Walk in Their Kicks

Aaron M. Johnson is an associate superintendent of instructional services and organizational leadership for Farmington Public Schools in Michigan and adjunct lecturer of reading, language, and literature at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.

• Foreword Elizabeth Birr Moje ixAcknowledgments xiIntroduction 1How This Book Is Organized 10How to Use This Book 11PART I: NOTES ON THE STATE OF . . . Detroit . . . Education . . . Race . . . Schooling . . . Literacy . . . Socialization 13. . . on the state of the west side 131. His Story: The History of School and Literacy Development of African American Males 15Segregation, Jim Crow, and African American Academic Achievement 20School Desegregation 22The Great Migration 25School Busing 272. Hustle and Flow: Student Literacy, Flow, Agency, and Motivation 31Flow Theory 31Learning and Literacy as Social Constructs 32Agency and Identity 393. Black Boy Fly: The Black Male Literacy Paradigm as an Instructional Framework 43The Black Male Literacy Paradigm 43Home Versus School Language 45Contextual Understanding 47Culture and Socialization 48Teacher Perceptions 56Power, Agency, and Identity 57Teacher Preparedness 58Summary of the Black Male Literacy Paradigm 59Literacy Assessment Instruments and Literacy Development 604. We’ve Got the Power: Culture and Socialization 68Power and Contextual Understanding and the Relationship to Literacy 68The Academic Achievement Gap Versus the Education Debt 70Student Socialization 775. You Mean I Can’t Even Be Black in the Hallway?!?: Discourse Communities and the Relationship Between Power, Agency, and Identity 84Student Identities 84Disidentification with School 87Student Social Power and Valuing Students’ Identities in School 92PART II: NOTES ON THE STATE OF . . . Black boys 99educator’s oath 996. Where I’m From: Teacher Identities and the Impact on African American Male Students 101Understanding Literacy Through a Sociocultural Paradigm 101Meet the Teacher Participants 103Teacher Identities and the Roles They Play in Building Student Literacy 1087. A Walk in Their Kicks: Understanding the Literacies of African American Males 117Engaging African American Males in Literacy 117Teachers’ Recognition of the Importance of Students’ Connections to Teachers, School, and Texts 118A Deeper Look at Turmoil: Home-Based and School-Based Adversities That Impact Student Learning Outcomes 1428. Literacy Is . . . : Looking at Literacy Through a Different Lens 150Teachers’ Expansions of Their Definitions of Literacy 150The Necessity of Teachers’ Use of Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies 157Teachers’ Improved Understandings of Students’ Literacy Practices 1589. The Choice is Yours: “Giving a Damn” as a Strategy for Improving Student Outcomes 16210. Are We on Ten Yet?: Reconceptualizing Schools for African American Students 168Teachers’ Recognition of the Importance of and Relationship to Students’ Connections to Teachers, School, and Texts 169Teachers’ Expansions of Their Definitions of Literacy 170Teachers’ Improved Understandings of Students’ Literacy Practices 171The Necessity of Teachers’ Use of Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies 172The Education Debt . . . Revisited 172Recommendations 177Implications 178Challenges to This Work 180. . . until we meet again 181Epilogue 184Afterword Jay B. Marks 187References 189Index 197About the Author

“a powerful book sure to open the eyes and hearts of many teachers. Johnson has lived the complex experience of an academically and musically gifted young African American boy who wanted to learn and excel, but also wanted to be part of his community. His willingness to open up his identities to readers, to expose the struggles of dual consciousness he experienced and the sense of loss that a ‘subtractive education’ can leave in a child, is a window into the psyches and the souls of Black boys across multiple U.S. education contexts.” —SirReadaLot Review of Books