“It’s Like There’s a Chokehold on Black Life”: Black Teacher-Coaches’ Response to Policy Violence

• In Event: Beyond the Shortage: Racial Justice and Solidarity in the Future of Teaching

Abstract

This study explores how Black social studies teacher-coaches in the American South resist anti-Black, anti-truth educational policies through fugitive teaching. Drawing on interviews with three educators, the research examines how these teachers reframe curricula to address race, power, and inequality while navigating legislative restrictions that criminalize such discourse. Guided by the framework of fugitive pedagogy, the study highlights covert strategies—critical questioning, student-led facilitation, and the use of sports as a lens for economic and racial justice—that disrupt dominant narratives and center marginalized voices. The findings underscore the necessity of intersectional justice in education and affirm the long-standing tradition of Black educators using creativity, resistance, and cultural knowledge to liberate students' minds and challenge structural oppression within classrooms and curricula.

Author

• Alex Chisholm, Clemson University