Dancing in the Rain and Weathering the Storm: Stories of Black Family Agency and Resistance

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Racial disparities in education don’t exist because Black families are incompetent or uninvolved. They exist because of ideologies and structures that maintain inequality. The papers presented in this session explore Black family experiences using a strength-based perspective that values the experiential knowledge of Black families. Five panelists will share stories that highlight the agency and resistance of Black families striving for equitable educational opportunities in four United States cities. Each author acknowledges the pervasiveness of anti-black racism, describes the harmful manifestations within Black families and schools, and explains how Black families persist anyway. This symposium calls educational researchers to question whose knowledge and engagement counts to consider how we can learn from Black families and honor their knowledge.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Family, School, Community Partnerships

Chairs

• Dana Gabrielle Nickson, University of Washington - Seattle

• Shannon Paige Clark, University of Illinois at Chicago

Papers

• Absent Narratives of the Black Family as a Classroom - Tunette Powell, University of California - Los Angeles

• "We Made Math!" Acknowledging Black Mothers as Supporters of Their Children's Mathematical Identities - Jahneille Cunningham, University of California - Los Angeles

• Choosing Race, Choosing Place: Black Families' Racial Subjectivities in Pursuit of Educational Opportunity - Dana Gabrielle Nickson, University of Washington - Seattle

• Hidden Stories of Black Families and Learning Amid COVID-19 - Shannon Paige Clark, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Black Family Love and Power: An Act of Ancestral Resilience - Latosha M Rowley, Indiana University - IUPUI

Discussant

• Carla D. O'Connor, University of Michigan