Education Commons^™

#Blackatcmo: Challenging Charter Schools Through Youth Instagram Counterstories, Madhu Narayanan, Matthew S. Mccluskey

College of Education and Social Services Faculty Publications

As protests flared in 2020, BIPOC students took to Instagram to voice their experiences at “no-excuses” Charter Management Organizations (CMOs). Such schools have presented a discourse of high achievement and social justice. Yet, in the span of a few weeks, hundreds of posts on Instagram offered rarely-heard counter-narratives of the experience of being BIPOC at such schools. This paper analyzes how social media posts combine online discourse and youth culture to provide insight into the racialized experience of schooling. We argue this social movement challenges the legitimacy of CMOs and their authority to teach children of color.