“Hopefully This Motivates a Bout of Realization”: Spoken Word Poetry as Critical Literacy

Abstract

AbstractThe authors examined how youth from the Northern Virginia region communicated their thoughts on significant social issues, school‐level policies, and individual stresses through collaboratively authored spoken word poetry. This poetry was written during a day of out‐of‐school arts‐based inquiry workshops planned by an intergenerational youth participatory action research collective that works to foster connections and conversations about topics important to youth today. The findings highlight youth coresearchers’ words and analysis to enact youth participatory action research methodology as critical pedagogy and critical literacy. Analysis points to specific ways that school adults can help students’ voices be heard. The authors encourage other collectives and educators to consider using spoken word poetry as a tool to honor, amplify, and theorize youth knowledges so their calls for change can be heard.