Enacting digital diasporic tellings with Black African immigrant youth through podcasting

At a time of increasingly restrictive policies confronting immigrant communities in the United States, we examined findings from a youth podcasting initiative that worked as a curricular design, teaching practice, and research approach to counter the silencing of immigrant youth and communities and affirm and elevate Black African immigrant youth’s agentive, already-present voice. We extend the framework of diasporic tellings, asserting three dimensions of digital diasporic tellings to illuminate how youth designed, composed, and shared podcasts that underscored nuanced portrayals, purposefully countered monolithic tellings, and popularized narratives of Black African immigrant youth’s literacies, learning, and communities. We conclude with implications for research, teaching, and teacher education, evoking in digital diasporic tellings a naming of how researchers, educators, and teacher educators might engage the timely and ongoing work of envisioning curricula, pedagogies, and research stances that support and sustain the vibrant lived realities of immigrant youth within and beyond educational contexts.