Daughters of Cooper: The Ancestral Legacy of Black Women Teachers

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Gender, Race, and Academic Discipline (Table 13)

Abstract

Many U.S. teacher education programs neglect to represent the rich ancestry of Black women as teachers and educational philosophers. The nature of schooling continues an oppressive history that isolates, silences, and undervalues Black women. This paper engages in (re)membering the legacies and traditions of Black women teachers to inform our present and future selves in the field. This study delineates the presence and influence of one historical and ancestral Black women teacher, Anna Julia Cooper, on the herstories and pedagogical practices of contemporary Black women teachers in the South. I engage the past as prologue and explore my own genealogical legacy of teaching through unearthing the herstories of Black women teachers in my community.

Author

• Asia S. Thomas Uzomba, American University
  Presenting Author