Theories about Blackness in Education: Amplifying the Black Radical Tradition as a Path Toward Black Educational Futures

• In Event: In the Spirit of Sankofa: Black Educational Thought in These Troubling Times

Abstract

Purpose: Many scholars have attempted to understand and to explain Black children’s educational experiences. We begin by providing an overview of three theories about Blackness that have become increasingly popular within the field of education: anti-Blackness, Afropessimism, and BlackCrit. While these three theories have helped to elucidate the roles of race and racism in shaping the educational experiences of Black students, the theories (in particular Afropessimism) express doubt about the hope and possibilities of achieving more just Black education futures. In response to this, we turn attention to the Black Radical Tradition, a liberatory project informed by Black people’s modes of resistance to slavery, racial capitalism, and colonization. We situate Black people’s historical and ongoing struggles for educational liberation within the longstanding Black Radical Tradition.
Perspective: We approach our subject through the lens of the Black Radical Tradition, which Cedric Robinson described as the epistemological and political challenge among Black people to racial domination, enslavement, and repression.
Modes of inquiry and data sources: The paper reflects a theoretical exploration of the various concepts discussed above. It incorporates existing literature on the three aforementioned theories and on the Black Radical Tradition.
Conclusions: We conclude that Black educational thought can benefit from drawing on the insights of the Black Radical Tradition. As it did for a generation of thinkers before use, this tradition can help us challenge the seemingly unshakable structures of dehumanization and instead reclaim space for what is necessary for Black students to thrive.
Significance: Centering modes of Black educational thought that are explicitly focused on outlining paths for liberation has practical implications for the everyday lives of Black students.

Authors

• Wintre Foxworth Johnson, University of Virginia

• Samiha Rahman, California State University - Long Beach