Reclaiming Educational Spaces for K–16 Black Students: Critical Race Theory as a Best Practice

Session Type: Working Group Roundtable

Abstract

This session explores the role of race in educational research in order to illuminate Critical Race Theory as a tool in transforming teacher practice and examining the experiences of students from Black/African-American backgrounds in multiple educational contexts, including children and youth born in African countries and resettled as refugees. Racism and other manifestations of hate are commonplace in communities, and even exist as everyday occurrences, which subsequently are experiences that students draw on in their K-16 classrooms. These students understand the pervasiveness of racism in the United States and its impact on people of African heritage. We will discuss how Black/African-American students are reclaiming educational spaces to affirm their own identities and communities, and share best practices for equitable opportunities.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 04: Transformative Justice in Teacher Education

Chair

• Jonee Wilson, University of Virginia

Papers

• "Black Girls Can Do This": Challenging Racial Inequity in Informal Engineering Through Cultural Responsiveness - Whitney N. McCoy, Duke University

• Counternarratives: Black Children From Refugee Backgrounds Interact With and Dialogically Respond to Taye Diggs's Chocolate Me! - Nermin Vehabovic, Elon University

• Exploring the Relationships of Mathematical Identity and Racial Identity of Adolescent Black Girls - Brittney Black, North Carolina State University

• Critiquing Discourses of Power in a College Algebra Class: Utilizing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy - Gregory A Downing, North Carolina Central University