
Observations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………67 In-School Observation …………………………………………………………………………………………….68
Out-of-School Observation ……………………………………………………………………………………..68
Document Analysis …………………………………………………………………………………………………..69 Fieldwork Techniques ………………………………………………………………………………………………….69 Researcher’s Role ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….71 Researcher’s Position Statement ……………………………………………………………………………………73 Data Analysis and Synthesis …………………………………………………………………………………………74
Validity ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..78
My Efforts to Ensure Validity …………………………………………………………………………………….79 An Interlude ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….82
CHAPTER 4: BYRON …………………………………………………………………………………………………..86
Background ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..86
“I just like to keep to myself… my family and true friends know me.”: Byron, Friends
and Family ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………86
In-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………………..89 “I’m just not into novels like that… I have no interest in them.”: Apathy for Antigone ……..89 “I went through that too…”: The Outsiders and Identifying with Ponyboy Curtis …………….95
Out-of-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………..100 Instrument (Jazz) Music as Literacy Engagement ……………………………………………………….100 Logan Otogi Strikes Back: Sketch Drawing and Writing Story as Literacy Engagement ….106
CHAPTER 5: LAWRENCE ………………………………………………………………………………………….116
Background ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………116
“Trying” versus “Trying to Try”: Lawrence, Family and Mixed success in School ………..116
In-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………………119 Reading (novels) in English class ……………………………………………………………………………..119
“Because they were stranded on an island. And I never experienced that before”: Lord
of the Flies ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..123
Out-of-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………..130 Sports Literature and Talk as Literacy Engagement …………………………………………………….130 The Gaming Club ……………………………………………………………………………………………………138
CHAPTER 6: WARREN ………………………………………………………………………………………………142
Background ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………142
“I really don’t like reading texts I cannot identify with”: Warren, Family, and Friendship 142
“Yes, because I have an old soul about me…”: Meeting and Becoming Acquainted with
Warren and his literate life ……………………………………………………………………………………….145
In-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………………146 Interlude ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..146
“I hate being told exactly what to write. I don’t like that… It’s like, let me write what I want to write. I like writing about stuff I can relate to…”: (Creative) Writing Lesson
and Assignment ………………………………………………………………………………………………………148 Reading the novel, The Crucible? ……………………………………………………………………………..153
Free Choice Reading Time – Twisted ………………………………………………………………………..155
Out-of-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………..157
“If your client killed someone and you suspect, or know, as a lawyer it was due to racial profiling? How do you fight that?”: The Trayvon Martin Shooting as Literacy
Engagement …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….157
“…hold me, despite what you think I am” – Poetic Expression as Literacy Engagement ….161
CHAPTER 7: TERRANCE …………………………………………………………………………………………..166 Background ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………166 “I rather be in the ATL with my dogs than here [College Town]”: Family versus
Friends …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..166
“I thought I was the only one from the dirty south in this piece!”: Meeting and
Becoming Acquainted with Terrance and his literate life …………………………………………….170
In-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………………173 Interlude ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..173
“…if you have to observe me for me to be in your study, then I think I have to drop out!”:
Dropping out of the study? ………………………………………………………………………………………174
“We read all these books that just drag on and on about absolutely nothing…”:
Struggling to Engage Utopia and Dystopia Novels as Literacy Engagement, Struggling
to Interpret ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..178
Writing (Assignments) in secondary English education class space ………………………………183
Out-of-School Literacy Engagements …………………………………………………………………………..187
“I didn’t know you were interested in that type of writin’”: Letter Correspondences
as Literacy Engagement ……………………………………………………………………………………………187 Reading News(papers) as Literacy Engagement in AASC …………………………………………….194 Writing Rap Lyrics as Literacy Engagement ………………………………………………………………198
CHAPTER 8: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ………………………………………………………………206
Authentic Texts …………………………………………………………………………………………………………207
Enabling Texts ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….211 “Getting By” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..214 Black Lives Matter ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..216
CHAPTER 9: IMPLICATION, LIMITATION AND CONCLUSION ………………………………..221
Implication ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..221
Limitations ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..225 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….225
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..229 Appendix A: Participants’ Interview Protocol ……………………………………………………………….249
Appendix B: Teacher’s Interview Protocol …………………………………………………………………..251 Appendix C: Observation Protocol ………………………………………………………………………………252 Appendix D: Data Matrix …………………………………………………………………………………………..253
Appendix E: Logan Otogi Strikes Back ………………………………………………………………………..255
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
“The status quo [in school] will only continue to teach [Black adolescent males] to hate literacy
and to see education as irrelevant.” (Wolf, 2010, p. 10)
Prologue
Coming to the Research Topic
My journey to the proceeding research topic was inspired by two experiences that deeply touched me in the summer of 2015. They are reported in description under the subtitles: Rashad and My Brother. I introduce, conducted, and share this research in the spirit of, and with respect to, adolescent males of color who struggle with literacy (silently) in school and my profession as a teacher/educator and (novice) researcher.
