Teaching While Haunted: Black Women Professors and Leaders Navigating Educational Justice in Precarious Times

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Feminist Practices/Emotional Labor: Examining Intersectional Educator Identity

Abstract

The current educational landscape feels increasingly unsustainable, particularly for those of us on the front lines of justice-centered work. As Cynthia Dillard (2006) reminds us, Black women teachers hold transformative power—“who, in the power of their presence and through their teaching, transform the lives of those who are their students” (p. xvii). But what happens when we, as Black women educators and leaders, find ourselves struggling to summon that same spirit within ourselves? This paper explores the lived experiences of Black women professors and K–12 leaders who are committed to culturally relevant and sustaining education (CRSE) and are working under growing political hostility toward equity-centered teaching.

Author

• Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania