Community-based standards and community cultural wealth in freedom schools

This project contributes to the understanding and support of the social and academic development of racialised, minoritized students using criteria grounded in community goals and standards for their children. Results are from a 2-year case study of a Children’s Defence Fund-sponsored Freedom School (FS) in the US that engaged in critical multicultural education and culturally relevant pedagogy. Collaborative research worked to identify 1) FS staffs’ criteria for themselves, each other, and their students, 2) forms of cultural capital in this FS summer programme, and 3) to understand the relationship between staffs’ standards and the identified forms of cultural capital. The importance of such efforts for oppressed communities’ claims to educational sovereignty is highlighted.