Black and Belonging in School: A Black Woman Educator's Classroom Community-Building Work

• In Event: Interrogating Consequential Research in Black Education

Abstract

In continuing the legacy of community-mindedness, good Black educators consistently enact emancipatory pedagogies designed to nurture Black children’s personhood. Cultivating community in the classroom setting is one ritual used toward affirming young Black children’s literate character, presence, and pursuits, and Black educators do so in the midst of constant disruption to Black children’s language and literacy development imposed by Eurocentric curriculum and instruction. The purpose of this presentation is to report on research-in-progress related to the ways one African American woman teacher-built and established community through her reading instruction with her African American elementary students. Drawing on Afronography and collaborative inquiry, findings present a rich case of classroom community-building from an African American woman teacher’s perspective.

Authors

• Melanie M. Acosta, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Michael J. Strozier, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Shanna Lillis, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Beason-Rahming, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author