Witness, Remember, Remix: Black Women Educators and the Transformative Praxis of the Cypher

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Abstract

This paper uses Endarkened Narrative Inquiry (Dillard, 2000) to analyze cyphers with seven Black women educators across generations and career stages. Informed by Spillers’ (1987) concept of ungendering and Hartman’s (2008) critical fabulation, the study confronts the erasure of Black women in educational archives and explores the legacy of Black pedagogical excellence. Participants’ narratives serve as counter-archives, rooted in care, resistance, and cultural sovereignty. Selected through relational ties of mentorship and collaboration, the educators engage in intergenerational witnessing and communal theorizing. Four themes emerged: Legacy as Pedagogy, Teaching in the Hold, Cypher as Healing Space, and Professional Isolation vs. Community Cyphering—revealing how Black women educators create pedagogical sanctuaries and reimagine liberatory futures in education.

Author

• Romonda Middlebrooks-Jefferson, Georgia State University