The Personal as Political: Toward a Black Cultural Definition of Communities of Practice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Presenters draw from research on communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012) to examine the import of including the personal (e.g., identities; place; Collins, 1991; hooks, 1994) in academic research and praxis. Each presentation explores the personal as it relates to qualitative, ethnographic research in communities of practice—from classroom contexts to local-global communities. Presenters rely on situated learning theory, scholarship by/about Black women academics and activists, and narrative inquiry methodology to inquire: What can be learned from Black and/or indigenous women scholars about the inclusion of the personal in academic research and praxis? How might scholarship on communities of practice and culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies nuance understandings of racialized and gendered identities?

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 5: Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Chair

• Valerie Kinloch, The Ohio State University

Papers

• Epistemologies Anew? Research on Communities of Practice in Communities of Color - Brooke Harris Garad, The Ohio State University

• The Personal, the Political, and Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Black Women’s Community of Practice - Eyatta Y. Fischer, The Ohio State University

• Youth Identities and African American Cultural Practices: Lessons From a High School Community of Practice - Donja Bridges, Gahanna Jefferson Schools

Discussant

• Valerie Kinloch, The Ohio State University