Sacred Refusal in the Classroom: Black Women Educators, Leadership, and the Rest They’re Deprived Of

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Refusal, Care, and Justice: Educators Challenging Structures in Teaching

Abstract

This paper centers Black women educators' emotional, spiritual, and professional journeys while introducing Sacred Refusal, a Black feminist praxis rooted in preservation over performance. Drawing on narratives from former early-career teachers, the study reframes attrition not as burnout but as intentional resistance. These educators didn’t “quit”, they rejected systems that demanded their labor while denying their humanity. Grounded in Black feminist theory and spiritual scholarship, this work explores how silence, boundaries, and departure become radical acts of self-love and political clarity. Sacred Refusal reframes leaving not as failure but as survival, confronting educational leadership to see spiritual sustainability as essential to equity and justice in schools.

Author

• Lashante Mystic Briscoe, Northcentral University