Black Teacher Educators Centering Black Intellectualism and Humanity in Their Theory, Pedagogy, and Praxis

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Black history and contemporary life are undervalued in teacher education program curricula. Four U.S.-based Black teacher educators will explore how they make Black intellectual thought prominent in their teaching. This session will highlight the centrality of critical inquiry that centers learning and possibility between and amongst Black children, youth, and communities and the importance of viewing Blackness as a paradigmatic intervention in teacher education and language arts classrooms. This session will emphasize how teacher educators can combat antiblackness in teacher training and the ways that Black people have been foundational in defining and operationalizing liberatory pedagogy.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 09: Initial Teacher and Teacher Educator Preparation

Chair

• Ashley Houston-King, Boston University

Papers

• Learning From Ancestors and Elders: Utilizing Pedagogical Wisdom From Black Educators Across Time to Instruct K–12 Preservice Teachers - Wintre Foxworth Johnson, University of Virginia

• Justice-Oriented Collaborators (JOCs): Working in Solidarity to Do Soul Work to Support and Affirm Black Students - Davena Y. Jackson, Boston University

• In Search of Home: Black Youth World-Making Geographies and Liberation in Teacher Education - Justin A. Coles, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Critical Reflexivity and Black Intellectual Thought: A Freedom-Focused Approach for the Elementary Classroom - Brooke Harris Garad, Butler University

Discussant

• Renée Wilmot, Michigan State University