Caring for Those Who Are Not Always Cared About: Black Mother Educators Ensuring Access for Black Students With Dis/abilities

• In Event: Black Mother Educators as Protectors of Black Students in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper is an autoethnographic self-study that reflects on how my life as a Black daughter (re)forms my life as a Black mother and currently, her/my life as a Black mother educator (e.g., Other-Mother Identity; Hill-Brisbane, 2005). As such, my narrative illuminates dimensions of being human and spiritual – a “spiritual being engaged in an earthly experience” (Dillard, 2006, p. 87). Thus, this self-study at the intersections of my identities demonstrates how memories run deep, and are born out of oppression powerfully reflected in assets of care and radical love praxis that includes information gathering and decision-making, and is often drawn from spiritual engagement in earthly experiences (e.g., education, cultural community, and heritage). My story matters, as it is not mutually exclusive, but connected to stories of other Black mother educators with/out dis/abilities, and contributes to a collective voice or consciousness within postsecondary spaces (Harrington, 2019). Therefore, it is essential that I recognize accumulated knowledge (e.g., questions, issues, and concerns) that Black mother educators bring to educational spaces, which are unique to their lived experiences and core being.

As a Black mother and educator, who dares to remember, feel, and redress my loss and the lack of care that I received as a child, I am resolved to care and show love for other Black children/students. I do this collectively with other Black women educators who experienced a “legacy of loss” that left them, like me, vulnerable (Roseboro & Ross, 2009). Roseboro and Ross (2009) suggest, “A loss and resistance that operate simultaneously, constructing together a particular oppositional identity, and identity predicated upon searching for truth in multiple contexts of oppression” (p. 23). In this self-study, I incorporate care for and education of Black children/students who are dealing with interlocking systems of oppression in postsecondary spaces (Annamma, Ferri, & Connor, 2013, 2016). In addition, I invited family members to remember and share about one of the consequences of my mother’s death: when I “shhhed” or self-silenced my voice, resulting in my diagnosis in elementary school with a dis/ability, a Speech and Language Impairment (SLI).
I drew from the tenet of voice within Womanist Theory and Disability Studies in Education (DSE) to address Black mother educators who care for and about Black children/students with/out dis/abilities. In this paper, I discuss my praxis of valuing humanity and spirit as an asset pedagogy of care and of radical love that I implement within my daily roles. I share my journey to and through the academy as a Black daughter, mother, and educator with a dis/ability who is spiritually striving to transform academic life. I tell my story and share the research of Black mother educators; myself included that map onto our accumulated knowledge of caring and radical love praxis for Black children/students with and without dis/abilities in education. I argue that the voices of Black mother educators matter, and must be centered in the process of disrupting master narratives at the intersections of race, gender, and dis/ability.

Author

• Mercedes Adell Cannon, Syracuse University