Black Women Principals as Protectors of Black Children: Othermothering, Resistance, and Leadership for Community Survival

• In Event: The Dora Milaje of Black Children in Schools: Black Mother Educators in Pre-K–12 Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how Black women principals have historically served as protectors of Black children and the implications of their leadership for Black education and community survival in the New Jim Crow (Alexander, 2010; Author). Grounded in the research literature theorizing the intersectional identities of Black women leaders (Author; Reed, 2012) and othermothering (Bass, 2012; Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002; Case, 1997; Collins, 2000; Dixson, 2002; Foster, 1993; Gray, 2014; Tillman, 2004; Thompson, 1988) and drawing from our own experiences as Black mother educators, we center Black women principals as more than educational leaders in the traditional sense, but as protectors of Black children. More specifically, we explore the legacy of womanist caring (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002) among Black women educators and consider what it means to protect Black children amid their commodification, exploitation, and dehumanization in service to community empowerment (Foster & Tillman, 2009) and survival (Dixson, 2002).

Together, we represent an educational leadership faculty member (Author 2) and an educational policy doctoral student (Author 1) who share an interest in what it means for Black educators, researchers, teachers, principals, and mothers to lead for educational justice. Concerned with how market-driven education policies and reforms have negatively impacted teaching and learning for Black children in particular, through racial comparisons, racist discipline policies, and disproportionate school closures in historically Black communities, we were especially interested in the role and contributions of the Black woman principal - as teacher, advocate, and leader (Author; Bloom & Erlandson, 2003; Loder, 2005; Peters, 2012; Reed, 2012; Wilson, 2016). Past and present, her work has been critical to advancing equality and justice through culturally relevant leadership practices, resistance to oppressive schooling practices, and advocacy leadership for educational transformation and social change. Through multiple forms and demonstrations of caring (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002; Price, 2009; Rivera-McCutchen, year; Thompson, 1988; Walker & Archung, 2002), an important dimension of the leadership of Black women principals has been safeguarding the social, emotional, psychological, and physical well-being of Black children and youth.

As Black mothers studying the politics of race, urban education, and school and district leadership, we are particularly sensitive to the ways individual, institutional, and structural racism and education research in particular, pose serious threats to the social, emotional, cultural, and educational wellbeing of Black children, and more specifically, our own. Author 2, a mother of two sons and one daughter (ages 19, 17, and 12) and Author 1, a mother of a five-year-old daughter, we represent just a few of the many complex perspectives on the joys and challenges associated with raising Black children as education leadership researchers concerned with the education, safety, and well-being of Black children and communities. We recognize that mothering and othermothering are both personal and political. In this paper, we provide examples of these choices and challenges as Black mothers and education leadership researchers.

Authors

• Leana Cabral, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sonya Douglass, Teachers College, Columbia University