Rashad
In the summer of 2013, I was a teacher assistant for a highly intensive, two-week immersion course in urban education for preservice teachers in the city of Philadelphia. Part of my job as a teacher assistant was to transport preservice teachers by van to various venues throughout the city (e.g. National Constitution Center, Philadelphia Museum of Arts,
Philadelphia Urban Schools). One aspect of the course involved participation in a civic project for which I drove a van of preservice teachers to a historic neighborhood in Philadelphia to do community service work. The community service identified by community leaders in the neighborhood included picking up trash and painting playground equipment in the neighborhood’s historic park. This project afforded me (and the preservice teachers) the opportunity to interact with children, adolescents, students, parents, and other members of the community in the neighborhood. While cleaning the park, I was approached by and met a Black adolescent male named Rashad (pseudonym), who inquired of me and my presence in the park. Rashad was a 15-year-old eighth grader who attended a middle school in a neighboring community. After small talk about myself (i.e. my work as a teacher assistant and graduate student) and my and the preservice teachers’ presence (i.e. objective) in the park, Rashad subsequently asked if he could join me (and the preservice teachers) in the clean-up efforts. I graciously obliged him.
During clean-up, Rashad began to sing. The sound of his voice drew a crowd around us and subsequent applauds for his rendition of John Legend’s All of Me. As it turned out, Rashad was quite the entertainer, an emerging Renaissance man (if you will). After clean-up, we talked about (his) school(ing) (e.g. his English class) and played some games. Rashad sang some more, told jokes, dazzled onlookers with his dancing ability, told stories through raps, shared his philosophy on dating, and charmed the preservice teachers (predominantly white middle-class young women) with his poetic rendition(s): “Roses are red, violets are blue, I am nothing in the world without you. You are smart, pretty, and fine as a pearl, please give me the honor of being my girl,” Rashad stated that this was his surefire way of winning favor with a potential girlfriend
(Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 25, 2013).
After observing these literacy events, I asked Rashad if he wrote his jokes, raps, and poetry on paper, or if they were impromptu oral renderings I had witnessed him perform. Rashad responded that he did, in fact, write his raps and poetry on paper and that he wrote nearly every day. Rashad said he loved words. He said he liked “bending words[1]” (i.e. according to Rashad, the art of trying to make one-syllable words into two-syllable words for rhyming purposes), and that he thinks about rhyming words daily. His affection for rhyming was part of the reason he wrote nearly every day. One of the community leaders of the historic neighborhood invited me, and some of the preservice teachers, back to the neighborhood that evening to sit around a campfire and roast marshmallows in one of the neighborhood’s community gardens. Rashad and I made arrangements to meet that evening for the event. Though rather presumptuous of me (in retrospect), testing to see if Rashad had been straightforward with me about his writing, I asked him to bring his written raps and poetry to the event that evening, so I could see his work. To my surprise, he did. Rashad reached into his backpack and pulled out two tattered green 120-page three-subject spiral notebooks. The notebooks were roughly sectioned for poetry, rap, and
“things [he] just be thinking about” with some overlap (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 25, 2013). When I asked Rashad approximately how many raps and poems he had written in his notebooks (which were filled nearly to capacity with writing), he replied, “Too many to count”, as he revealed he had more raps and poetry in other notebooks and on loose leaf paper in his home (where he wrote often) (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 25, 2013). His writing was inspired by girls and life in general. Reading (and listening to Rashad perform) his work, the central theme that recurred in his poetry writing was his desiring of, affection for or pursuit of a girl. The central theme that recurred in Rashad’s raps was his reporting of the harsh realities of inner city living and the promise of escaping them one day for a better life. Rashad reported that his raps were inspired from “reading stuff, like in the newspaper or on the news and just life you know” (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 25, 2013). Rashad signed all of his written work “writer/lyricist Rashad the Magnificent” (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 25,
2013). Rashad’s writing evidenced amazing rhyming skills and lyrical patterns and a number of other literacy skills (e.g. the use of literary devices: imagery, alliteration and point-of-view). He reported reading and writing as aspects of his literate life out-of-school. He even wrote a brief rap about one of the preservice teachers at the campfire to the preservice teachers’ amazement, pleasure, and delight.
