Black Female Teachers Research Articles

Keep Your Joy!: Teaching Critical Pedagogies in Spaces of Intolerance and Resistance

Black female educators continue to face racism and discrimination in educational settings (Davis & Brown, 2017). Compounding these realities, Black female educators of multicultural and/or critical pedagogies can face resistance from their majority-white student populations in a number of ways. This autoethnographic study reflects on my experiences as a Black female instructor of a multicultural education course at a predominantly white institution (PWI). I reflect on and analyze the student opposition I experienced teaching an undergraduate course on critical pedagogies to pre-service teachers and provide much-needed respite and encouragement for other Black female teacher educators on how to maintain their joy when facing such resistance. Grounded in Black feminist thought (Collins, 2000), this article has implications for teacher education programs, higher education, and teachers of multicultural education.

My Students Need Encouragement: Two Black Female Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Culturally Responsive Teaching for Black Students

My Students Need Encouragement: Two Black Female Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs About Culturally Responsive Teaching for Black Students

Creating dialogic space around purposeful selection for reading and teaching diverse children’s literature

ABSTRACT Diverse children’s literature can support understandings of our world as culturally, linguistically, and socially rich. It can cultivate empathy and understanding, and open a dialogic space of possibilities. In this article, we examine how purposefully selected children’s literature prepares needed conditions for dialogic space: difference in what is already known, and what is presented; multiplicity of many and other ways of interpreting and connecting; and uncertainty as there is no definitive or “right” answer for personal meaning-making. We show how purposefully selecting diverse children’s literature can create dialogic space in two classroom contexts. First, as Christina, a Black female teacher educator and librarian, teaches in a third-grade classroom of primarily Black students. Second, as she teaches a graduate-level teacher course on diverse children’s literature to mostly White pre-and-in-service teachers. We elucidate ways purposeful selection of diverse literature is a first step to engaging with critical inquiry and opening dialogic space.

Women's history: research into the memories of black female teachers

This text is part of the field of "Women's History" and is the result of a guiding question formulated as follows: what is the academic production on the history of black female teachers? A survey was carried out of scientific production (articles, dissertations and theses) on the subject in the country. The theoretical framework used was the New Cultural History (NCH). Methodologically, searches were carried out to locate the works in research record indexers such as IBICT (BDTD), the CAPES Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations and Scielo (articles), using the descriptors "black female teachers" and "black female teachers". Altogether, a total of fifty-one (51) works (dissertations and theses) and three (03) scientific articles were detected, indicating some progress in the involvement of these unique subjects as collaborators in research.

Docência e interseccionalidade: o que dizem as professoras

This article analyses the narratives of four black female teachers about the racism that permeated their bodies, highlighting the intersections that crossed them in teaching. The process of feminization of teaching, a stereotype linked to the gender marker, points to the exclusion of women in the sciences. Black decolonial feminism questions social arrangements based on a Eurocentric, patriarchal and colonialist vision and how they produce oppressions such as racism and sexism in academia. Through the lens of intersectionality, the narratives of the female professors show the impediment and access to spaces of power.

Womanist pedagogy and Black women’s science teaching

Racism, sexism, and classism at the societal level permeate all levels of education, and conversely, schooling reproduce social inequity. These inequities are compounded by the objective, apolitical approach that some teachers bring to science teaching. Research shows that Black female teachers continue to be more comfortable and committed to working in schools with Black and Brown students. This study presents qualitative data exploring how 21 Black women science teachers at various levels of expertise discuss and practice Womanist Pedagogy. I argue that Black women science teachers would benefit greatly from learning about the pedagogical practices of Black women teachers from the past, learning that they are not alone in the fight for classrooms built with love and informed by their lived racialized, classed, and gendered experiences. The tenets of Womanist Pedagogy can be used as a tool to showcase the power Black women bring to the science education community.

“My Curriculum Has No Soul!”: A Case Study of the Experiences of Black Women Science Teachers Working at Charter Schools

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study examines the experiences of three Black female science teachers who experienced and participated in the triumphs and failings of today’s charter school system while teaching Black and Brown students. Using Critical Race Theory and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy as frameworks, the findings of the study revealed that the teachers explained the rationale behind how and why they teach science to Black and Brown students, the actions that define their thinking (both positive and negative), and the personal and professional repercussions for being a Black woman science teacher working at a Charter Management Organization (CMO). Based on these findings, we suggest that science teacher educators encourage teachers to take risks by engaging in socio-political consciousness through curriculum redesign. Disrupting the White status quo requires science teacher educators to practice culturally relevant teaching themselves.

