A Choreography of Difference: Exploring the Racial Choreographies of Un/Scripting Unapologetic Blackness in Education

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  In Roundtable Session: #UnapologeticBlackness: Community and Family (Table 19)

Abstract

Considering the antiblack set of sociopolitical relations that Black teachers are operating within, this study uses qualitative and ethnographic research methods to explore how two Black teachers’ navigation of racial choreographies of unapologetic Blackness supports their pedagogical decisions, student relationality, and professional retention. This paper offers choreographies of difference as a generative conceptual tool to better understand how teachers adhere to or disavow neoliberal impositions of difference. Preliminary findings suggest that the teachers moved away from the anti-Black, individualistic, and competitive nature of classrooms toward a collective space where teachers and students are accountable for each other’s academic success and socio-emotional wellness. These findings explicate how racial choreographies of un/scripting unapologetic blackness serve as generative sites of learning and resistance.

Authors

• Darion A. Wallace, Stanford University

• Jessica Lee Stovall, University of Wisconsin - Madison