Dr. Cynthia Dillard’s Call to (Re)member: Aligning K-12 Education with Our Ancestral Knowing and Queen Being

• In Event: (Re)membering, (Re)cognizing, and Responsibility: How Cynthia Dillard’s Work Helps Us Meet the Current Moment

Abstract

Dr. Cynthia Dillard's work is deep, and it encourages Black educators, particularly Black women educators, to (re)member. Calling us to realign our various pasts, present, and futures to reimagine K-12 education, she urges us to explore what it means to labor against a Black backdrop rather than a sharp white one. There is power in Blackness and being, and as evidenced by more than three decades of scholarship, Dr. Dillard has intentionally called us to (re)claim our ancestral power and inheritance as a rite of passage, especially when we undertake the necessary inner work of transforming ourselves in service of Black children and Black people in general. Dr. Dillard’s ability to “see” early career scholars “as a bridge that matters deeply to Black struggle, excellence, and education” (Dillard, 2021, 19) is a salve, as her graceful transition and invitation to do this work is both empowering and awe-inspiring.
In this paper, Author 1 and Author 2 collaboratively excavate and honor Dr. Dillard’s call to (re)member ourselves and, in turn, how this call has and continues to shape our commitment to our ancestral knowing and Queen being in our work. As early career scholars who have two decades of combined experience in K-12 education, our commitments to critical consciousness, identity work, spirituality, Black women’s labor(ing), and Black joy are deeply tied to the work that Dr. Dillard has so graciously shared throughout her career. As we contemplate our collective liberation in the face of fascism, anti-intellectualism, anti-blackness, and the deliberate attack on public education, we (re)member Dr. Dillard and her capacity to consistently “unforget” the teachings of those on both sides of the water. Furthermore, as we think critically about our ancestral knowing and Queen being we must all ways, always engage in a praxis that seeks to understand that we are Black on purpose with and in purpose, in mind, body and spirit—and so long as we (re)cognize this and center it in our approaches within the K-12 education we will always be in alignment and know joy.

Authors

• Damaris C. Dunn, Drexel University

• Yaribel Mercedes, Teachers College, Columbia University