Dream Mapping: Worldbuilding cartographies of Black joy in education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Revisiting the Past to Reimagine the Future: Liberation, Joy, and Community as Frameworks for Educational Justice and Renewal

Abstract

This article explores how Black women educators (BWEs) envision and map futures centered on Black joy through a methodological approach called Endarkened Worldbuilding Mapping (EWM). Drawing from Afrofuturism, Endarkened feminims, and spatial justice theories, this study examines how BWEs imagine liberatory educational spaces beyond the constraints of current anti-Black institutional structures. Through collaborative dreaming sessions with BWE co-cartographers, six interconnected dimensions of future Black joy emerged. This worldbuilding work represents a decolonizing activity that claims Black women's right to dream educational futures centered on wholeness, joy, and collective liberation. The article concludes with implications for educational institutions and BWEs, offering an Afrofuturistic vision of education that nurtures rather than harms Black women educators.

Author

• Jacobē Bell, Teachers College, Columbia University