When the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and International Literacy Association (ILA) partnered on a student writing initiative earlier this year, the goal was to elevate the voices of those often overlooked or silenced purely because of their age.
The call for submissions, which opened in late 2023, invited students in grades K–12 to reflect on diversity, equity, and inclusion through a series of thought-provoking prompts. Educators were asked to share student responses for potential inclusion at the annual AERA conference, held this past weekend in Philadelphia, PA.
Hundreds of entries poured in from children of all ages—from kindergarteners sending hand-drawn pictures to high schoolers contending with nuanced policy implications. Students of all ages and backgrounds answered the call toward dismantling racial injustice in profound, poignant, and deeply personal ways.
Here are just a few examples of the moving responses received.
On Otherness
“I was somewhere just walking with my mom speaking Spanish and there was a group of white pople [sic] who got bothered with it and came up to us complaining of who we are and our language,” writes a 16-year old from Florida. “From that I became aware of my racial identity and how society can look upon it.”
A junior high student from Tennessee wrote about a time when her teacher repeatedly mispronounced the names of people and places in China. The teacher, the student writes, blamed her inability to pronounce the words correctly because she wasn’t Chinese.
“The aggravating part of this was not the fact that she mispronounced the names,” the student writes, “but that she continued to put little effort into learning how to say them correctly.”
One high schooler from Michigan responded in verse:
I want to fight back and be bold
the hate weighs on my soul
but I’m told to slow my roll
don’t make it worse
just live under the curse of the model
myth
that tells me to sit down
push my feelings down don’t make too
sound
and maybe soon
racism will just dissipate
On Not Being Seen
“I do not see people like me in books because I am nonbinary,” writes a young student from New York. “It’s important to see me in books so I can learn.”
“Not all diversity is visible,” a 15-year-old Canadian student reminded us. “People with mental health issues may seem to be ok from the outside but struggle inside like having anxiety issues.”
On the School Setting
When asked, “What does fairness mean to you, a young student from New Jersey writes, “The problem is almost everyone has a different view about fairness.” The 11 year old continues:
This is what I think about fairness: fairness is the ability to go to school and get treated and talked to the same way everyone else does. Sadly this is far from the truth in almost every school.
One of the most insightful responses comes from a 13-year-old student in Alaska, who writes:
I live in a community that has almost no people of color. I can count on one hand all of the People of Color I know. Because of this we do not have many people in school that are of color. We are not taught much about racism, which leads to uneducated children repeating bigoted remarks heard from their parents. We are taught the bare minimum. We learn about the Civil War, and slavery in the past. We learn about the Jim Crow laws and history, but almost nothing about today's world. I do not believe, however, that it is the fault of the teachers. They are restricted by the curriculum.
The student continues:
In school I have learned almost nothing about racism. It is through my own personal research and guidance from my mother that I have learned about racism, discrimination, inequality and other injustices in today's world. Through books that have been deemed “banned” or unfit for a classroom I have learned more about discrimination, injustice, and Black History than I will ever learn in a classroom.
This young writer is fortunate enough to have a parent at home who is both willing and able to fill those gaps in education. But what about students like this 11 year old from South Carolina who writes, “I’ve felt safer at school than at home”?
When the Writing’s on the Wall
The overwhelming number of quality responses received inspired the organizers of the AERA conference session to showcase the work by posting entries along the walls of the session room and inviting conference attendees to walk around and take in the various messages, essentially “hearing” the many voices speaking their truths.
“These kids get it,” observed one reader. “They see it. They understand the issues around diversity and inclusivity better than the adults in their lives.”
Another reader echoed the sentiment: “Their insights are every bit as valuable as those of the adults in the room,” he said. “And they are highly engaged because such decisions affect their lives.”
During the end-of-session Q&A, one participant asked what they could do to act upon the students’ insights—and how to continue the work in their own schools.
Write on
One thing educators can do is to continue providing students a platform that can be used to speak about their lived experiences.
As Jevon Hunter and Pat Edwards, who led the AERA team on this project, said in their blog post earlier this year: "Let us collectively, as youth and literacy educators, embark on this journey, where literacy works as a verb becoming a tool for liberation and social transformation."
The prompts used for the AERA/ILA student call for submissions will remain online for those wishing to replicate the student writing project in their schools or districts.
Prompts for students ages 5–11
Prompts for students 12+