E-grāmata: Mapping Racial Literacies: College Students Write about Race and Segregation

"Based on a mixed-methods study of students' writing in a first-year writing course themed around race and shows college student writing that directly confronts lived experiences of segregation-and, increasingly, of re-segregation. This textual ethnography embeds students' writing in deep historical and theoretical contexts" --

The author argues the early college classrooms can provide opportunities for students to deal with and describe the racial geographies that impact them. She draws on a mixed methods study of the writing of about 1,000 students between 2014 and 2018 in a first-year writing course focused on race and language variety, to show that college student writing that directly confronts lived experiences of segregation and resegregation is useful in helping them see, explore, and articulate the role of race in determining their life experiences and opportunities. She grounds the student writing in historical and theoretical contexts and frames the discussion as a teaching narrative, tracing her teaching journey in terms of student writing and her revision of the course in response to it. She discusses her own racial history and geography, as well as the institutional racial history of her university, then key moments in her efforts to use her classroom to find ways of supporting the work of racial identity development and racial literacy: mapping whiteness, hypersegregation, colorblindness, and counterstory in writing; peer review exchanges among students who wrote of their experiences with segregation, and the problems of colorblindness and empathy; how racial ideology impacts student writers who also navigate linguistic geographies, particularly the role of black language; and a research assignment into institutional racism. Annotation ©2021 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Based on a mixed methods study of students’ writing in a first-year-writing course themed around racial identities and language varieties at St. John’s University, Mapping Racial Literacies shows college student writing that directly confronts lived experiences of segregation—and, overwhelmingly, of resegregation.

Early college classrooms provide essential opportunities for students to grapple and contend with the racial geographies that shape their lives. Based on a mixed methods study of students’ writing in a first-year-writing course themed around racial identities and language varieties at St. John’s University, Mapping Racial Literacies shows college student writing that directly confronts lived experiences of segregation—and, overwhelmingly, of resegregation.
 
This textual ethnography embeds early college students’ writing in deep historical and theoretical contexts and looks for new ways that their writing contributes to and reshapes contemporary understandings of how US and global citizens are thinking about race. The book is a teaching narrative, tracing a teaching journey that considers student writing not only in the moments it is assigned but also in continual revisions of the course, making it a useful tool in helping college-age students see, explore, and articulate the role of race in determining their life experiences and opportunities.
 
Sophie Bell’s work narrates the experiences of a white teacher making mistakes in teaching about race and moving forward through those mistakes, considering that process valuable and, in fact, necessary. Providing a model for future scholars on how to carve out a pedagogically responsive identity as a teacher, Mapping Racial Literacies contributes to the scholarship on race and writing pedagogy and encourages teachers of early college classes to bring these issues front and center on the page, in the classroom, and on campus.