72.060 - Reaching Students Whose Dreams Won't Matter: Reflections From Educators of Black Children

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Telling students their dreams will not matter is an unimagined practice for most educators. After all, we profess commitments to growing and developing successful leaders. How do we, however, prepare youth to dismantle the confines that create the structures for our very work? If racism, for example, is a normal, inevitable practice, what difference will dreams of social justice make in a world that has commoditized freedom? How do we encourage students to dream creatively, yet perform at standardized measures? Educating youth carries with it these often conflicting choices. This symposium examines how being “authentic” verses “in bondage” leaders allows educators to navigate political constraints so that we do not lose our grip on social justice when tempted.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Spirituality & Education

Chair

• Cynthia A. Tyson, The Ohio State University - Columbus

Papers

• For If Dreams Die: An Autoethnographic Examination of Redeeming Purpose in the Academy - Kyra Tynisha Shahid, Mount St. Mary's University

• Cry Loud, Spare Not: Protecting the Dreams and Visions of Our African American Children - Michael E. Dantley, Miami University

• Reconceptualizing Soul-Work in Education Through Womanist Intellectual Tradition - Judy A. Alston, Ashland University; Philip Jay Bostic, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• A Pedagogy to (Re)Member: Black Identity, Culture, and the Spirit of an Endarkened Feminist Practice in Education - Cynthia B. Dillard, University of Georgia

Discussant

• Gloria J. Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin - Madison