Betwixt the Ivory Tower and the School Blacktop: Mama-Scholars of Color Navigating White Educational Systems

• In Event: (In)Between: Educators Navigating In Between Identities and Spaces

Abstract

This manuscript diverges from normative/colonial scholarship to describe the ways we as mama scholars of color with young children navigating K-12 educational systems are betwixt the ivory tower and the school blacktop. Utilizing testimonio and storying, we draw upon intersectional nepantla and (in)visibility as frameworks to theorize how actions and interpretations of those actions are layered in nuances of identity and politics of place. Primary source data consists of letters written to our son’s schools between 2016-2022. Secondary source data consists of scholarly community conversations between 2016-2022. While existing scholarship treats motherhood as additive, dissonant, and in conflict as a duality with academia, we argue that motherhood is a circular continuum that supersedes academic spaces.

Authors

• Chris A. Nelson, University of Denver
  Presenting Author

• Tracy Arámbula Turner, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author