In the summer of 2015, I spent my final year as a teacher assistant in the two-week immersion course in urban education. As fate would have it, one afternoon, in the second week (and second to last day) of the two-week immersion course, I ran into Rashad. He was standing in the hallway outside the door of a first-grade classroom of an elementary school I had been assigned to transport preservice teachers to for observations in urban teaching. I was at the school early to drop off paperwork in the office (and to pick-up the preservice teachers) when I saw him. He was there to pick-up his little brother. I was delighted to see him. As I attempted to chat with Rashad in an effort to catch-up on our (literate) lives (e.g. my dissertation writing and his writing of poetry and rap), I immediately perceived a change in him. Something was not right. He was a bit terse, reticent even, a far cry from the cordial, out-going entertaining adolescent I had met and became acquainted with in the park two years prior. Though he was older – seventeen now – age was not the only factor in this change that I had sensed in Rashad. When I subsequently asked him about school (e.g. his English class) as I had two years earlier, it was evident from his blank expression and one-word responses regarding it that the change I had sensed with Rashad had something to do with school. I learned from Rashad that he had dropped out of high school. “I quit”, he ultimately, and reluctantly, stated to me (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 28, 2015). He was in the 10th grade. This revelation affected me. I talked with Rashad earnestly about his talented writing skills, school, and the possibility of returning to complete his education. He talked about his grades, teachers, and the boredom he experienced in class. He explained, for example, the hassle of “[reading and] writing about stuff that don’t be meaning nothing… It be mad boring yo[2]” (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 28, 2015). He repeatedly mentioned the stress he’d experienced as a result. (Rashad’s assertion about writing in school would ultimately apprehend and intrigued me in the days that followed mainly because I brooded his decision to drop out of school.) Thinking about my own (initial) struggles in (graduate) school to locate an instructor (e.g. assistant/associate professor) who shared my (research) interest, I told him, “You know, no one can stop you from achieving in school but yourself, so don’t give-up, cave-in, and quit.” Rashad did not seem moved or inspired by my multiple attempts to encourage him. Then, borrowing a line from one of his favorite rap artist, 50 Cent, I told him, “Get an education or die tryin’”, to which he chuckled and smiled briefly then returned his face to its blanketed expression. In a last-ditch effort, I searched my mind one last time to come up with a reason for Rashad to consider going back to school. I said, “Rashad, why wouldn’t you want to attend school with all those pretty girls there you talked about in the park who love to hear your poetry? You could meet the future Mrs. Magnificent.” It was at that point that Rashad’s little brother bounded from the classroom and into his arms. “I’m sorry. I gotta go”, Rashad responded. I quickly jotted down my email address and gave it to him. He looked at it and extended his hand to give me some dap[3], said “later”, and began walking down the hallway (Researcher, Personal Journal Entry, May 28, 2015). I turned and walked in the opposite direction toward the office feeling disappointment and some despair. Before going in, I turned around and looked just in time to see Rashad (and his little brother) walking around the corner of the corridor, heading out of the school building. And just like that, he was gone as quickly as I had realized him. I spent my last two days in Philadelphia thinking about Rashad. With a van load of preservice teachers talking about their amazing experience in Philadelphia, I drove all the way back to State College troubled, masking my feelings of disappointment, anger, frustration, and sorrow. I felt like I had left a younger brother behind. I had hope to receive an email from
Rashad. I never saw or heard from him again.
