"The Struggle Is Real": Novice Black Female Teacher Educator Experiences Enacting a Liberatory Pedagogy

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Social Justice Educators Teaching the Lesson

Abstract

Teacher educators report struggling to deal with student resistance, lack of departmental support, and teaching in a neoliberal context as major challenges in teaching courses focused on race. These challenges are compounded for Black faculty who must also contend with racial battle fatigue, threat of safety, and questioning of competence and authority. Though Black faculty have distinctive experiences, they are seldom prepared to design and facilitate student learning experiences. Understanding more about the developmental nature of Black faculty’s race pedagogy is essential to meeting their particularized needs. The purpose of this paper is to describe the perspectives and experiences of two novice Black female instructors as they reflect on facilitating their first course focused on race, culture, teaching and learning.

Authors

• Melanie M. Acosta, The University of Alabama

• Charisse Nerissa Southwell, University of Florida

• Michelle Grant-Harris

• Gernissia Cherfrere, University of Pennsylvania

• Bridgette Johnson, University of Florida

• Jana Wallace, University of Florida

• Natalie Simone King, University of Florida