Educational Impact. (Previous: Taking a Knee) *Currently Revised Title*. Teachers of Color as Our Nation’s Greatest Solvency: Maximizing Our Students Potential with Our Influence, Relation-ality, and a Lens of Care.

• In Event: AERA Teachers of Color Handbook Session 2

Abstract

Valuable student experiences are had when education is an expansive tool and a change catalyst. Six research participants, coined as historical contributors, illuminate their relevance to the civil rights era to find common themes of success. Participants share with us underlying educational challenges for students from diverse backgrounds. Student-Teacher ethnic matching is showcased as advantageous using phenomenological research to describe the relationality of Teachers of Color (TOC) and their educational impact. TOC have an innate consciousness in prevalent systems of injustice. With relational courage and authentic consciousness, critical educators seek to find solutions to an age-old issue marked by marginalizations and secure culturally responsive knowledge to enhance accessibility for students of color.

Authors

• Natalie Latrice Parker - Holliman, Texas Tech University

• Florentia Marcheve Spires, Ph.D., Prince George's County Public Schools