Centering "Radical Vulnerability and Soul Care" as an Act of Political and Pedagogical Warfare

• In Event: Critical Professional Development and Vulnerability: Centering the Holistic Needs of Educators Committed to Social Justice

Abstract

This study explores the racialized challenges that educators of Color committed to social justice have had to navigate as practitioners within a profession dominated by 82% white teachers (Hrabowski III & Sanders, 2015) within the context of a neoliberal (Apple, 2011) and carceral (Shaylor & Meiners, 2013) state. When teacher preparation and professional development overwhelmingly centers and privileges whiteness (Sleeter, 2003) and capitalist logics behind school and classroom practices, the presence, needs and wellbeing of educators of color committed to social justice are neglected and they experience alienation (Kohli, 2016; Martinez, Valdez & Cariaga, 2016). Understanding white supremacy as racism embedded in everyday practices and beliefs that uphold whiteness as standard and normal (Picower, 2009), educators across the country are creating their own affinity spaces to empower and sustain themselves in the field (Author, 2016; Kohli & Pizarro, 2016; Mosely & Udofia, 2017; Strong, Pittman-Polletta & Vasquez-Garcia, 2017). This two year study explores how a grassroots critical affinity group in California developed their own learning and support group guided by the tenets: Healing, Empowerment, Love, Liberation and Action (H.E.L.L.A.) over the course of two academic years.

This two year ethnographic case study (Yin, 2003) describes how a California critical affinity group situated within a multiracial grassroots social justice teacher organization explicitly centered the experiences, needs, and Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) of educators of Color through holistic, critical professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015) and radical healing (Ginwright, 2016) approaches. I employed participant observation (Patton, 2002), audio-recorded 2-2 ½ hour monthly meetings, as well as 1-1½ hour interviews, twice with each member. I also relied on testimonios (Author, 2016) as an additional focal method. I utilized grounded theory analysis and inductive approaches (Straus & Corbin, 1998) to engage in a systematic process of discovery of important categories and themes from the data.

All of the H.E.L.L.A. members spoke about how valuable the space was for them, particularly in relation to healing from racial trauma with other like-minded educators of Color that they built trust with overtime. Recurring themes in the data pointed to the value of being part of a critical, asset-based racial affinity group; the need to seek refuge from whiteness and white supremacy; and the impact of healing collectively for sustainability within the field. The development of individual action plans within the group also led to empowering pedagogical approaches that participants expressed would not have been conceived of outside of their H.E.L.L.A. experience.
This study offers insights about the value of centering the intersectional identities and experiences of teachers of Color through testimonio (Delgado Bernal, Burciaga & Flores Carmona, 2012) as an act of resistance, “radical vulnerability and soul care” (Author, 2016) when navigating racially hostile schools and a predominantly white profession where they feel pathologized, tokenized and/or invisibilized (Kohli, 2016).

Author

• Farima Pour-Khorshid, University of California - Santa Cruz