Reconceptualizing Soul-Work in Education Through Womanist Intellectual Tradition

• In Event: 72.060 - Reaching Students Whose Dreams Won't Matter: Reflections From Educators of Black Children

Abstract

In recent years, various scholars (Brown, 2013; Paris & Winn, 2013; Ladson-Billings; Brown, 2012; Tuck & Yang, 2012; Tochon; 2011; Tuck, 2009) have argued the need to re-conceptualize the ways in which research is framed and conducted and to reimagine how our findings might be used by, for, and within historically minoritized communities (Tuck, 2009; Dillard, 2013; Apple, 2012). This conceptual paper seeks to address, as well as, challenge the ontological rules of representation in contemporary educational research and the everyday schooling practices that continue to contribute to the dehumanization of the historically minoritized child in the classroom (Goff &Jackson, 2014; Brown, K.D., 2013; Brown, 2012; Dillard & Okpalaoka, 2013; King, 2005). Building upon the idea of de-pathologizing the experiences of dispossessed and disenfranchised communities as broken and conquered, this paper will explore the notion of conducting a new kind of ontological-epistemic research that seeks to yield analyses that upend common held assumptions of responsibility, cohesiveness, ignorance, and paralysis within dispossessed and disenfranchised communities (Ladson-Billings, 2014; Bostic & Manning, 2013; Dillard, 2006) As a result, we propose a reconceptualization of the soul through the Womanist intellectual tradition as a holistic ontological-epistemic praxis that embraces the whole person and the multiple formations and positionalities of the soul in educational research and everyday schooling practices (Collins, 2013; Dillard, 2012; hooks, 2013; Barkley-Brown, 1991).
From this frame of thought, we seek to scaffold the soul in education through a socially-oriented ontology that works to serve the soul for the sake of the soul. This human-centered paradigm connects the three seemingly distinct aspects of the soul—our mind, our will and our emotions—both through our perceptions of the world, as well as, our social interactions in and through the world (Ladson-Billings, 2014; Brown, 2013; Milner, 2007, Barkley-Brown, 1991). As an attempt to synthesize the main major themes in reconceptualizing soul-work in education, we have identified four key concerns that will be addressed in this paper: (1) acknowledging the calling for healing the soul through new ontological eyes; secondly, (2) accepting our responsibility to unlearn the past; moreover, (3) learning to master our seductions through our multiple soul-forms. and lastly, (4) committing to transforming the ontological rules of representation in our research and teaching practices, by embracing the sacredness of the teaching profession (Dillard, 2012; Collins, 2013; hooks, 2013; Sleeter, 2011; King, 2005; Wynter, 2003; Wynter, 1987).

Authors

• Judy A. Alston, Ashland University

• Philip Jay Bostic, University of Wisconsin - Madison