Read, Make, and Mend the World: College Students Developing an Antiracist, Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Children

Abstract

After the plurality of crises experienced in 2020, including but not limited to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, a national reckoning with racial violence, and political violence, one teacher and twelve college students set out to explore and create actively antiracist, self-nourishing pedagogies for elementary students. Using the theoretical approaches of bell hooks, Gholdy Muhammad, Corita Kent, and Gloria Ladson-Billings, the class chose to center the approach of making and crafting as the module to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression. This article charts their journey of using BIPOC-centered books, highlighting marginalized makers and artists, to craft and test curricula that goes beyond simply telling the artists' stories, but allows elementary students to be active participants in those stories through crafting. The class also explored how crafting can be a tool of expression, liberation, and learning. Reflecting on the theoretical underpinnings of their thoughts and the lessons they learned along the way, this article is a reflection on the class's experiences and suggestions for how to read, make, and mend the world.