I'm Black and I'm Proud: Autoethnographically Considering the Place of Race in Critical Pedagogy

• In Event: Truth Is the Through Line: Epistemic Archaeology in Curriculum Theory

Abstract

Using autoethnographic methods, this paper seeks to reconcile personal memory, genealogy, embodied experience, and critical black feminist theory with how certain strands of critical pedagogy have inadequately attend to issues of race. The critical pedagogies of Paulo Freire, C.A. Bowers, and Sandy Grande are examined alongside counternarratives which reconsider the place of race in critical education as experienced by those possessing Black bodies. Ultimately, this paper promotes what post-colonial feminist scholar Nina Asher calls “interdependence” as an alternative to how the aforementioned conceptions of critical pedagogies deprioritize or ignore race. To not consider oppression(s) interdependently implicitly forces would-be critical educators to rank facets of their complex identities—discouraging them from taking up critical pedagogy in pursuit of social justice.

Author

• Rae Charles Harge, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities