Where the Mirror Starts to Crack: Anna Julia Cooper, Womanist Teaching, and Sustainable Teacher Education

• In Event: Uplifting Black Women Educators' Critical Pedagogies for Liberation and Justice

Abstract

Black women teachers have existed and persisted in U.S. schools as caring forces who provide high quality, liberatory education. In this article, we uplift the pedagogical role, approach, and impact of Black womanist teachers since the nineteenth century. Framed by the Black feminist-womanist paradigm (Lindsay-Dennis, 2015), we use daughtering as methodology (Evans-Winters, 2019) to (re)member Anna Julia Cooper as a Black foremother of liberatory pedagogy, and how her legacy offers current Black womanist teachers a spiritual wisdom to continue facilitating the freedom of Black children. Through the philosophy and herstory of Dr. Cooper, we explore how teacher education rooted in the voices, histories, and continuing legacy of Black women educators has the potential to sustain Black women teachers.

Authors

• Shanique Lee, Rutgers University

• Asia S. Thomas, Augusta State University