Knowing When to Bounce: Black Teachers Creating Critical Belonging for Black Students

• In Event: AERA Annual Meeting Social Justice Action Committee Session. Black at School: Black Teachers, Black Students, and Antiblack Hostilities in Pre-K–20 Institutions

Abstract

In this paper I explore how two Black teachers cultivate sense of belonging in their high school classrooms through their pedagogical choices, and how African American students perceive these efforts as affecting their overall class engagement and academic motivation. Using a qualitative case study, I focused on African American teachers and the African American students in their classrooms, to capture the impact of the socio-political-institutional context and teaching pedagogy on students’ sense of belonging. I employed Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) in tandem with qualitative Racial Identity Theory (RIT) measures (Boston;2017) to reconstitute sense of belonging into Critical Belonging. Critical Belonging means looking at both the interpersonal and systemic factors impacting belonging based on what African American students need to feel valued and respected. By using racial realism to create counter spaces both inside and outside classrooms and schools, and centering the experiential knowledge of African American teachers, Critical Belonging creates classroom spaces for African American students where these students have a sense of ownership, motivation, and value for their educational outcomes and process.

Author

• Ramon Stephens, University of California - San Diego
  Presenting Author