Cultural Justice for Black Girls as Future Black Women Educators in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Looking at the Histories of Black and Latina Early Childhood Educators to Guide the Future of Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Purpose: Our historic understandings of race and gender are deeply rooted in dehumanizing discourses and white supremacist, patriarchal systems of erasure for Black women and girls. However, this session builds on the conference theme of positioning new narratives of “justice, paradigms of hope, and interventions of possibility” for future generations of Black women early childhood educators by elevating the contemporary experiences of Black girls who aspire to become future early childhood teachers. The study is guided by the following question: How do the intersectional identities of Black girl youths studying early childhood education (ECE) in high school career pathway programs (CPPs) shape their motivations and beliefs about caring for and educating young children?

Conceptual Framework: The study is informed by endarkened feminist epistemologies and the literature linking Black women teachers with the cultural foundations of teaching and learning [5, 7]. Irvine6 posits that “cultural synchronization”, that is, the correspondence between the shared culture and interpersonal context of teachers and students, is necessary for Black students to achieve optimal levels of learning. Yet, little is known about the shared deep culture and interpersonal context of Black girls who aspire to be early childhood educators nor how their identities and culture should inform their preparation for the field.

Methods and Data Sources: Data was collected from four Black girls enrolled in high school ECE CPPs over the course of five months. Three types of data were collected including two semi-structured conversations, artifacts collected from participants’ cultural "memory boxes", and documents including student work. The coding and analysis of the data was informed by grounded theories [2] and narrative inquiry techniques outlined by Clandinin3 and Clandinin and Connelly4.

Findings: Findings from the study reveal Black girls’ early childhood memories of close-knit relations between both biological family members and fictive kin within places of worship, school, and other community contexts as significant factors that inform their beliefs about the care and education of young children. Specifically, the cultural socialization that occurred alongside mothers and othermothers [1] facilitated their early participation in communal care. Their choice to study ECE, and interest to learn how to care for and educate young children, is positioned as one of several agentic mechanisms for community connection, leadership, and uplift.
Scholarly Significance: This study has scholarly significance because it examines how the motivations and beliefs of Black girls who aspire to be early childhood educators are shaped by their racialized and gendered identities. To sustain future generations of Black women teachers, high school CPPs must be intentionally designed to acknowledge, affirm, and cultivate students’ agency and critical consciousness. Given the interlocking function of anti-Black racism, sexism, and capitalism that has historically restricted equitable opportunities for working-class Black women [8], we must ensure that pre-professional experiences for Black girls in high school ECE CPPs are relevant to their lived experience. This study offers a means for deconstructing historically oppressive conditions for Black women educators by reconstructing early interventions that link intersectional identity development and teacher preparation with Black girls in mind.

Author

• Morgan Faison, University of Georgia