Realities of the Racial Realist: P–20 Educators Bearing Witness From the Sunken Place

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The Sunken Place describes the state of learned helplessness that many equity-minded, Black educators contend with, while resisting racism and injustice in an education system entrenched with the power to silence them. This interactive symposium brings together senior and emerging Black scholar and racial realists to present reflections that illuminate how they navigate the Sunken Place and remain engaged in equity-minded praxis that disrupts the racial order in P-20 education. In an act of bearing witness, participants will engage one another in facilitated dialogue to generate strategies for managing the psychological trauma and racial battle fatigue that minoritized educators engaged in resistance readily experience.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research Focus on Black Education

Chair

• Chayla Haynes Davison, Texas A&M University - College Station

Papers

• The Contemporary Chief Diversity Officer: The Reincarnation of the Plantation Driver? - Franklin A. Tuitt, University of Denver

• I Ain't Dyin' With My Hammer in My Hand: Racial Justice Work and John Henryism - Dorinda Carter Andrews

• The Diary of a Black Curriculum Director - Floyd Cobb, University of Denver

• Learning in Resistance: A Doctoral Journey Thru Sunken Places - Shanika Harvey

Discussant

• Chayla Haynes Davison, Texas A&M University - College Station