Examining Black Students’ Emotions and Feelings when Learning Histories of Black Historical Suffering

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Beliefs, Feelings, and (Im)Possibilities

Abstract

This study examines how Black high school students emotionally engage with histories of Black suffering—narratives commonly labeled as “difficult histories” (DHs) within the field of social studies and history education. Informed by the findings, I offer a three-part framework, focusing on discourse, disposition, and instruction, to support educators, teacher educators, and researchers with effectively and critically teaching historical narratives of suffering. This work is particularly urgent given ongoing political efforts to suppress the teaching of Black histories and white supremacy in K-12 schools. By centering Black students’ emotional insights, this study expands our understandings of the emotional and pedagogical implications of teaching and researching historical suffering and calls for a shift toward inclusive, emotive, and affective justice-centered history education.

Author

• Brittany Jones, University at Buffalo - SUNY