This Is How I Learn: Co-Creating Space for Students' Voices

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how learning tools such as Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching (CRMT) and a critical hope framework can support the co-creating of spaces for youth who have been pushed out of school to reengage in education and nurture personal and collective identities. While the voices of these youth are often silenced (Fine, 2003), our youth asked to be a part of the research process itself. As a result of the collaboration, we found our students’ voices amplified, affirmed, and critical of the dominant narrative that pushed them out. As teachers, we attempted to co-create spaces that offered counternarratives of hope, strength, and agency in an alternative high school setting. In light of this unique partnership, this article is written in the form, language, and position that it is accessible to our students, as well as teachers, learners, and researchers.

In the United States, approximately 1.3 million students do not graduate from high school each year. This means that a staggering seven thousand students drop out of school every day (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2010). The state where this study was done has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the nation: 68.7% (DePaoli et al., 2015). Consequently, one in seven youth in the state are disconnected from their education and the labor force (Oregon Youth Development Council, 2014).

In light of these statistics, as researchers, we wanted to ask why it is difficult for some Americans to relate or empathize with the population of high school “dropouts” trying to reengage in their education. Some leaders and policymakers ask, “Why should I invest in or take responsibility for the mistakes of youth who drop out of high school?” There is blame put on the individual students for their choice to drop out, instead of looking at the bigger picture. We, along with other researchers (e.g. Avilés, Guerrero, Howarth, & Thomas, 1999; Fine & Weis, 2003; Noguera, 2008; Tuck, 2012), seek to look at the systemic, underlying factors leading populations of students to feel pushed out of mainstream high schools.

The rate of high school non-completion in the U.S. is a complex, yet important issue of the education system with broad social, racial, and economic impacts. A disproportionate number of students who drop out of high school are from low-income families and more than half of the students that drop out are students of color (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2010). As the population of school-age children becomes increasingly diverse, both culturally and linguistically, there is also a growing segment of the population that has no school-age children. Fowler (2013) states that one of the implications of these demographic trends is that it will be hard for some Americans to identify with today’s children and feel responsible for their education. By focusing on how best to support this often forgotten population of students who are returning to school for high school completion, we can encourage economic growth within communities that have long been subjected to income inequities. Steinberg and Almeida (2012) argue that “a concentrated effort focused on this large, growing, historically neglected population is essential to the nation’s economic well-being and the health of our communities” (p. 3). Young people who do not graduate are more likely to be unemployed, have less job security, or work for minimum wage. In fact, given the number of students who are dropping out each year, it costs the U.S. more than $337 billion in lost wages over the course of these students’ lifetimes (Alliance for Education, 2010). Hence, the dropout rate is a significant problem that contributes to the growing economic divide in this country. Investing in youth who are returning to school means investing in youth of color and working class youth; and, will mean these populations are more likely to be employed, earning living wages, and paying taxes, thereby supporting the economy and health of historically vulnerable communities.