We All We Got: Black Women, Community, and Reciprocal Healing

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Claming Spaces and Places for Authenticity for Educators of Color (Table 2)

Abstract

This critical co-constructed autoethnography examines the transformative experience toward healing embarked on by two Black women educators. Due to the obfuscation, lack of support, and extra labor faced in the field, we found being in community with one another was crucial. Centered in Black feminist thought, we argue that Reciprocal Healing makes space to unpack the intersectional/anti-Black weight of being a Black woman educator (BWE). Our reflections uncovered the power of mutual support, disruption, and our collective knowledge. Ultimately, we use our experiences to illustrate the need for an investment in BWE affinity spaces as the healing of BWE not only benefits them, but their students, schools, and districts overall.

Authors

• Kiara D. Smith, University of San Francisco

• Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton, Stanford University