Identifying Sociopolitical Issues

The third element in the critical literacy taxonomy involves identifying issues focused on sociopolitical realities in the context of the lives of the learners. This section is slightly more condensed because of the connection to the previous and following taxonomical elements. Such an identification of issues involves conducting research on multiple perspectives, designing and executing actions around those issues, and reflecting upon the steps taken. The social and political are central to both the operation of critical literacy as well as to the work of youth organizers (Ginwright, 2010a). I use the work of Watts & Guessous (2006) here to define the sociopolitical in relation to understanding agency and opportunity structured around civic

service and social justice. Sherrod (2006) pushed this idea further, rooting the sociopolitical into the sphere of urban youth activism. This focus on identifying sociopolitical issues in the context of the communities in which learners live is fundamentally the work of critical pedagogy and popular political educational models.

Vaga De Franx talked about how activists and organizers can create and facilitate productive community-based learning when the topics and issues addressed are generative from the groups of individuals involved. She discussed the interconnections between class, gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status and access to education in a conversation about police brutality and the policing of public spaces. As a peer educator and facilitator in various organizations at her university and in her social worlds, Vaga De Franx articulated the importance of being political without choosing to take a hard political line. She argued that in workshops and other learning spaces, such a deferral from taking a position allows for the exploration of deeper connections and hybridity between organizing concepts. She used the conceptual distinctions between socialists, autonomists, and anarchists as an example of such factions within the political Left that can interrupt productive dialogue for learning experiences.

As stated earlier, all of the participants organize around issues that are immediate to their lives. They all named the connection between the personal and the political. Moreover, their fluency with multiple perspectives allowed them to tease out the layers and distinctions that tie together sociopolitical topics for greater action. Green Strawberries talked about the deeply personal roots of her political work. She organizes around immigration and the state of undocumented students because some of her closest friends are undocumented. She named multiple issues in higher education, from Dreamers to the cost of tuition and the economic striation of access to college. She also talked about K-12 education, discussing curriculum and

focusing particularly on the policing of public schools by the New York City Police Department.

In pinpointing issues, Green Strawberries attended to those that she perceives as silenced; she named youth subcultures as well as racial, ethnic and sexual minorities as her priority because they are not frequently considered in mainstream, white labor organizing. She discussed the central importance of peer education in understanding the sociopolitical, talking specifically about her work around the conditions of the Palestinian people. For her, Palestine is personal, and she dialogued around deep issues of whiteness, race, ethnicity and nationalist identities. Even as she acknowledged the challenges of rectifying differing ideologies around peace and self-determination, she highlighted the importance of celebrating and honoring difference. She remembered Global Kids as a space to figure out her identity as a human rights activist and her position in the history of social activism.

Of course, there are wide distinctions between what topics and issues the participants choose to focus on, especially when such considerations are connected to strategic action planning. For instance, People’s Republic of Mars takes seriously topics of international diplomacy and personalizes the global context. In his work, he acts to fulfill the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals, critiquing various levels of public policy as he brainstorms ways to positively impact material conditions for those without access to clean water, healthy food, affordable healthcare and quality education. He sees United Nations frameworks such as the UDHR as useful, and frequently turned to a discourse of foreign affairs to talk about ways to attain peace through major initiatives of international and nongovernmental organizations.

Awesome Woman identified issues that are focused on transgressions of personal political space, acting against local aggressions and oppressions based on race, gender, sexuality

and religion. She identified numerous interconnected topics in talking about her early experiences of activism, her participation in NYC-based programming such as Feminist Bootcamp, and her travel to South Africa as part of a cross-cultural educational trip. Through her actions and her reflections, Awesome Woman highlighted the social and political issues around which she is most passionately involved. She offered deep insight, scathing critique, necessary humor and healing visions of doing work that is ever more just and equitable. She takes a wide view of that which is most personal, and personalizes the political in the process.

Gentle Meadows lamented the trend of popular apathy generally present in his undergraduate community, and how frustrated it makes him as a thoughtful and committed human rights activist and peer-educator. He accentuated the personal-political connection in community-based events around social justice topics, and talked at length about using conversation and dialogue to interrupt dominant, normalizing and oppressive discourses (Freire, 1970). In his activism, he explored inequities based on culture, race, sexuality and class, questioning whether dialogue is useful for affecting social and political change. He inevitably argued that it is good when individuals are asked to rethink their location and personal position on a topic. By accentuating the value of competing counter-narratives, he illuminated the power of perspective to understand sociopolitical issues and organize actions to redress unjust conditions and oppressive contexts for learning and working. At various times, Gentle Meadows and all of the participants spoke about Global Kids, HRAP, and other social-justice organizing workshops as a space for them to identify and explore issues within the safe space of a positive youth development organization.