(Re)Active Praxis: Disrupting Segregated Knowledge Flows: Reflections from an Evolving Abolitionist

Abstract

Amid a time of social protest against systemic racism, the author recalls an experience of her own racism as a white literacy researcher and ELA educator. She acknowledges and describes her racism as both a means to redesign teaching practice and an invitation to other ELA educators to allow the discomfort that can come with reflection. Drawing on Bettina Love’s articulation of abolitionist teaching, as well as scholars in critical English pedagogy and critical literacies, the author focuses on the problem of segregated knowledge flows and shares ways in which she is disrupting this systematic tendency.