(Re)Claiming Praxis

• In Event: "We Were Bound Before We Were Shackled": (Re)Membering Our Lives in Ghana, West Africa

Abstract

Objectives
We reflect on our experience in Ghana, West Africa observing the interactions of teachers and school children and the impact the experience will have on our future praxis in our respective areas of influence.

Perspective
As an act of reclamation and praxis, we consider Black Storytelling as the theoretical frame. Black Storytelling – firsthand, hand-me-down, and kaleidoscope stories – is a reflection and practice of intersectional identities. It is rooted in critical race theory, several denominations of Black feminism (especially because Black feminism is for everybody,) fugitivity, art/music and indigenous, critical ethnography. As a reflection of art and scholarship, we name Black Storytellers such as Zora Neal Hurston, Cynthia Dillard, bell hooks, our mothers and fathers.

Methods
We understand Chilisa’s (2011) call, that researchers must act as provocateurs and transformative healers. “Postcolonial indigenous research methodologies must be informed by the resistance to Euro-Western thought and the further appropriation of their knowledge” (p. 8). Therefore, we name James Baldwin, Robin D.G. Kelley, Robin Boylorn, D. Soyini Madison, as our totems.

As a practice/method, we name four movements for Black Storytelling: (1) Record [Focus on how Black folx foster wonderment and create history through our respective Village.], (2) Reconnect [Critically understand our individual stories within a broad American context.], (3) Reward [Exercise agency by embracing the Inner Child, the Erotic, the Land, the Body], and (4) Repeat [Build cultural wealth with the Village].

Data Sources
Data for this study comes from fieldnotes and reflections while at the Full Circle Writing Retreat in Ghana, West Africa, amongst nine Black women scholars. We draw from our experiences at several sites we visited including, the Cape Coast Dungeon, Assin Manso River, Cynthia B. Dillard School, and the Full Circle Retreat Center.

Point of View
Based on our experiences at various sites, one major theme emerged - self-love endenders radical praxis in both our homes and classrooms. Self-love took shape through the redefining and acceptance of our individual/collective beauty, a heightened sense of spirituality, sisterhood, community, and clear representations of Black joy in learning.

Scholarly Significance
This study contributes to teacher education literature by extending the knowledge base on what teacher educators need to know to prepare candidates for the work of re/claiming a liberated praxis in classrooms. The study also offers insights about the need for TEPs to seriously consider Black storytelling and self-love as essential tools among teacher educators and therefore, provide professional learning opportunities to interrogate our awareness of and foster an appreciation of self.

Authors

• Keara L. Williams, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• M. Billye Sankofa Waters, University of Washington - Tacoma
  Presenting Author

• Tynisha N. Worthy, Youth At The Center
  Presenting Author