Education Commons^™

Black School Leader Truth: How Black School Leader Epistemology Influences Liberatory Mindset Development In Their Staff, Orpheus Williams

Dissertations

Black students in the United States have consistently been denied access to empowering, culturally affirming, and responsive learning experiences in the traditional public system. The epistemological and pedagogical beliefs embedded in a liberatory mindset can subvert this pattern of disempowerment (Shujaa, 1998). Black school leaders (BSLs) who understand the systemic and institutional pressures Black children may face and have to overcome, having undergone similarly racialized experiences in school, are uniquely placed to create liberatory spaces for Black students by recruiting and developing these liberatory mindsets in their staff. This instrumental case study used qualitative research methods of front-porch pedagogy (McTighe …

Black Mother Scholars Matter: Navigating Anti-Black Educational Spaces For Our Black Boys, Pricella Morris, Monique Matute-Chavarria

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This article draws from Black Critical Theory to explain how two mother scholars advocated for their Black sons in an anti-black education system. Additionally, the article focuses on antiblackness to describe the social suffering and resistance through ideologies and educational practices our children experienced at the hands of teachers and teaching staff in private and public schools. The first story details the experience of racism and teacher bias of a typically developing Black child. The second story details the inequitable and racist experiences of a Black boy with autism. Each of these experiences highlight the importance of advocating for Black …

Unlearn: Preparing Preservice Teachers As Antiracist Educators, April Eddie

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores a Teacher Education faculty member’s approach in providing preservice teachers a holistic, antiracist preparation that includes prioritizing the hiring of Black and Brown faculty, teaching critical pedagogies, and providing diverse experiences to enhance their theoretical and classroom learning. Although research that explores the impact of race and education exists, more is needed if we are to deconstruct the impact of antiblackness in Teacher Education programs.

Beyond Brutality: Addressing Anti-Blackness In Everyday Scenes Of Teaching And Learning, Karen Zaino, Jordan Bell

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

While scenes of incredible and troubling violence, such as that of Black children handcuffed or brutalized by school security officers, have sometimes been leveraged to highlight the anti-Blackness endemic in schools, Saidiya Hartman’s (1997) book Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America suggests that we must also attend to scenes in which terror can hardly be discerned to identify and unravel the subtle threads of anti-Blackness that pervade contemporary schooling. That is this paper’s aim: to look beyond the scenes of spectacular suffering and to locate the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness in the mundane routines of teaching and …

Eradicating Anti-Black Racism In U.S. Schools: A Call-To-Action For School Leaders, Altheria L. Caldera

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

This manuscript is a theoretical treatise that examines anti-Blackness in the nation’s schools and contributes to the ongoing discussion about how schools can better serve Black students. It is a three-pronged call-to-action for social justice-oriented school leaders. I urge school leaders to 1) examine anti-Black racism as a distinct form of racial discrimination, 2) imagine ways educators can fully humanize Black children in U.S. schools through a disposition characterized by Black cultural reverence, and 3) connect with existing efforts to counter anti-Black racism in schools. To accomplish these goals, I investigated the historical socio-political context that has shaped the educational …

Power Within. I'M New To Putting Me First, Dr. Michael R. Williams

The Vermont Connection

I’m kinda in this new space where my space is my space and I don’t care about nobody but me, only me (Samoht, 2019,0:56).

In a field that exists at the exigency of civil policymakers, tranquil institutional borders, and the revolving demand for connected- ness, I’m new to putting me first. No one is below me, but I understand the need for integrated clarity—valuing the basic needs of my existence in the workplace. In this article, I outline how social media, Hip-Hop, and non-violence communication strategies enabled me to protect my space and reduce burnout as a scholar-practitioner.

Humanity In The Classroom: An Exploration Of Race In Teacher Behavior And Interaction With Students, Briellen Elizabeth Griffin

Dissertations

The hyper-surveillance of Black students has been well documented by educators and researchers across disciplines and reflects an increase in calls for research that examines the reproduction of racial inequality in educational spaces. To contend with the presence of antiblackness in the classroom is fundamentally about recognizing the humanity of Black students and interrogating the ways that they are dehumanized by racialized structures and social interactions. To examine antiblackness and humanity in the classroom, I conducted a critical collaborative case study with six teachers from an elementary school in a diverse Midwestern school district. I engaged BlackCrit Theory to examine …