Leaving to Stay: Black Women Teachers, Postmodern Blackness, and Retention in Educational Research

• In Event: Women Navigating Educational Leadership

Abstract

Theorizing early career Black women teachers’ (BWT) retention in K-12 public education, this essay argues for a reconceptualization of the “stayer-mover-leaver” master narrative to recognize Black teachers who change roles within education and those who take on other careers involving advocacy for children and youth. With this grounding, early career BWTs’ professional choices and career paths are illuminated and (re)framed through an excavation of the literature as a manifestation of their agency within postmodern blackness, representing a recalibration of traditional notions of teacher retention. Concluding, implications are offered for redefining Black teachers’ career choice-making in educational research.

Author

• Abiola Farinde-Wu, University of Massachusetts - Boston