Starting Young: Emerging Black Masculinity and Early Literacy

This research is based on the premise that a culturally relevant focus on enhancing literacy skills is needed to help Black males thrive. The study explores masculine practices of literacy in a group of first and second grade students attending a summer academic enrichment program. This exploration of masculine literacy practices is based in part on a sociocultural perspective of literacy and on Kirkland and Jackson’s (2009) theorization of Black masculine literacies. Connecting theory on Black masculine literacy to the reading and writing practices the authors observed in the study illuminated the following findings: (1) the young Black males demonstrated fluency and an understanding of linguistic complexities as they encoded and decoded social texts; and (2) students engaged in multiple expressions of Black masculine literacy; while all of these expressions served a functional purpose, only some of the expressions of Black masculine literacy were linked to academic achievement.