My Brother
When I returned home from Philadelphia, I received a telephone call from my biological brother (two years my junior) two days later. After a short ten-minute chat about friends and family, I shared with him my encounter with Rashad three days earlier. My brother shared his thoughts regarding it. He stated he could relate to Rashad’s decision to dropout of high school because, unbeknownst to me, he too had considered dropping out of school on a number of occasions, under similar circumstances (i.e. poor grades and boring literacy activities). He explained he was often stressed, flustered, and felt helpless in school, particularly with reading/English class (where his grade was consistently the lowest). His first consideration to “leave school” occurred in elementary, during his fifth-grade year. The following is what my brother stated to me.
I constantly struggled to understand what they made us read and learn in class, but I didn’t say anything to anyone about it. Then, my report card alerted mama that something was wrong. Mama sat me down and tried to talk to me about reading class. She kept asking me, “Why are you failing son?” Back then, I could not articulate that it wasn’t my fault. I wanted to explain that the stuff we read in school wasn’t interesting to me, didn’t make sense, and that it stressed me out to try to understand or relate to it. I just told her, “I didn’t like it, so I didn’t read it.” She was upset, and argued with me saying, “That’s no reason to not read! What’s the matter with you? Don’t you like school?” I tried to answer her, but I choked up and broke down in tears. I wanted to leave school and never go back. –Researcher’s Brother, Personal Communication, June 1, 2015
My Brother went on to say, “throughout junior high and senior high school, except during Black History Month, the saga continued bro… In ’85, I had a hard time really understanding or relating to much of what I was asked to read and write.” According to my brother, that year was extremely difficult. The assigned novel readings and writing assignments “did not grab [him] or intrigue [him] in any way… it felt like a waste of time”, he shared. He cited how that year (his 10th grade year, ironically), he remembered his English teacher had the class read books like Animal Farm, Julius Caesar, and Hatchet with discussions that followed that he never truly engaged, multiple-choice worksheets he completed perfunctorily, and writing assignments that he either never completed or fabricated just to have something to submit. “It was frustratingly difficult… We never read novels or books about Black figures, history or culture and that was a turnoff for me”, he reported. “I was told I had to read and write about that stuff on my own time”, he stated. For a longtime, he was angry with his teachers. He had wondered, (especially) how his teachers (of color) could permit such a thing to happen. He understands now that “they taught what was approved by the system” (My Brother, Personal Communication, June 1, 2015).
He ultimately concluded the phone call by stating there is a need to “change the vibe” in school because the value of what’s happening there is low (My Brother, Personal
Communication, June 1, 2015). My brother is not anti-education, but he is not sure what a diploma (or degree) would do for adolescent boys (or girls) of color who engage (or major) in subject matter, writing, or learning that does not speak to, or fulfill the essence, or purpose, of who they truly are as human beings of color. For him, when schools do that, learning to read and write can be interesting, purposeful, meaningful, and valued. My brother perceived Rashad as a compassionate, young, Black, literary artisan and logophile. According to my brother, the system of school stifled who he was/is, so he ultimately rejected it and “quit.” The phone conversation regarding Rashad lasted two and a half hours.
[1] Rashad provided the following explanation and example of “bending words” during the community service. He explained “many people think you cannot rhyme the word orange. But, if you bend it a little” (i.e. enunciate it as a long two-syllable word [or-ange], instead of its correct enunciate as typically a one-syllable word [or-nge, without the letter a]), “then you can rhyme it”, as he stated. Rashad provide the following example – “I took my or-ange, foreign, door hinge to storage and ate some porridge when Oran.”
[2] Yo is English slang used as an exclamation to get someone’s attention or express excitement or strong feeling. It was popularized by the Italian-American community in south Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1940s. In the 80s and 90s, it frequently appeared in hip hop music and became associated with African American Vernacular English (Dalzell, 1996, p. 177). Like Rashad, participants in my study use it in their speech.
[3] Dap is an intricate three-step rhythmic hand clasps gesture that ends in an arm hugging embrace, typically exchanged between Black males as a sign of personal greeting, agreement, affection, solidarity or form of respect, originating from the African American male community.
