ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the final strand for creating nesting grounds where the literacy of black adolescent males can flourish: conducting teacher inquiries. Teacher inquiry can be particularly important for our black male students. Teachers who work with these young men each day are well positioned to ask questions that are central to teaching them. These teachers are well positioned to try new approaches and reflect on issues in a classroom or school setting. The inquiry questions that can be asked are innumerable. Teacher inquiries hold a great deal of promise because teaching is a dynamic process. Advancing students’ various forms of literacy is imbued with complexities. Adolescents have shifting identities. Culture, economics, and gender can influence educational outcomes. Racism and classism still exist in the United States. This is the broader ecology and educational backdrop affecting the literacy of black adolescent males who suffer from academic underperformance.
