Counter-Narrative as Transformative Praxis in Education

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Framed with the lens of counter-narratives as transformative praxis, this session brings together a wide range of actors—scholars, teacher educators, teachers, and community members—engaged in the use of counter-narratives for anti-racist transformation of schooling and society. Through the participants’ interaction with each other and audience members we will begin to develop the foundation for a robust and flexible transformative praxis that centers the lives, experiences, and actions of teachers, students, and communities within and beyond the institutions that educate and employ teachers of color.

Research Base:
In her influential historical analysis of African American teachers and schools, Siddle Walker (2001, p. 753) stated that “the failure to provide a unified account of African American teaching handicaps current efforts to understand exemplary teachers of African American students.” Siddle Walker’s critical observation applies to a broad range of educators of color, as evidenced by other scholars who have studied the experiences of African American teachers in desegregated Southern schools (Foster, 1998), Asian American teachers of immigrant students (Goodwin, 2010; Kim & Hsieh, 2021), Latina educator activists in Chicago (Rodriguez, 2023), and Indigenous school leaders (Faircloth, 2017). This session thus focuses on the counter-narratives teacher educators of color, teachers of color, and community members construct to reveal their experiences of intergenerational racism, which they use as a springboard for community-based transformative action based on anti-racist pedagogies.

The construction and relaying of counter-narratives as a key anti-racist practice extends from the foundation of Critical Legal Studies (Bell, 1987; 1992; Matsuda, 1991; 1993; 1995) to the creation of Critical Race Theory and its application to education (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Delgado & Stefancic, 2012). Just as CLS uses the lived experience of the law as a counter-argument to the letter of the law, CRT in education uses the lived experience of teaching and learning as a counter-argument to the letters of curriculum and pedagogy. As Solórzano and Yosso (2002) stated, “Critical Race Theory recognizes that the experiential knowledge of people of color is legitimate, appropriate, and critical to understanding, analyzing, and teaching about racial subordination” (p. 26). Over time, however, the conviction has grown that counter-narratives should move beyond using stories to support arguments and make use of them to bring about transformation cultural, political, and institutional transformation (Matsuda, 1993; Crenshaw et al., 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Dixson & Rousseau, 2005; Miller et al., 2020). For instance, Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995) argued that counter narratives are “a first step on the road to justice,” but “the voice of people of color is required for a complete analysis of the educational system” (Ladson-Billings & Tate, p.58). Dixon and Rousseau (2005) further pointed out that “in addition to uncovering the myriad ways that race continues to marginalize and oppress people of color, identifying strategies to combat these oppressive forces and acting upon those strategies is an important next step within CRT” (p. 23).

Framed with the lens of counter-narratives as transformative praxis, this session brings together a wide range of actors—scholars, teacher educators, teachers, and community members—engaged in the use of counter-narratives for anti-racist transformation of schooling and society. Through the participants’ interaction with each other and audience members we will begin to develop the foundation for a robust and flexible transformative praxis that centers the lives, experiences, and actions of teachers, students, and communities within and beyond the institutions that educate and employ teachers of color.

Explicit relevance to the theme of Theme of AERA 2024
In the AERA 2024 theme, President Howard asked “our community to dream and imagine, not in an illusory manner that is uncritical, ahistorical, and atheoretical, but in a manner that is rooted in justice seeking, that is evidence based, as we seek a different education reality.” We were asked “to think deeply about our own lived experiences and how they connect us with the work that we do” and reflect on how “our work speaks to those who are so often rendered silent and deemed invisible and conversely empowered to be heard and seen.” This is a call for counter-narratives that not only reveals racial injustices marginalized communities experience, but more importantly, counter-narratives of resistance and the ways these communities work to dismantle racist practices.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Katrina Liu, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

Papers

• Counter-Narrative as Methodology and Praxis: Counter-Narratives of Teachers in Urban Schools in Disrupting Deficit Notions of Difference in Overdisciplining and Criminalizing Children of Color - Rich Milner, Vanderbilt University

• Counter-Narratives of Latinx Youth and Families - Julio Cammarota, University of Arizona

• AsianCrit and Counter-Narratives of Asian American Teachers and Community Members - Betina Hsieh, University of Washington

• Black PlayCrit and Counter-Narratives and Actions From Black Male Teachers and Black Boys in Decriminalizing Black Boy Play - Nathaniel Bryan, University of Texas at Austin

Discussants

• Tia C. Madkins, University of Texas at Austin

• Patricia A. Edwards, Michigan State University

• Quaylan Allen, Chapman University