Endarkened Spiritual Alchemy: Black Women Educators’ Self-Excavation as a Spirit-Protecting and Soul-Healing Praxis

• In Event: Toward an Archeology of Collective Solidarity: Co-conspirator Leadership as Racial Healing, Justice, and Liberation

Abstract

Objectives
Because systemic antiblackness and anti-Black racism (Author, 2023) limits and erases Black Educators from educational institutions, missing are effective practices necessary for educating Black Scholars—practices most often enacted and embodied by Black Women Educators (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2013; Dillard, 2022; Farinde-Wu et. al, 2023; Gist, et. al, 2018; Muhammad et. al, 2020; Pham et. al, 2024). Black Women Educators’ enacted and embodied practices include ethics of risk, politicized and intersectional care, and othermothering (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2013; Dillard, 2022; Pham et. al, 2024), which mitigated the impact of anti-Black racism and provided Black Scholars with the knowledge, skills, and strategies to survive systemic antiblackness. Given the above, my study seeks to deeply understand how I, as a Black Woman Educator, engaged in an iterative Archeology of Self™ (Sealy-Ruiz, 2022) necessary for carrying on and endarkening (Dillard, 2000) the BlackCrit (Dumas, 2016), spirit-protecting and soul-healing tradition of Black Education (Givens, 2021; Givens, 2023) and for disrupting systemic antiblackness, addressing anti-Black racism, and (re)humanizing Black Scholars and Educators.

Theoretical Framework
Putting forth the assertion that theories rooted in Black and Afrocentric sociohistorical and cultural contexts must be employed to (re)center Black people’s historical, cultural, and spiritual ways of being and to better understand and meet Black Scholars’ specific educational needs, I anchor my framework within these core theoretical lenses:
Theorization of Antiblackness (Dumas, 2016);
BlackCrit Theory in education (Dumas & ross, 2016); and
Endarkened Feminist Epistemologies (Dillard, 2000).

Methods and Data
I blend phenomenological methodology (Bhattacharya, 2017) and nkwaethnography (Dillard & Bell, 2011) to examine how engaged in a deep Archeology of Self™ (Sealy-Ruiz, 2022) as I endeavored to disrupt systemic antiblackness, address anti-Black racism, and (re)center the humanity of my Black Scholars. Aiming to understand the impact that systemic antiblackness and anti-Black racism has had on the schooling and educational experiences of my Black Scholars, I draw from surveys, reflective memos, digital communication (e.g., student work; institutional emails), and personal reflections to examine my application of a Black-Brilliance Praxis.

Findings and Significance
Through facilitating a healing and transformative research process, I used my power and privilege as an educator to serve as a co-conspiratory portal that (re)centered my Black Scholars’ experiences, elevated their voices, and affirmed their identities. Contributing to the growing literature on Black Women Educators, my findings reveal that (re)centering Black Women's experiences illuminates the ways research, teaching, and leadership can serve as co-conspiratory, healing methodologies of the spirit (Dillard & Bell, 2011). Situating my study within the larger contexts of institutional advocacy, curricular design, and Black Educator wellness, I offer a Black-Brilliance Praxis framework that supports pre-service and in-service Black Women Educators with an Endarkened Feminist (Dillard, 2000; Dillard, 2022), Blackness-centered, onto-epistemological approach to name their own inherent and learned pedagogical practices. And for educational institutions looking to (re)center Blackness, Black Education, and Black Scholars, I offer a foundation to build the collective solidarity needed to create systems, structures, policies, practices, places, and spaces that are intentionally built with and for Black Scholars and Educators.

Author

• Kiese Vita, California State University - East Bay