Dreamweaving Our Radical Elsewhere: Black and Indigenous Women in Educational Leadership on Healing and Purpose

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium brings together Black and Indigenous women, Queer individuals, disabled people, mothers, and caregivers to reimagine educational futures rooted in justice, healing, and kinship. Grounded in intersectional praxis and critical hope, four papers explore how these communities resist systemic exclusion and lead transformative change. Topics include challenging meritocracy in academia, confronting barriers in school leadership, cultivating cross-institutional solidarities, and sustaining grassroots caregiver movements. Together, the presenters trace historical harms while offering visions for thriving futures. By centering those traditionally excluded from formal power, this session affirms collective leadership as a vital force in reshaping education research. The session format includes paper presentations, the chair’s commentary, and audience engagement to invite participants into future-making as both inquiry and action.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Educational Change

Chair

• Vidya Shah, OISE/University of Toronto

Papers

• Kinship and Coalition: Black and Indigenous Women's Leadership in Education for Critical Hope and Healing - Whitneé L. Garrett-Walker, University of San Francisco; Jasmine Pham, University of Toronto - OISE; Nia Spooner, University of Toronto

• The Politics of Refusing to Die - A Reflective Narrative Inquiry About Black and Indigenous Survival Despite Continued Neo-Colonial Violence In the Academy - Ciann L. WIlson, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Creating New Intellectual Traditions Through Indigenous and Black Educational Collaborations - Megan Scribe, Toronto Metropolitan University

• Working from the community within the community: A personal Black and Indigenous Feminist perspective on building an educational grassroots project - Kayla Webber, University of Toronto

Session Organizer

• Whitneé L. Garrett-Walker, University of San Francisco

Discussant

• Vidya Shah, OISE/University of Toronto