Talking about race and racism: The developing discourse practices of elementary students

Abstract

This study explores how fourth-grade students in a multiracial classroom began to develop racial literacy through a dialogic process of reading and discussing literature. I analyze three discussions drawn from a yearlong ethnographic study using critical theories of race and discourse to demonstrate how students developed multiple discourse practices to make sense of race and racism. While previous research has accounted for the ways young learners can and do talk about issues of race, this analysis expands current conceptions of how students develop racial literacy by demonstrating how they moved from race-evasive language to racially literate ways of talking over the course of the year. Contrary to claims made by anti-justice politicians and parents that students are being indoctrinated into liberal viewpoints when race is included in the curriculum, students in this study were persistent in shaping the trajectory of their racial literacy development.