This article explores the interaction between popular culture, community-based education, and the establishment of a critically literate debate community, using the case of City Debate as one example of how critical literacy is embedded and taught through curriculum. Debate has historically been conceptualized as a structurally rigid space for…

Culturally relevant pedagogy is a framework that conceptualizes the process of student learning as contingent upon educators' deep understanding of students' cultural backgrounds to co-construct knowledge and develop academic skills. Concurrently, there are a growing number of studies that explore hip-hop as a culturally relevant curriculum for…

In this article, and from the standpoint of an African American woman teacher/researcher, the author explores what happened when one African American adolescent boy known inside of school as a "severely disengaged" student cultivated literacy practices and events of his own volition in an after-school program. The author asks, how does race and…

This article describes how faculty provided opportunities for urban high school students to develop literacy proficiencies in reading, writing, and technology. The 12 students participating in an on-campus summer program completed four projects using technology. The faculty collected and reviewed a variety of sources to gain insights into the…

Using Critical Race and Latino Critical theories, this study examines 20 in-depth interviews conducted by the author with Mexican and Puerto Rican youth from the Chicago area. The author contends that youth utilized hip hop music in multiple and overlapping ways, engaging hip hop music as both a pedagogy that centers the perspectives of people of…

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settings--an alternative high school…

While the major urban centers around the country were flooded by millions of protesters demanding immigrant rights in March 2006, the San Francisco Bay Area remained relatively quiet. A coalition of organizers, including Centro Legal de la Raza, Deporten A La Migra, and the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition mobilized a one-week hunger strike,…

Comic art is one of the most popular storytelling media around the globe. From classic American comic strips to Japanese Manga, comics cover subjects ranging from humorous teen angst to social commentary. Comics class in an afterschool program is a natural draw for many young people. Older youth, in particular, vote with their feet when it comes…