Girls of Color Embodied and Experiential Dreams for Education

Abstract

Through an exploration of an afterschool writing club for middle school girls of Color (GOC), this article puts forth the argument that GOC consistently leverage incisive critiques of schooling through multiple literacies, including embodied and experiential ways of knowing and communicating. However, oftentimes, these critiques are ignored because their literacies are marginalized, ignored, and misread. As informed by their lived and felt experiences, it becomes apparent how school has failed them and how they continue to persist in their learning, their work, and their building toward the futures they deserve and desire, sometimes in ways that are recognized by schools, sometimes in resistance to school standards. Further, the article puts forth a model of what education can look like when GOC multiple literacies are centered and celebrated. Educators, researchers, and policy makers must understand GOC as hopeful and desiring learners and create spaces that honor and respect their multifaceted literacies.