It's a Matter of Political Agency: Learning How Black Women Educators (Re)imagine Secondary Literacy

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examined how Black women secondary teachers developed and enacted their agency to teach literacy to diverse youth. I interviewed six English language arts and history teachers working in racially and ethnically diverse Title 1 schools. Findings reveal that participants drew from watershed moments in their cultural histories to render a socially‐ and politically‐oriented view of literacy. Their expanded view of literacy informed a political agency that encouraged them to reformulate curriculum. Reformulating curriculum focused on the participants' willingness and capacity to redefine rigor in ways that foregrounded students' experiential knowledge. Further, participants described how they incorporated diverse representations of people of Color into the standard curriculum. Drawing on scholarship about humanizing approaches to literacy, Black feminist perspectives, and teacher agency, this study affirms the political legacy of Black women educators and offers hope to future ones. It also advocates for equity‐oriented leadership and professional learning to support Black women teachers and positively impact diverse youth's literacy in schools.