ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the design and redesign of the community of practice of an adult education classroom. It demonstrates how Carolyn and her students design and redesign the community of practice of the African American Adult Education and Literacy classroom, drawing on her student’s history of participation with education. The chapter shows how adults return to adult education classrooms with histories of participation in schools that often include a negative sense of self within school contexts and an expectation of what school is and should be like. It also illustrates how the community of practice of the adult education classroom is sustained and carried into the wider community by graduates of the classroom who come back and participate in the classroom community of practice. The assumptions of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are threads woven through understanding of the community of practice of the classroom. CRT exposes how racism is deeply ingrained in US society and in the educational system.
