Exploring Anti-Blackness in Education: A Systemic Literature Review with a Focus on Afro-Caribbean College Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Fugitive Pedagogies and Black Educational Methodologies

Abstract

This paper conducts a critical literature review to map and interrogate how antiblackness shapes the educational experiences of Afro-Caribbean students in U.S. higher education. Synthesizing interdisciplinary scholarship on diasporic identity, structural exclusion, and gendered racialization, the paper identifies major gaps in current theoretical and empirical frameworks. In response, it introduces the Diasporic Navigation Framework (DNF)—a novel conceptual model that integrates Afro-pessimism, Community Cultural Wealth, racial/ethnic identity theories, and diaspora studies. The DNF offers a layered approach to understanding how Afro-Caribbean students navigate institutional misrecognition, cultural dissonance, and systemic violence. By holding theoretical tension rather than resolving it, the paper provides new directions for educational research that center diasporic Black subjectivity and institutional transformation.

Author

• Faith D. Northern, New York University