Conceptualizing Black Consciousness Within Motivation Research

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Scholars vested in Black people explore the motivation behind their decisions and engagements while also considering their conceptions of Blackness. Blackness, representing the embodied onto-epistemology of Black people, reflects Black people’s perceptions, understandings, and engagement with social and material conditions. The decision to explore Blackness and motivation reflects a scholar’s sociopolitical positioning; historically, motivation research has not meaningfully accounted for Blackness in its theorizing and explorations. Outcomes of these traditional approaches include race essentialist, deficit-oriented scholarship that reinforce the dehumanization of Black people in education. To foster a racially just world this symposium presents a collective of papers that offer new perspectives for exploring and understand the motivation of Black people through race critical, humanizing approaches.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Motivation in Education

Chair

• DeLeon Gray, North Carolina State University

Papers

• Black Educators’ Perspectives on Black Students’ Needs - Christopher Coleman, University of California - Davis; Asia Ivey; Faheemah N. Mustafaa, University of California - Davis; Natalie R. Davis, University of Michigan; Esohe R. Osai, University of Pittsburgh

• Black Students’ Psychological Responses to Ethnic-Specific Textbook Representations - Joseph Burey, University of Minnesota

• Black Men’s Wellness - Felix Morton, Capella University

• Sacrifice, Self-Interest, or Both? Probing Black Elites’ Political Ideologies and Decisions - Kenzi Kareem Bishara, Graduate Center - CUNY

• Conceptualizing Black Unspeakable Joy - Terrell R Morton, University of Illinois at Chicago; Isaiah M. Stewart, University of Illinois at Chicago

Discussant

• Angela M. White, Johnson C. Smith University