A Brief Methodological Statement

In other writings (Kinloch, 2007a; Kinloch, 2007b; Kinloch, 2010), I have described the overall methodological approach that serves as the foundation for the larger research study. There, I indicate that this work occurred over a three-and-a-half-year timeframe at a local high school in and within the community of Harlem. I collaborated with Phillip and Khaleeq, the two central project participants, to interview approximately twenty-seven people, from teachers and students across grades nine through twelve at the school to new and longtime community residents. At the school, we conducted interviews during teacher planning periods, lunch breaks, and after school, with many of our follow-up sessions occurring over scheduled weekends and during summer months. Additionally, we distributed survey questions on reactions to gentrification in Harlem to students and teachers in various English classes at the school and in a youth enrichment program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture [i].

Within the community, we attended tenants’ association meetings (see the Harlem Tenants Council) and visually captured images of “old” Harlem (e.g., older apartment buildings, inexpensive corner bodegas, etc) alongside images of “new” Harlem (e.g., newer condos, food and retail outlets, etc). We also conducted community video walk-through sessions in which a participant invites other team members on a video walk of the immediate community and narrates his or her story of the social, cultural, educative, and/or activists’ activities in the area. Together, our work across school and community contexts afforded us rich opportunities to investigate meanings of and positions on gentrification (see also Freeman, 2006; Maurrasse, 2006).

In the following video clip, Phillip explains the project to graduate students at a local university in New York City. Doing so represents his ongoing attempt to name the actions being taken and the processes being used to critique the consequences of gentrification. By describing the consequences of change and locating them in narratives of personal relationships people have with each other and within shifting spaces, Phillip sees the video camera as a tool that mediates his story with other more public, often competing stories of gentrification.

Phillip’s Video Clip

To do the work that Phillip describes in the video clip, we rely heavily on Katherine Schultz’s (2003) framework of “listening” and Anne Haas Dyson’s (2003) theorization of “multiple worlds” (see also Gallego & Hollingsworth, 2000; Gee, 1996) that people occupy (that they shift in and out of) and participate in (through forms of engagement). Schultz (2003) argued, “listening for the social, cultural, and community contexts…implies listening to what is beneath and beyond the surface” (p. 171). Therefore, those concerned with the education of students, from teachers to administrators to parents and policymakers, should practice “listening broadly to discover more about…students’ learning outside of school” (p. 77). Schultz’s claim connects well with Dyson’s “multiple worlds” in that attention should be paid to how children and young people engage literacy through popular culture forms, voluntary writings, cultural practices, and playtime that is not structured. Relying on Schultz’s listening and Dyson’s concept of multiplicity centers this work on youth critical inquiries into spatial re/construction. It also demonstrates, according to Phillip, that young people can be active agents who produce literacy narratives and textual productions within spaces impacted by political, geographical, and demographic changes. The interviews (audio recorded, videotaped, and documented in shorthand), survey responses, and community sessions with participants allude to the value of listening to people’s literacy narratives. Doing so raises this concern: how should we listen as participants employ literacy strategies and multimodal forms?

Note:

[i]Dedicated to the preservation of African and African American history and culture, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a major research facility located in the Harlem community in New York City.