"Leveraging Black and Latinx Youth Ingenuity for Linguistic Solidarity"

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In U.S. public schools Black and Latinx youth have experienced a range of harms brought about by restrictive educational policies and practices. These policies and practices limit how Black and Latinx youth experience their familial and community cultural and linguistic practices in schools. That is, Black and Latinx youth are likely to be viewed as needing remediation when they display communicative practices associated with their racial or ethnic group. This talk will highlight ethnographic data from two respective projects in California high schools where Black and Latinx youth are the majority populations. Through a lens of ingenuity, Martinez will discuss what happens when we forefront ingenuity of Black and Latinx youth in research, over supposed deficits. In doing so, Martinez argues for leveraging of Black and Latinx’ youths’ linguistic flexibility toward a relational understanding of solidarity between these racialized groups. Martinez will present classroom data to make the case that Black and Latinx youth are already engaged in culturally sustaining practices that adults can use to create powerful learning activities that encourage a move toward solidarity. 

Danny C. Martinez, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Language, Literacy and Culture and Chancellors Fellow in the School of Education at the University of California Davis. He is currently the Chair of the Graduate Group in Education. His research has explored the language and literacy practices of Black and Latinx youth in secondary literacy classrooms. Through a recent grant awarded by the Spencer Foundation, Martinez is conducting research with and alongside Teachers of Color in Northern California to explore what cultural and linguistic assets teachers of color bring to their teaching of children and youth of color in our schools. 

Please contact Nina Bell at nbell@ucdavis.edu with any questions.