Learning Freedom: Working Toward Black Liberation Through Transformative Education Praxes

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Step One, Liberate Minds: An Exploration of Research and Practice in K–12 Settings (Table 12)

Abstract

This article reviews Black women K-12 educators’ contemporary articulations of their own liberatory pedagogies and praxes to examine the capacity for thinking about this work within and outside of the classroom. Using an analysis of in-depth interviews with a sample of Black women K-12 educators and classroom observations, I show that these educators’ liberatory praxes are characterized by: the educator’s liberatory political identification (one that commits to freedom and black liberation and the centering of community and social transformation); the use of revolutionary curriculum (one that is culturally responsive and includes critical analysis of power and critical consciousness); and an approach to education that centers the learner and their well-being (one that is emphasizes love, authenticity, and Black valuation).

Author

• Alannah Sheri Caisey, NORC at the University of Chicago