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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Curriculum and Instruction
First Advisor
Christopher Crowley
Abstract
Many schools in Detroit’s inner-city are labeled as “failing schools.” Failing schools have been forced to develop plans and alter curricula for the purpose of increasing the proficiency of students. In many cases, students are subjected to a strict instruction-filled daily schedule, intensive intervention blocks, scripted curricula, and a reduction of elective classes, and enrichment activities. When schools are targeted as “failing schools,” in many cases the schools are closed, bouncing the students from one failing school to another. The idea of school accountability was made popular with the publication of A Nation At-risk. Since then there has been an ever-increasing push for more accountability in the Public School sector; disproportionately affecting the nation’s most vulnerable populations, the urban communities. As a result, the nation’s urban areas are now filled with a plethora of failing school options for children to attend. Many inner-city, majority Black schools lack the necessary components to build a love for learning and hence fail at creating a sense of optimism in students. How can Black Joy be utilized to emancipate children’s self-image in failing schools? The purpose of this study is to change the narrative and to switch the focus from what we know about failing schools to highlighting that the label of “failing “schools” is nothing more than a construct and that the young people who occupy these schools are more than the sum of their accountability assessment. Situating BlackCrit, and Social Cognitive Theory to guide the discourse; this research aims to center Black students, making them co-collaborators of the research using Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) in a writing class as a way of liberation to present an authentic picture of Black Joy.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Kionna Latice, "Black Joy Chasing: Fighting The Failing School Construct Using Ypar To Investigate Black Joy" (2025). Wayne State University Dissertations. 4188.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/4188