Literacy Is Liberation: Working Toward Justice Through Culturally Relevant Teaching

Literacy is the foundation for all learning and must be accessible to all students. This fundamental truth is where Kimberly Parker begins to explore how culturally relevant teaching can help students work toward justice. Her goal is to make the literacy classroom a place where students can safely talk about key issues, move to dismantle inequities, and collaborate with one another. Introducing diverse texts is an essential part of the journey, but teachers must also be equipped with culturally relevant pedagogy to improve literacy instruction for all.

In Literacy Is Liberation, Parker gives teachers the tools to build culturally relevant intentional literacy communities (CRILCs) with students. Through CRILCs, teachers can better shape their literacy instruction by

* Reflecting on the connections between behaviors, beliefs, and racial identity.
* Identifying the characteristics of culturally relevant literacy instruction and grounding their practice within a strengths-based framework.
* Curating a culturally inclusive library of core texts, choice reading, and personal reading, and teaching inclusive texts with confidence.
* Developing strategies to respond to roadblocks for students, administrators, and teachers.
* Building curriculum that can foster critical conversations between students about difficult subjects--including race.

In a culturally relevant classroom, it is important for students and teachers to get to know one another, be vulnerable, heal, and do the hard work to help everyone become a literacy high achiever. Through the practices in this book, teachers can create the more inclusive, representative, and equitable classroom environment that all students deserve.

Kimberly N. Parker, PhD, has been working in literacy communities with young people for more than 20 years. She has always believed in the power of literacy to normalize the high achievement of all students, especially Black, Latinx, and other students of color. Her career has included public school teaching, preparing preservice teachers, conducting research about how to support the success of Black boy readers, and delivering professional development across the country. She is currently the director of the Crimson Summer Academy at Harvard University, the 2020 recipient of the NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator Award, a cofounder of #DisruptTexts and #31DaysIBPOC, and the current president of the Black Educators' Alliance of MA (BEAM). Follow her on Twitter @TchKimpossible.