Black Matriarchal Pedagogy: Reimagining Teacher Education Through a Radical Ethos of Care

• In Event: Beyond Degrees: Making Space and Policies for Generational Knowledge in the Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce

Abstract

This presentation introduces Black Matriarchal Pedagogy as a conceptual framework for reimagining teacher education through a radical ethos of care. Rooted in Black feminist thought, this work theorizes activist mothering as a pedagogical praxis grounded in the political, spiritual, and emotional labor of Black women. Emerging from the kitchens, living rooms, and gardens of my mother and grandmothers, this praxis reflects a legacy of love and resistance that continues to shape my work as a qualitative researcher and early childhood teacher educator.
In the face of education’s increasing dehumanization through datafication and neoliberal logics, this work offers an alternative grounded in care, relation, and liberation. Drawing on Black feminist epistemologies (Collins, 2000; Dillard, 2006) and poetic inquiry as both methodology and way of knowing, I (re)member Black matriarchal traditions as vital sites of educational theory and practice. Using memory work and reflective journaling, I create a series of found poems that serve as both data and theory—evoking the textures of Black mothering as sacred and political acts.

These poems are not simply artistic renderings; they serve as theoretical interventions. They illuminate the pedagogical knowledge embedded in familial stories, embodied memory, and intergenerational wisdom. In this context, poetic inquiry becomes a method of refusal—challenging dominant paradigms that dismiss the spiritual and emotional dimensions of knowledge production.
This work argues that early childhood teacher education must transcend standards-based frameworks and neoliberal performance metrics. Instead, it should center care, critical love (hooks, 2001), and ethical relationality. Teacher preparation—especially for those working with Black and Brown children—must draw from liberatory traditions that affirm the full humanity of both educators and learners. Through a lens of radical care, I position teacher education as sacred work: a labor of hope, healing, and social transformation.
Findings expressed through poetic and narrative forms reveal Black matriarchal pedagogy as a tradition rooted in love as resistance, care as transformation, and teaching as world-building. These insights challenge dominant models of teacher education that marginalize affective and relational forms of knowledge. Rather than treating these traditions as supplemental, I argue they are foundational to reimagining teacher education itself.

The scholarly contribution of this work lies in its reframing of pedagogy as embodied, relational, and emancipatory. It engages critical conversations across Black feminist theory, early childhood education, and critical teacher education by naming and honoring the pedagogical labor of Black women as essential and transformative. Ultimately, this presentation highlights how teacher educators, researchers, and practitioners can enact activist mothering and Black matriarchal pedagogy as tools for cultivating critical consciousness and collective freedom—both in our classrooms and our communities.

References
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.

Dillard. C.B. (2006). On spiritual strivings: Transforming an African American woman’s
academic life. State University of New York Press

hooks, b. (2001). All about love: New visions. William Mo

Author

• Crystasany R. Turner, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee