My Color of My Name Composing Critical Self-Celebration with Girls of Color through a Feminist of Color Writing Pedagogy

• Published in: Research in the teaching of English Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 216 - 240
• Main Author: Player, Grace D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana National Council of Teachers of English 01.02.2021; National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
• Subjects: Adult Literacy; After school programs; Analysis; Asian Americans; Black culture; Collaboration; Composition (Language arts); Critical theory; Cultural Differences; Educational Experience; Females; Feminism; Feminist theory; Gender; Gender Bias; Gender Discrimination; Girls; Imprisonment; Literacy; Literacy Education; Middle Schools; Muslims; Oppression; Pedagogy; Playwriting; Pressure groups; Race; Racial Identification; Racism; Sexism; Social aspects; Teaching; White supremacy; Writing; Writing Instruction; United States
• ISSN: 0034-527X; 1943-2348
• DOI: 10.58680/rte202131184

This article will explore what I have conceptualized as critical celebration within an afterschool writing club for and with Girls of Color (GOC). Using a feminist of color theoretical framework and building upon existing literature about GOC and their writing practices, critical celebration will be defined as a lens used to view GOC as important, dynamic, and brilliant in the face of an overabundance of deficitizing narratives and erasure, and to also open opportunities for girls to view the experiences and identities of GOC like them and unlike them as important sources of knowledge as they develop critical insights toward solidarity across difference. Using this definition, I will then describe the ways the feminist of color writing pedagogy engaged in this group made space for critical celebration of and by GOC, thereby offering important implications for justice-oriented literacy education, not only for GOC, but for all students.