Rethinking Health, Safety, and Nutrition With Black Feminisms: An Early Childhood Teacher Educator's Transformative Journey

• In Event: Found in Translation: Connecting Reconceptualist Thinking With Contemporary Early Childhood Practices

Abstract

There is an overwhelming presence of developmental perspectives in the field of early childhood, which are undoubtedly perpetuated through teacher education programs (Dahlberg & Moss, 2005; Lubeck, 1996). As interrogated by reconceptualist scholars (Bloch, 2013; Soto, 2001; Swadener & Lubeck, 1995; Viruru, 2005; Yelland, Lee, O’Rourke & Harrison, 2008), western science and developmental psychology have informed dominant understandings of every aspect of childhood (Burman, 2008), including notions of health, safety, and nutrition—the topic of this paper. As Latinas and social justice oriented teacher educators who work with mainly students of color, we have looked not only to critical theories (Foucault, 1972; MacNaughton, 2005) to challenge and reimagine developmental perspectives in early childhood teacher education, but also to theories from the margins (hooks, 2000a). Black feminisms (Collins, 2008; Davis, 1990; hooks, 2000b; Lorde, 1984), in particular, have offered important theoretical tools for how we approach teacher education. With emphasis on the lived experiences of children and women of color, Black feminisms challenge institutional and social hierarchies while opening possibilities for the empowerment of marginalized communities.
In this paper, the first author shares her transformative journey as a former nutritionist and current teacher educator for an undergraduate Health, Safety, and Nutrition course at a university in the Southwest of the United States. As a methodological approach, both authors worked collaboratively to reflect upon and reveal theoretical points at which Black feminisms assisted in (1) recreating the syllabus, determining course content, and shifting the purposes of the course, (2) enacting a reciprocal/collective relationship between teaching and learning, and (3) encouraging students to take action through aesthetic expression.
From theoretical analyses of author one’s transformative journey as a teacher educator, it was found that (1) the sharing and incorporating of students’ and marginalized communities’ lived experiences (Collins, 2008) are integral to approaching course design and pedagogy; (2) disrupting the binary of teacher/learner shifts the classroom dynamic from a banking approach to education, to a space where both the students and instructors’ perspectives on health, safety, and nutrition are valued and encouraged, and even at times challenged (Souto-Manning, 2010); and (3) aesthetic expression, a central tenet of Black feminist thought, encourages students to learn about and reveal systemic and everyday oppressions related to health, safety, and nutrition. By creating art, students were able to share their individual and collective struggles and points of empowerment as women of color and early childhood educators.
Theorizing teacher education through a Black feminist lens challenges its present focus on developmental discourses and opens possibilities for emphasizing cultural diversity and social justice. As such, approaching any course with a Black feminist lens inherently transforms the purposes of education. Teacher education, then, has the potential to become a space to express and value knowledges of women and communities of color, break long held silences, and to create spaces that inspire social change (Block, 2010; Davis, 2016; Lorde, 1984).

Authors

• Margarita G. Ruiz Guerrero, New Mexico State University

• Michelle Salazar Perez, New Mexico State University