Research in the Teaching of English Nov 2018

Where Do We Go from Here? Toward a Critical Race English Education

Lamar L. Johnson Michigan State University

Abstract

In this article, I propose Critical Race English Education (CREE) as a theoretical and pedagogical construct that tackles white supremacy and anti-black racism within English education and ELA classrooms. I employ autoethnography and counterstorytelling as methods that center my multiple identities and lived realities as I document my racialized and gendered experiences in relation to my journey to Ferguson, MO and my experiences as a secondary ELA teacher. The research questions guiding this study are the following: (1) As a Black male English educator and language and literacy scholar, how am I implicated in the struggle for racial justice and what does it mean for me to teach literacy in our present-day justice movement?; (2) How are Black lives mattering in ELA classrooms?; and, (3) How are we using Black youth life histories and experiences to inform our mindset, curriculum, and pedagogical practices in the classroom?This article explicates findings from three interconnected stories that work to show how CREE can be operationalized to better understand the #BlackLivesMatter movement in its historical and contemporary dimensions. The data analyzed stem from my autobiographical narratives,observations, social media artifacts, and images. I aim to expand English education to be more synergistically attuned to racial justice issues dealing with police brutality, the mass incarceration of Black people, and legacies of grassroots activism. This analysis suggests implications that aim to move the pedagogical practices around the intersections of anti-blackness and literacy from the margins to the center of discussion and praxis in ELA contexts.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2018-11-15
DOI
10.58680/rte201829863
Open Access
Closed
Topics
qualitative research multimodality social media race and writing multilingual writers affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (10)

  1. Kelly et al. (2025)
    Dreaming beyond the Classroom: Exploring Youth Imagination, Civic Praxis, and R…
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  2. Kelly (2025)
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  3. McDaniel (2025)
    Samirah X’s Sense of Audience: A Case Study on Black Teen Activism on Social Media
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  4. VanderStaay et al. (2024)
    Feature: The Role of Reading Instruction in Teaching for Social Justice
    Teaching English in the Two-Year College
  5. Filipiak (2024)
    “I’m Outside the Box. Too Outside the Box, I Explode It!”: Exploring Literacies…
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  1. Caraballo (2023)
    Curriculum-as-Assemblage: Transgressive (Re)Imaginings in English and Literacies
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  2. VanDerHeide et al. (2023)
    Conceptualizing Dialogic Literary Argumentation: Inviting Students to Take a Tu…
    Written Communication
  3. Sánchez et al. (2023)
    Laying the Foundation for Imagination, Resistance, and Political-Ethical Becomi…
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  4. Jackson (2022)
    Making Sense of Black Students’ Figured Worlds of Race, Racism, Anti-Blackness,…
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  5. Caraballo et al. (2020)
    Announcing the 2018-2019 Alan C. Purves Award Recipient: Demanding Critical Lit…
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Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 13 works outside this index ↓
  1. Boutte (2015)
    Educating African American students: And how are the children?
     ↗
  2. Haddix (2015)
    Cultivating racial and linguistic diversity in literacy teacher education: Teachers like me
     ↗
  3. Hill (2018)
    Thank you, Black Twitter”: State violence, digital counterpublics,and pedagogies of resistance
    Urban Education  ↗
  4. Johnson (2016)
    Using our voices, losing our bodies: Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and the spirit murder…
    Race Ethnicity and Education  ↗
  5. Johnson (2017)
    Changing the dominant narrative: A call for using storytelling as language and literacy t…
    Journal of Literacy Research  ↗
  6. Martin (2014)
    A witness of whiteness: An autoethnographic examination of a white teacher’s own inherent…
    Education as Change  ↗
  7. Matias (2013)
    Tears worth telling: Urban teaching and the possibilities of racial justice
    Multicultural Perspectives  ↗
  8. Paris (2010)
    A friend who understand fully”: Notes on humanizing research in a multiethnic youth community
    International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education  ↗
  9. Paris (2012)
    Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice
    Educational Researcher  ↗
  10. Richardson (2003)
    10.4324/9780203166550
    African American literacies  ↗
  11. Smitherman (1979)
    Toward educational linguistics for the first world
    College English  ↗
  12. Smitherman (1995)
    Students’ right to their own language: A retrospective
    English Journal  ↗
  13. Solórzano (2002)
    Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education …
    Qualitative Inquiry  ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 69 View in citation network →

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