Education for Freedom: Confronting Anti-Blackness in K–5 Pedagogy and Practice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Unveiling Liberatory and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Practice (Table 12)

Abstract

Despite the persistence of laws and policies that sought to control and limit the education of Black Americans during and after enslavement, Black freedom became rooted in the idea of education for liberation. Utilizing Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit), the current study takes up the paradox of education as a tool of oppression and a pathway to freedom through a critical collaborative case study of K-5 teachers’ role in the perpetuation of antiblackness. Findings demonstrate that teachers’ inability to identify and address antiblackness in their practice inhibits the creation of liberatory spaces for Black students, while direct mitigation of antiblackness through examination of racial bias creates educational spaces for Black humanity.

Author

• Briellen Elizabeth Griffin, Northwestern University