“We Can Birth Things Within Our Students and Our Students Can Birth Things in Us”: Black Women Teachers and Radical Hope in the Crooked Schoolhouse

• In Event: Insisting on Critical Hope: Interrogating School-Based Trauma and Reimagining Liberatory Possibilities

Abstract

Background
Black women teachers have played an integral role in educating Black communities and children from the antebellum era through the afterlife of Brown (Fairclough, 2007; Irvine & Hill, 1990; Love, 2023). It is not surprising, therefore, that their humanizing pedagogies (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002; Dixson, 2003), self-efficacy (Davis et al., 2022; Milner & Hoy, 2003), protection of Black children (Case, 1997; Collins, 2000; McKinney de Royston et al., 2021), and creation of spaces where students excel academically have garnered attention (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017; Foster, 1997). This paper explores the complexity of Black women teachers’ work and how their labor(ing) reflects a commitment to radical hope as a means to counteract anti-Black suffering inside the crooked schoolhouse.

Theoretical Perspective(s)
The analysis is undergirded by Radical Black Feminism, which provides a lens for understanding Black women's oppression as a result of capitalism under the neoliberal carceral state (James, 1999), as well as the Crooked Room Theory that focuses on Black women teachers' labor as a means of generating space for Black children informed by their politics (Harris-Perry, 2011). Examining the lived experiences of Black women teachers through these lenses clarifies the complexity of their labor(ing) in the crooked schoolhouse while casting light on alternatives and possibilities within its confines.

Data Sources & Methods
Utilizing kitchen table talks to gain a deeper understanding of the labor capacities of Black women teachers, the study asks:
How do Black women teachers make sense of their labor experiences in K-12 schools?
How do Black women teachers refuse and cultivate space for Radical Black Joy in K-12 schools?
What new visions do Black women teachers have for education in the afterlife of Brown?
A series of six virtual kitchen table talks were conducted between December 2023 and January 2024 with sixteen (16) self-identified Black women teachers across the U.S. To center their “goodness” the study employed portraiture methodology (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman-Davis, 1997).

Findings
Key findings include: (1) Black women teachers labor(ed) in two ways: first, they acted as maternal laborers who labored in love, while simeualtaneously experiencing the erasure of their emotions as a result of anti-Blackness in the crooked schoolhouse; (2) Black women teachers "standing upright" in the crooked schoolhouse; and (3) Black women teachers classrooms acted as a kind of "womb" for Radical Black Joy.

Significance
These Black women teachers demonstrated a seditious insurgency and a great aspiration to establish nurturing conditions for Black students in the midst of anti-Black suffering. Their ability to to create a kind of "womb" for Radical Black Joy illustrates their unwavering commitment to Black children’s thriving. Their dedication to Black children serves as both a remedy and an extension of an abolitionist ethos that seeks to create otherwise and overwise worlds. Findings represent their dedication to radical hope, which has been fostered through shared experiences and discussions at the kitchen table. It also contributes to the literature on how Black women teachers in the U.S., leading to the emergence of new possibilities for Black students.

Author

• Damaris C. Dunn, Drexel University