Teaching homeplace: How teachers can cultivate Black Joy through culturally responsive practices in the classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACTCultivating Black joy is critical, given censorship placed in schools, on Black bodies, and in the curriculum. This article conceptualizes how the dimensions of culturally responsive teaching practices can help reclaim and reconstruct Black students’ sense of well-being in the classroom and their sense of Black Joy. Furthermore, this conceptual piece argues how creating a homeplace can affirm joy and liberation for Black students. This article provides an overview of prominent scholars who have expanded culturally relevant pedagogy, which acknowledges the importance of culturally responsive teaching practices in the classroom. This concept also argues that implementing culturally responsive teaching practices (i.e. instructional practices, curriculum development, teacher-student relationships, classroom climate, etc.) promotes agency, resistance, and liberation for Black students. This article concludes with the discourse on how culturally responsive teaching practices could cultivate Black Joy by disrupting traditional instructional practices and employing practices that foster radical pedagogies to help combat racism and anti-Blackness.