While the education field continues to engage in debates about literacy instruction, the science of reading, and systemic inequities in early literacy education are ongoing, young children who self-identify as Black, Brown, and People of Color enter primary grade classrooms across the United States and receive foundational literacy instruction that centers White Mainstream English and the experiences of the White dominant group of society due to systemic racism. As a result, many children engage in culturally and linguistically irrelevant literacy instruction that does not consider their identities, home languages, lived experiences, funds of knowledge, and various stages of literacy development, impeding their academic success in school. This mixed methods study, including quantitative and qualitative methodologies, constructs the Di•VERSE Literacy framework to examine the influence of the innovative curriculum I designed on children who self-identify as Black, Brown, and People of Color foundational literacy development, particularly in phonemic awareness, and children’s experiences engaging with the curriculum. This study draws upon multiple strength and asset-based frameworks, including culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2021), culturally and historically responsive pedagogy (Muhammad, 2020, 2023), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012), and Hip-Hop-Based Education (Hill, 2009) to create space during phonics instruction for children to access their identities, home languages, and lived experiences that are racially and culturally influenced to advance their literacy development in culturally just ways. Specifically, this case study highlights the perspectives and experiences of 13 first graders who self-identify as Black and Arab attending an urban intensive (Milner, 2012) public school in the US Midwest. As part of the study, I designed a three-week intervention including 15 lessons that aligned with multiple theoretical frameworks, education research, and state and national standards. The lessons were implemented by the children’s teacher, who self-identified as White, and the children reflected on their experiences engaged with Di•VERSE Literacy through induvial reflections including drawings and writing and during focus group interviews utilizing storytelling throughout the intervention. Additionally, children engaged in an individual pre- and post-assessment to demonstrate the influence of Di•VERSE Literacy on their phonemic awareness development and beginning reading and writing development. While building upon and extending current educational research literature focusing on culturally responsive education, early literacy education, and Hip-Hop-Based Education, the findings highlight how young children who self-identify as Black and People of Color advanced their foundational literacy skills in culturally responsive ways. This study's findings also provide implications for teacher practice, school policy, and educational research to create opportunities for children who self-identify as Black, Brown, and People of Color to engage in culturally responsive foundational literacy instruction in US classrooms.
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