Valuing Resistant Capital in the Classroom by Shields Sundberg

Valuing and VALIDATING RESISTANT CAPITAL in our classrooms.

W.E.B. DuBois wrote in the 1890s that American schools "crucify" black children (I adopted his words from the original, which was in keeping with his time). One of the greatest tools I have found to reimagine classrooms--and use in my own classes-- is Tara Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth. She asks us to look at the many kinds of capital students bring to our classrooms: strategic, familial, linguistic, and, RESISTANT. Let's honor these forms of capital. In so doing, we can also, as I try to do, use other forms of critical pedagogy in our teaching.

I am aware that our best teachers are the students in our classrooms, even when they hold a mirror to our inner weaknesses (our inability to deal with stress, our poor decisions, our mistakes). They are practicing resistant capital, and this is how they stand in their power. Yes! bring it.

I hope the year ahead is a watershed for students of color—one that brings a greater sense of fairness and empowerment to the lives of black students. I want you to be heard, I want your reality to be validated, and I want your experience improved--in my own classes and everywhere.

Here we come September.