Education Commons^™

Weird/Black/Play: Turning Racial Authenticity And Professorial Performance On Its Head In The Black Studies Classroom, Wendy M. Thompson

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This essay examines the expectations placed on black faculty to act as conduits of authentic blackness and black knowing even as they are undermined and undervalued in the classroom and other institutional settings. Paying special attention to the way that racial performance, engaged learning, and the role of the black instructor converge in the black studies classroom, I offer the black/weird as a framework (departure/positioning) from which students can engage in black/weird/play, a remedy that interrupts students’ desire for a particular hegemonic racial performance from black faculty while stimulating critical collective inquiry about black history, experience, culture, and the self. …

The Intersections Of Africana Studies And Curriculum Theory: An Exploration, Theodorea Regina Berry

Faculty Publications

There has been much critique of globalization now circulating in curriculum studies both nationally, in the United States, and internationally, helps us understand some of the lethal effects of globalization. Nevertheless, little of such critique is grounded in a strong commitment to work beyond the Western epistemological perimeter. While we, as reconceptualists in curriculum studies, acknowledge the necessity to honor the multiple sources and perspectives of knowledge, we continue to operate in spaces and with intentions embedded in globalized, traditional notions of curriculum. This problem is especially heightened for socially marginalized learners, particularly Black/African American learners.

In this article, I …

Our Home By The Sea: Critical Race Reflections On Samuel Chapman Armstrong’S Accommodationism Through William Watkins’ White Architects Of Black Education, Theodorea Regina Berry, Michael Jennings

Faculty Publications

The work and words presented are a reflection of the multidimensionality of two critical race scholars and their engagement with the work of Dr. William H. Watkins, specifically his seminal text The White Architects of Black Education: Ideology and Power, 1865-1954. This work will be framed similarly to the way Watkins framed his chapter on General Samuel Chapman Armstrong in this work. Our story, a critical auto-ethnographic narrative, will begin with a discussion of the historical context that frames the relationship we have with Watkins and the relationship we have with General Samuel Chapman Armstrong and Hampton Institute. Next, …

Engaged Pedagogy And Critical Race Feminism, Theodorea Berry

Faculty Publications

The article describes the engaged pedagogy of cultural critic and scholar bell hooks in the context of the experiences that the author gained from a group of African American pre-service teachers in a social foundations course. It provides an overview of critical race feminism, which acknowledges the importance of storytelling and addresses the intersections of gender and race, and explains its significance to preparing African American pre-service teachers. It concludes with a discourse on engaged pedagogy from a critical feminist perspective which enables teacher educators to support the lived experiences of students who are socially marginalized.