Healing the Past, Imagining Future(s): A Literature Review of Systemic Repair towards Black Educator Thriving

• In Event: Codifying Systemic Repair: Policy Possibilities Toward Black Educator Healing

Abstract

Objectives: Our systematic literature review examined how educational co-researchers have imagined education systems that redress historical harm and promote repair, healing, and collective well-being. We illuminate the collectives of educational co-researchers who have pursued equitable futures where Black teachers have space to pursue thrival (Love, 2019). This stance connects to the session theme by bringing attention to a multitude of educational policy researchers speaking to Black teachers’ healing. With these objectives, we asked the following question, What educational policies and solutions exist that attend to healing and system-level repair toward Black teachers’ thriving?

Methods and Scope: Our review scope recognized knowledge that has documented how Black educators have centered healing in navigating systemic and racialized harm. We considered healing a simultaneous process of understanding and acknowledging how communal pain manifests in the collective body; then taking steps to co-navigate that pain (Ecclestone, 2007; Ginwright, 2015; Levinson, 2015; Menakem, 2021). Collective well-being is an equity mechanism that links harmful education systems to the pursuit of thrival– it describes how systems-level repair and cross-racialized healing must be communal (Author, 2023). We used Zotero to organize articles that met the search criteria. Our criteria included peer-reviewed journal articles that were U.S., K-12 education-focused and written between 2012-present. We focused on pieces with implications for Black teachers healing, as Black teachers are the focus of this symposium. We systematically analyzed the literature in several phases. In Phase I, we used search terms and their permutations aligning with our scope. Then, we coded abstracts to determine if they would be moved into Phase II. During Phase II, we checked for specificity in naming racio-ethnic groups and skimmed the full manuscript to identify whether we thought it fit our search criteria. Finally, we dwindled the list down to 20 current articles in Phase III and will share initial findings for our Black teacher healing symposium.

Findings: Initial analysis illuminated how Black teachers heal via educational policies that…

…provide space for teachers to engage in pedagogies that connect Black students with their already-present brilliance (Andrews, 2014; Baldridge, 2020; Jackson, 2020; Warren & Coles, 2020; Wun, 2016).
…dismantle hyper-surveillance and counter punitive accountability policies (Gross, 2015; Lindsay & Hart, 2017; McKinney de Royston et al., 2021; Wun, 2015).
…fund mental health services for communities and individuals (Chamber et al., 2018; Dilworth, 2018; Edwards et al., 2021; Kokka, 2023; Author, 2023).

In addition, we will share common literature review metrics including a novel way to capture intra-racialized variations in how article authors are writing about racialized identity.

Significance: Any recruitment and retention strategy that does not consider repair, healing, and collective well-being may risk further perpetuating the intergenerational and racialized trauma cycle. Our systematic literature review may disrupt the cycle by demonstrating the breadth and depth of ongoing and envisioned repair and healing policies and practices. In turn, offering decision-makers and communities knowledge they may use to center equity in efforts to sustain Black teachers in our educational futures.

Authors

• Aditi Rajendran, University of Minnesota

• Nathaniel D. Stewart, University of Minnesota