As Black America Goes, So Goes the Nation: Re-Embracing Our HBCU Educational Programs in the Pursuit of Racial Educational Justice

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

In this uniquely conceived symposium, we highlight the critical work of Black educational leaders who guide schools, colleges, and departments of education at our Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as they prepare the next generation of Black classroom teachers, building/district administrators, and education leaders. These Deans and Department Chairs are poised to offer an enriching conversation that helps to illuminate, clarify, and (re)affirm the roles and responsibilities that HBCUs have, both historically and contemporarily, in developing Black classroom practitioners and building/district/national leaders. The timing of this discussion is apropos given the current socio-political/ socio- educational context where state and national so-called leaders attempt to stymie educational progress by propagating racist policies and practices that mis/dis-inform the public, rewriting the histories and futures of Black Americans, and diminishing and/or erasing the role white supremacy has had in U.S. education. To make it plain, HBCUs have always stood in opposition to these threats to the educational, collective, and personal development of Black folks, and have been leaders in producing exemplary Black practitioners and leaders. Towards that end, we deliberately re-center and re-embrace the voices of our HBCU educational leaders to learn from, with, and by them as we seek to construct more authentic educational possibilities. This moderated symposium will be organized by the following prompts:
1) What can we learn from the legacy of HBCU teacher education programs and their contributions to the broader narrative of racial educational justice?
2) How are HBCU teacher education programs currently responding to attacks on racial educational justice, especially when conceptual frameworks like Critical Race Theory and Anti-Racism have been weaponized?
3) What has been HBCU teacher education programs’ impact on research, policy, and practice as they relate to racial educational justice?
4) How are HBCU teacher education programs reimagining educational spaces free of racial injustice for the future of our communities?

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Valerie Kinloch, Johnson C. Smith University

Participants

• Paula Groves Price, North Carolina A&T State University

• Dawn G. Williams, Howard University

• Shelley Rouser, Delaware State University

• Glenda M. Prime, Morgan State University

Discussant

• Valerie Kinloch, Johnson C. Smith University