Unpacking “signs of learning” in complex sociopolitical environments

ABSTRACT This special issue offers empirically rich accounts of research that make the ingenuities and brilliance of BIPOC learners visible “replacing entrenched assumptions about where we see ingenuity and how we recognize it.” The articles in this issue embrace the strengths and creativity of BIPOC learners by deliberately shifting away from deficit-based thinking. These accounts of learning focus on new ways of seeing, uplifting, and leveraging learners’ cultural, historical, and identity backgrounds. The articles essentially document learning of “border crossers” who as fugitives have “to learn to negotiate the power, violence, cruelty of the dominant culture”. They also imply accounts that go beyond the recounting of their “lived histories, restricted languages, and narrow cultural experiences” by critically unpacking and engaging with the imagery and discourses of dominant culture.