Chapter 2: The Languaging Practices and Counternarrative Production of Black Youth

During the summer of 2013, four high school students (Chelsea, Christian, Rendell, and Scott), their teacher (Tori), a researcher (Valerie), and the former president of a teachers’ union in the state of Ohio (Rhonda) participated in the Raise Your Hand day of learning held in Atlanta, Georgia, and sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA). This gathering, which precedes NEA’s annual meeting, serves as an occasion for union, district, and school leaders to examine ways to improve teaching and learning conditions, contexts, and practices for students in U.S. public schools. Teachers, school support staff, superintendents, union representatives, and researchers shared examples of school and district collaborations, assessment and Common Core trends, and community-engaged practices. For the final presentation, Chelsea, Christian, Rendell, and Scott described their experiences working in a critical service-learning project, where they partnered with Tori and members of a church to design an urban garden, and to sponsor awareness campaigns at the school and in the community. Describing his desire to be a part of something that can impact the local, urban community, Rendell shared with his peers after the presentation: