Keeping It Radical, Engaging, Authentic, and Loving: An Examination of What Drains, Sustains, and Grows Black Women Education Leaders

• In Event: Love Yourz: Critical Race Love Letters to Community

Abstract

Objectives
Negative perceptions of Black girls/women silence, police and undervalue Black girls/women within the educational setting. The effects of these perceptions influence exclusionary practices that eliminate Black girls/women from education and career opportunities thus contributing to the shortage of Black women considering and sustaining careers in education. This study focuses on the lived experiences of Black women as they navigated school systems as students and educators throughout their path to obtaining educational leadership positions. There is a need to understand the range of experiences that have motivated or influenced Black women to identify their capacity to lead and how they considered educational leadership as a career. The preparation and design of this study was orchestrated to uplift, empower, and enlighten the field of education on the value and necessity of the Black woman researcher, educator, teacher, and student (hooks, 2009; Evans-Winters, 2019).

Theoretical Framework
Keeping it REAL! (Radical, Engaging, Authentic, Love) was a developed framework used as a foundation to disrupt, engage, and liberate Black women by and through love. The Keeping it REAL! framework represents the movement from theory to praxis for Black women’s liberation in educational spaces. The layering of Black Feminism, Critical Race Feminism, and Womanism give life to Keeping it REAL!. Each theory nurtures an intentional passion and pursuit to co-construct positive self-identity (Evans-Winters, 2019), recognize the systemic and structural power dynamics that devalue and dehumanize (Anderson, 2020), and emphasize and represent the multidimensionality of Black girls/women (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2005).

Methods
The following questions were explored in this Black Feminist research. What experiences throughout Black women leaders’ journey from birth to educational leadership influenced their capacity and motivation to lead? What radical visions do Black women leaders have to both sustain their leadership as well as support others’ in their leadership journeys? Black Feminist Methodologies (Evans-Winters, 2019) were applied to support a loving and affirming research space that humanized the experiences and epistemologies of five Black women educational leaders, including this paper’s author. Data collected included semi-structured 1:1 interviews with each participant and a collective “Sista Circle,” which brought all participants together in one truth telling space to explore their radical visions.

Findings
Through the participants’ own storytelling and intimate connections during the Sista Circle, findings revealed the need to “armor up to show up” and navigate the politics of whiteness in educational spaces that drained them in their roles. Other-mothering their communities, mentorship, and their spirituality was found to sustain them. To illuminate what grows them, letters were written through their collective voice to the Reader, Black girls, Black women, and whiteness as calls to action.

Scholarly Significance
These letters represent the critical and radical visions that address necessary shifts in beliefs, practices, and policies for Black women to be authentic, radical leaders who Keep it REAL!

Author

• Monique Walton, California State University - East Bay
  Presenting Author