Based on a yearlong critical inquiry project in a central Los Angeles high school, the author discusses the implications of engaging students in dialogue and critique about their experiences with race. The students’voices, through participant observation field notes and their own writing, tell stories of struggle and newfound understandings about the relationship among equity, social issues, and their lives. Drawing upon the works of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Nancy Fraser, critical inquiry is conceptualized as a valid learning tool with a liberatory agenda that creates an alternate public sphere where young people learn about themselves and question the status quo.
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