Black Girls, Love, and Jesus: Reimagining Restorative Practices in Education Using Biblical Principles

• In Event: Divine Love in Me: Black Girl Love as Resistance Against Oppressive Schooling

Abstract

Building on previous scholarship that explores the intersection of education and spirituality, this chapter demonstrates how we use the Bible and the life of Jesus Christ to foreground our unique approach to education— specifically as it relates to engaging Black girls within schools and third spaces. Using three autoethnographic narratives collected from the authors, we show how our faith undergirded by biblical principles of compassion, empathy, joy, patience, healing, and forgiveness have operated rather organically in our efforts to effectively mentor, advise, and research Black girls with love. In sharing our lived experiences, we seek to frame a larger conversation around the development of restorative practices for Black girls using Christ-centered theology. Our ultimate goal is to reimagine love in educational spaces in ways that bring healing and restoration to those who have historically been ignored, pushed out, and harmed.

Authors

• Bettie Ray Butler, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Abiola Farinde-Wu, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Tierra M. Parsons, University of North Carolina - Charlotte