“There’s something wrong in society”: Teaching for racial civic literacy using young adult fiction

This multiple case study traced how secondary preservice social studies teachers grappled with understanding race/racism in their reading of the novel, All American Boys. Participants, all self-identified as white, consisted of two cohorts of students who attended a large midwestern university and were enrolled in an advanced social studies methods course. Drawing on notions of racial civic literacy, we analyzed participants’ responses to the novel, especially as it related to the police officer character who committed racial violence on an unarmed Black youth. We asked whether the officer’s actions were racist. Findings showed that participants reacted to the officer’s actions in three ways: calling-out race/ism, justifying his actions, and distancing from making judgments. Participants who called out Officer Galluzzo’s actions as racism saw this character as symbolic of larger systemic issues in society, whereas those who sought to justify Galluzzo’s actions demonstrated faith in public institutions, such as policing and the court system. Finally, those who distanced themselves claimed to be in a space of neutrality. Results of the study suggest that faith in public institutions, often considered a hallmark of the civic mission of schooling, may be at odds with fostering racial civic literacy.