Racial Storylines and Implications for Learning

Abstract

In this article, we theorize the relation between race and schooling and consider the implications for learning. While the body of research on culture and learning has come to define learning as an inherently cultural and social process, scholars have few theoretical tools to help us think about the role of race and racism in relation to students’ access to identities as learners and to learning. We draw on both theoretical and empirical literature to make three core arguments: (a) racial ‘storylines’ or narratives are prevalent in our society and have powerful implications for learners, particularly for youth from marginalized communities; (b) these racial storylines are a critical aspect of life in schools, which serve the purpose of racially and academically socializing students; and (c) as these storylines are invoked in school settings, certain identities are made available, imposed, or closed down. Such identities have important implications for students’ opportunities to learn and their engagement in learning settings. As we conclude, we consider the potential of alternative spaces, which can serve to counter dominant narratives about who is capable of learning and how learning takes place, and open new spaces for identity and learning.

Desettling Expectations in Science Education

“…More specifically, how might a teacher take up Jonathan's dissatisfaction with the boundaries of settled meaning related to both life forms and forms of life that were operating in his classroom? We suggest that expansive possibilities in learning and development attuned to 21st-century problems of life will develop by simultaneously desettling (a) historically constructed deficit discourses of nondominant students, in Jonathan's case of black boys in particular [Nasir, Snyder, Shah, & Ross, 2012;Noguera, 2008] and (b) the normative ontological and epistemological divide between nature and culture in science education.…”

Commentary on Conceptualizing Cultural and Racialized Process in Learning

“…This process of 'making visible' is at the center of articles by Nasir, Snyder, Shah, and Ross [2012] and Varelas, Martin, and Kane, which focus on the ways that racial stereotypes and their associated impacts on students' identities restrict the educational opportunities made available to children in a manner that is so deeply internalized by the participants that it is invisible to them. (5) There is a common assumption that educational practices are not set in concrete: each article provides examples of practices that can be marshaled to create positive, successful academic experiences that render neutral the corrosive effects of racism and economic inequality characteristic of marginalized children's everyday life experiences.…”

Relevance and Care in Teacher Practices: Supporting African American Students as Learners

“…Others have sought to understand racial and ethnic identity in terms of the variability or invariability of its various facets, with particular focus on one's racial salience, centrality, ideology and both public and private regards (Sellers, Copeland-Linder, Martin & Lewis, 2006;Shelton & Sellers, 2000). Works focused specifically on the development of students of color suggest that identity has stable and contextually variable components (Oyserman, 2009;Shelton & Sellers, 2000), is influenced by multiple layers of current and socio-historical contexts (Lee, 2013) and is linked to student engagement and learning processes (Nasir, 2002;Nasir, Snyder, Shah & Ross, 2012;Oyserman, Bybee & Terry, 2006).…”

“…Nasir (2002) observes that as students identify more closely with the content and practices of learning contexts, they may also "beg[i]n to construct more sophisticated (as the play context affords) practice-linked goals (increasingly aligned with those of experts)" (p. 240). Students' experiences with curriculum within different learning environments influence and are influenced by their cultural experiences and racialized sense of identity (Gay, 2013;Martin, 2012;Nasir, 2012). Of students who have been "historically portrayed as underachieving and underrepresented in mathematics and science, " Varelas, Martin and Kane (2012) suggest, With respect to knowledge construction…What is needed is explicit, continuous, systematic, and extensive building of connections among the various experiences and underlying concepts and processes.…”

“…Supporting students in seeing themselves as learners is important because it is one of several factors that influences the extent to which they engage in classroom lessons and interactions (Nasir, Snyder, Shah & Ross, 2012). Furthermore, student engagement, along with understanding, plays a crucial role in the extent to which students retain the information they encounter (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011).…”