Historically Responsive Literacy In The Classroom

Our current educational system is a product leftover from days of domineering patriarchal white supremacy. In its inception, it was planned to advance a very limited number of citizens to obtain knowledge and create wealth. The system has changed from that past but not enough to service all students with the same opportunities to obtain social advantages. Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, a professor, a former middle school teacher shares her pedagogical strategy to bridge the gap many students face by implementing a system that provides a useful framework to better service out students. Muhammad's Historically Responsive Literacy is built upon thoughtful emphasis on identity, skills, intellect and criticality.

Identity celebrates the student's background as a an asset and strength. By acknowledging their identity and valuing it, a student can feel safe and open to learning from that teacher and in that space.

Skills are an important asset to learning objectives. Unlike standardized test scores, skills can be translated to real life application.  Whether they are of  kills of critical thinking or evidence gathering, these are skills useful across all content areas. 

Intellect is what students can develop by becoming self-aware scholars who are dedicated to becoming lifelong learners by fostering a love of knowledge acquisition.

Criticality helps students ask questions and seek answers, not easily accepting a singular point of view without considering the other available ones. This helps the student grow self-aware and analytical of relational information before forming opinions or thoughts.   

These four cornerstones make Muhammad's framework of Historically Responsive Literacy progressive. All four are interconnected, and like mechanical gears, keep the process moving forward and active.  The end result is students that are confident in their learning journey. Like Muhammad states in her interview: “They see themselves, they validate themselves, they’re learning about other people, which creates a safe space to learn the skills. If you learn the skills, you can learn the intellect. You cannot learn the intellectualism without first having those skills to do so. If you have the intellectualism and that knowledge, you can critique the knowledge. Because of all the layers that came before it, you now have the capacity to disrupt and to dismantle. If you’re just woke without the identity and the skills and the intellect, you’re not going to be able to make change in ways that you could with those things.” 

Applying these elements to class instruction would make a teacher think twice before assigning racist text like The Adventures Huckleberry Finn for student consumption. It would go against creating a safe space for students that identify as BIPOC and counterproductive to building a trusting relationship in the learning environment that Muhammad speaks of.  As teachers we must consider the first the basics of humanity and then pedagogy to ensure the dismantling of old ideas that are still affecting our younger generations.