Through the Eyes of Liberation: Black Teacher Candidates Reclaiming Literacy Through Culturally Sustainable Practice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:45 pm - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Healing and Honoring: Black Teachers' Practices Across Time

Abstract

This study examines how Black teacher candidates implement culturally responsive strategies within structured literacy instruction, particularly through one-on-one tutoring with Black students. Drawing on the research grounded in the science of learning and analyzed through the Black Gaze Framework, candidates’ reflective journals, lesson rubrics, and tutoring observations reveal instinctive practices grounded in relational empathy, multimodal engagement, and linguistic affirmation. Findings show that equity-centered instruction emerges organically amongst teacher candidates, even absent explicit Culturally Responsive Teaching training. The candidates’ approaches challenge deficit-based models and demonstrate the instructional power of culturally rooted literacy practices. This research affirms the potential for structured literacy to be both scientifically rigorous and culturally sustaining. Keywords: Structured Literacy, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Reflective Teaching Practice

Author

• Heather C Blackwell, Morgan State University