Conducting racial awareness research with African American children: Unearthing their sociopolitical knowledge through Pro-Black literacy methods

Abstract

Black children around the globe develop and learn in persistently racist environments. Decades of early racial awareness research primarily center on the development of young children’s self-esteem, racial biases, or friendships. Researchers have yet to learn all that can be understood about young children’s perspectives on structural racial inequities. There is a dearth of research that examines young African American children’s emergent sociopolitical consciousness. As such, this article explores the following inquiry: What research conditions make it possible to elicit young African American children’s racialized sociopolitical awareness and knowledge? Over the course of one school year, I studied five African American first graders’ literacies, racial awareness, and sociopolitical knowledge who were enrolled in an independent neighborhood elementary school. Through a synthesis of my methodology, I detail three foundational orientations: (a) privileging intraracial spaces as contexts for narrating and grappling with racialized, sociopolitical realities, (b) utilize children’s literature by and about Black people with critically conscious narratives, and (c) operating from the belief that young children are competent to speak about the racialized conditions in which they live. The implications from this research demonstrate the possibilities of pro-Black research at the intersection of racial awareness and sociocultural literacy studies. To combat antiblackness in education research and in schools, we need to hear the voices of African American children and carve out spaces that center Blackness for them to express racial sociopolitical truths. Conducting early racial awareness research about and with young African American children requires that we believe they possess the developmental capacity to name and resist inequity and imagine the possibilities of racial justice.

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“…It can be said that this helps to support their awareness. Research findings, especially on raising awareness about empathy, support this study (Johnson, 2022).…”

Literature Circle Method Practice with Preschool Teachers through Children's Books: An Action Research Example

“…It can be said that this helps to support their awareness. Research findings, especially on raising awareness about empathy, support this study (Johnson, 2022).…”

“‘You cannot come to this country’—that's what the government says sometimes, when you’re Brown”: African American children's critical literacies and emergent solidarity

“…A growing body of early childhood education research has demonstrated that young children have the capacity to engage in conversations about race and racism (e.g. Falkner, 2019;Fontanella-Nothom, 2019;Johnson, 2022a). Furthermore, a number of scholars have developed and documented methods and approaches for facilitating conversations about racism and racial difference in elementary contexts (Boutte and Muller, 2018;Copenhaver-Johnson, 2006;Daly-Lesch, 2021;Lee et al, 2008;Payne and Journell, 2019;Pierce and Gilles, 2008).…”

“…As my primary data collection method of the larger research project, I facilitated 14 after-school literature circles with the participants (for more on the methodological approach, see Johnson, 2022a). These circles lasted from 30 to 45 minutes and were audio-recorded; each week was focused on one central topic, from which the inquiry and discussions began.…”