Purposeful Attention to Preserving Our Spirit: Afro-Caribbean Women in K-20 Resisting Erasure

• In Event: Preserving Spirit and Self: Narratives of Black Educational Renewal

Abstract

This paper centers the voices and lived experiences of five Afro-Caribbean women educators across the K-20 continuum as they navigate their presence in the midst of a socio-political crisis. Grounded in decolonialist frameworks including Black Feminist Thought (BFT) and Fugitive Pedagogy, we utilized a narrative and autoethnographic approach to foreground how these academics are resisting epistemic erasure while asserting belonging in their respective academic communities. As cultural workers, these women actively engage in acts of “unforgetting” histories, of resistance that challenge and disrupt hegemonic practices in education. This paper amplifies their epistemologies as essential in reimagining a liberated future in education. These stories are uniquely positioned to construct a more just vision of education research that extends beyond diasporic expectations.

Authors

• Shalander L. Samuels, Kean University

• Amanda Wilkerson, University of Central Florida

• Sherika S. Dacres, School District of Osceola County