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Flyer: 2021-11-12-martin

Abstract

In order to support the imminent need to provide effective pedagogical supports that address anti-Blackness and broad issues of school climate, I sought to better understand the specific, hyperlocal experiences of Black students in independent schools. In this relational narrative case study, I conducted in-depth interviews with Black students and graduates and analyzed fiction and non-fiction public narratives. Translanguaging, critical race theory, and intersectionality guided all aspects of the study design, which found that participants experienced dehumanizing ideologies of language, race, class, and gender that were buffered by positive relationships with faculty and multicultural curricula. This study contributes to emerging research on the socialization of youth in elite prep schools and the experiences of racialized students in these spaces. By examining the specific, hyperlocal experiences of Black students in NYC, it can assist independent schools to provide effective diversity, inclusion, and equity programming that address broad issues of school climate, relationships, and pedagogy.

This presentation will explore the methods and findings of the case study in addition to insights that led to new ways of theorizing languaging and privilege across dynamic, relational social identities. I will illustrate the utility of translanguaging theory as method and as a lens to interrogate transnational consciousness, the importance of the hyperlocal context to youth meaning making, and key features of a relational narrative case study. I conclude with novel ways that I have re-analyzed participant narratives for belonging and developed a Relational Student Identity Model to illustrate the social identities involved in the discursive identity construction of youth.