The Invisible Struggle: An Exploration of Black Teachers' Experiences With Racial Microaggressions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Racialized and Gendered Educational Experiences: Resisting Leadership Norms

Abstract

This narrative inquiry qualitative study highlighted the experiences of six Black teachers working in a Midwest state. This study focused on these educators’ workplace experiences to explore how they described racism manifesting as racial microaggressions and how it was allowed to persist in the workplace. The findings revealed the educators reported racism as being a normalized part of their work environment’s culture resulting in them feeling excluded, devalued, and isolated. Their experiential reality with racial microaggressions was often rejected leaving the professionals silenced, having to challenge the status quo alone, or contemplating resignation. These experiences support the need to better understand how racism manifests as racial microaggressions and how it affects Black professionals’ experiences and perceptions of their workplaces.

Author

• Deborah Stubblefield, Wichita State University