Healing Through Teaching: Black Women Educators Cultivating Giftedness with Culture and Care

• In Event: We Gon' Be Alright: Teaching, Healing, and Resisting with Black Youth

Abstract

Amid growing national attention on equity in STEM education, the intersecting needs of gifted Black girls in urban schools and the Black Women Educators (BWEs) who support them remain critically understudied. This study explores how BWEs engage in healing-centered, culturally grounded professional learning through a university–community partnership: the Teachers as Talent Catalysts (TATC) program, part of the See Me in STEM (SMIS) initiative. As cultural brokers and instructional leaders, BWEs often lack access to professional development that affirms their lived experiences or equips them to nurture giftedness in marginalized students. This study examines how BWEs employed experiential,identity-affirming practices to foster healing while promoting academic confidence, cultural expression, and STEM engagement among Black girls in urban elementary schools.

Authors

• Sydney Carroll, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Brittany Nicole Anderson, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Ginaya Littlejohn, University of North Carolina - Charlotte