Further Mothering: Reconceptualizing White Women Educators’ Work with Black Youth

Abstract

As the percentage of youth of color in the nation's public schools continues to increase, so, too, does the urgency of preparing a predominantly white, female, middle class teaching force to work with racially and culturally diverse youth. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of an urban, youth-serving HIV/AIDS prevention and supports center, this article describes how two white women staffers engaged culturally responsive modes of care, support, and advocacy in order to address young people's emotional, developmental, and educational needs. Since both women performed motherly personas as they cared for and supported youth at the center, this article builds upon their experiences to develop “further mothering”—an adaptation of the “other mothering” tradition of black women—as a possible heuristic for analyzing white women educators’ culturally responsive work with black youth.