Fostering Black Space in Education: Co-Constructing Futures Through Community Collaboration and the Reimagining of Schools

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In a totalizing climate of antiblackness (Sharpe, 2016), Black communities co-create spaces for their resistance, wellness, and healing. In this spirit of Black collective organizing and dreaming, this symposium is a collaboration of Black educational researchers, educators, and youth to study Black spaces and their impact on Black people. The panels will share a variety of methodologies and Black theoretical frameworks to underscore the importance of Black-affirming spaces in light of “schools as sites of Black suffering” (Dumas, 2014), highlighting the possibility and joy in these spaces. These spaces extend beyond traditional classrooms into chosen spaces (Moore & Paris, 2021), Black geographies (McKittrick, 2006), homeplaces (hooks, 1990), and Black educational fugitive spaces (ross, 2021).

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 1: Education and Place, Space, Time

Chair

• Renee Wilmot, Michigan State University

Papers

• "It's a Camaraderie": The Power of Black Teacher Fugitive Space - Jessica Lee Stovall, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Micia Mosely, Black Teacher Project; Abram Jackson; Michelle Cody, Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School

• Refusals Reframed: Cultivating a Black Girl Chosen Space - Jazmen Moore, University of Washington; Jala Johnson

• Holding and Making Space: A Black Geographic Perspective on Learning and Identity - Kaleb Germinaro, University of Washington

• "I'm Not Alone Anymore": A Community Review Board's Efficacy in Iterating an Abolitionist History Curriculum - Darion A. Wallace, Stanford University; Kia Turner; Madisyn Cunningham; Maliatu Jalloh

Discussant

• Kihana Miraya Ross, Northwestern University