Deconstructing Power in Classroom Settings: Disrupting Racist and Adultist Practices to Empower Black Students

• In Event: Acknowledgment and Liberation: Experiences of Transforming Education

Abstract

This qualitative exploratory case study explores five secondary teachers’ beliefs and practices for empowering Black high school students using research-based empowering characteristics identified as essential for empowering Black students. These characteristics include positive teacher-student relationships, equitable teacher-student roles, sense of community, racial identity development, critical consciousness development, and culturally responsive teaching. A variety of qualitative data sources were analyzed using open and axial coding to explore what the identified characteristics for empowering Black students look, sound, and feel like in classroom practices. Results indicate that empowering pedagogical practices are more apparent in classrooms where teachers intentionally reflect and plan their instruction to include their progressive beliefs about anti-racism and youth empowerment.

Author

• A. Amaka Fennimore, Manchester Public Schools