Doing Biographical Research on Black Teacher Activists During Civil Rights

• In Event: Acts of Survival: Theory, Methods, and Lived Experiences in Writing Race

Abstract

Dillard (2012), a black feminist theorist and educator, shows that systems of race, power, and politics shape epistemology and methodology that is commonly taken as neutral. In her model of Endarkened Feminist Epistemology, Dillard (2012) suggests the claim of neutrality divides the mind from the spirit, further extracting background, positioning, and circumstances from the researcher’s frame of reference. This presentation will focus on the racial dimensions of my methodological decisions in designing and carrying out an ongoing biographical study on Black women teacher activists who were influential in the Civil Right movement in Oklahoma.

Author

• Autumn Brown, Oklahoma State University