Deepening Our Understanding: Educators of Color on Liberatory Practice

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Advocating for a Better Tomorrow: Excavating Decolonial Futures for Youth of Color (Table 13)

Abstract

Educational transformation is often targeted at classroom instruction and school-based policies; however, emergent research calls attention to examining the learning ecosystem of students of color. Students learn across context and are affected by systemic factors. Non-traditional, or informal, educators are in closer proximity to the social and economic injustices that affect youths’ development across their learning ecosystem, and are committed to supplementing educational disparities for students of color. In this qualitative study, we sought to understand how non-traditional educators of color engage in liberatory practice to support youths’ development. We argue that authentic, critical care is a fundamental component of liberatory education for educators of color as illuminated in the skills, competencies, conditions for, and barriers described by our participants.

Authors

• Briana Coleman, CASEL

• Olivia A Kelly, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning

• Ashley Griffin Gilchrist, Bowie State University