Conceptualizing Possibilities for Black Boys through the Educational Continuum

This article conceptualizes "possibilities" as a challenge to the ways that Black boys are constructed and arrested through their engagement in educational spaces. Critical race scholars have deployed counter-stories to disrupt deficit framing of Black boys by discussing their possibilities, promise, and potential. Similarly, we weave these insights and analyses of Black boys' lives to identify how multiple possibilities contribute to Black boys' thriving in education. The seven dimensions of the Possibilities Framework include dreaming (related to aspirations and fantasy), caring (e.g., cared for and cared about), belonging (related to mattering and feeling connected), enjoying (related to joy), agency (their actions and autonomy), protecting (feeling safe), and affirming (related to being valued). Each of these dimensions can inform pedagogy and praxis and empower Black boys and young men in educational settings.