Exploring lived experiences of Black female English teachers in South Korea: understanding travelling intersectionality and subjectivities

ABSTRACT English language teaching has become a global phenomenon, involving racially and culturally diverse teachers travelling across national borders. While these transnational teachers bring diversity to host countries, the superiority of White native English speakers continues to be reinforced. This raciolinguistic ideology can uniquely shape the subjectivities of English language teachers of colour who sojourn abroad. Focusing on three African American female teachers of English who were participating in the English Program in Korea (EPIK) to teach in South Korean schools and posting YouTube videos to describe their experiences, this qualitative study examined the nature of their experiences and intersecting subjectivities regarding race, colour, language, gender, and nationality, as well as privilege and marginality as they are expressed online. The analysis focused on how intersectionality, a notion originally developed to describe Black women’s unique experiences in the United States, would be applied to this transnational context. A thematic analysis of a total of 12 videos revealed these EPIK teachers’ multifaceted and negotiated subjectivities as American teachers, victims of racial prejudice, and ambassadors with a mission to educate local people. These subjectivities signify the intersectionality of privilege and marginality, which are embedded in the local and global ideologies and power relations.

Disproportionality of Sanctions for Illegal and Unethical Teacher Behavior

We use data from Texas spanning 2007–2017 to explore the frequency of teacher sanctions for illegal and unethical behavior and their disproportionality by teacher characteristics. Analyses reveal that the overall incidence of teacher sanctioning is low, with teachers most frequently sanctioned for sexually related offenses. Consistent with documented disproportionalities in student discipline, we find key disproportionalities in teacher sanctions by gender and race: Overall, male, Black, and Hispanic teachers are overrepresented among sanctioned teachers. However, we also observe important interactions between race and gender. Notably, for example, Black female teachers are particularly likely to be sanctioned for contract and financial violations, while Black male teachers are particularly likely to be sanctioned for drugs and violence. We conclude with implications for policy.

Racial justice pedagogy: foregrounding what it means to be an immigrant teacher of color in the United States

This paper contributes to the discourse on the role of critical pedagogy in the U.S. education system. The paper is inspired by the story of a participant from a larger ongoing phenomenological study designed to explore the experience of immigrant teachers in the United States. The participant was selected because she gained prominence in the larger study as the only teacher who reported that because of the injustices she experienced (personally and vicariously) during her K-12 education, she was inspired to pursue teaching as a career. The participant is a Black female teacher who immigrated from England to the United States, and who has taught for approximately 30 years between both countries. Her experience as a student and her work as a teacher, are reflective of, and analyzed through the lens of critical pedagogy. The participant’s experience was carefully and respectfully crafted into a profile that produced three major themes: (1) Racial injustice as an altruistic inspiration to becoming a teacher; (2) the work of the immigrant Teacher of Color in the United States necessarily involves actuating an inclusive and racial justice curricular agenda; and (3) what it means to be an immigrant Educator of Color in the United States is to conceptualize your practice as a deliberate political act that counteracts racial injustice and inequity.

“I am able to have a different lens and different approach:” A Critical Examination of how Black Female Engineering Teachers Utilize and Create Counternarratives

This research highlights the educational and professional experiences of three Black female secondary teachers of engineering. Using a lens of community cultural wealth, this research calls attention to the resources these teachers called upon during their navigation of engineering pathways and currently utilize to challenge their school’s normative perceptions of engineering and engineers. Findings of this work discuss how aspirational capital functioned to support the teachers’ successful matriculation through a STEM high school and undergraduate engineering and/or architecture programs, while also serving as a foundation for how they currently created opportunities for their students. Implications for future engineering education research and approaches for k-12 engineering educators acknowledging racialized and/or gendered experiences in these spaces are discussed.

Chapter 3: Waking up Woke: Exploring Black Female Youth Critical Consciousness and Sociopolitical Development

Background/Context Critical consciousness (CC) is an awareness and reflection of inequities, political efficacy, and agency in response to injustice. Similarly, sociopolitical development (SPD) is the process of developing a critical understanding, skill set, and emotional depth to enact individual agency against oppressive forces. Of the latter, SPD is vital in empowering youth from traditionally marginalized communities to challenge inequities. However, SPD has largely remained absent from U.S. classrooms. Purpose/Objective/ Research Question/Focus of Study Considering the absence of SPD in U.S. classrooms, this case study explores the SPD of Black female preservice teachers and their Black female high school mentees in a two-year tutoring and mentoring school-based program. Our study captures the woke pedagogical experiences that advanced participants’ co-constructed CC. As such, we seek to describe student exemplars of what it means to be awakened and stay woke through an analysis of interviews, journal reflections, and video data. To this end, the research question that guided this study was: What are the perspectives of Black female youth as they co-construct CC toward SPD in a two-year tutoring and mentoring school-based program? Research Design Through the lenses of critical race feminism and woke pedagogies, this study used a single case study design. Case study is appropriate for this study because it highlights the particularity and complexities of one unit of analysis. Findings Our findings capture the perspectives of Black female youth as they cultivate CC toward sociopolitical development in one educational initiative geared toward partnering undergraduate and high school students. An examination of data through the lens of critical race feminism and woke pedagogies spotlighted the perspectives of our participants as they co-constructed CC through woke pedagogical experiences. Mentors deepened their CC on race, and mentees gained heightened awareness of gendered and racialized school procedures and policies. Black girls in this study woke up (CC) and stayed woke through their activism (SPD). Conclusions In sharing the perspectives of Black female youth as they cultivated SPD, it is our intention that the critical approach and experiences that we have described capture the methods and strategies that one educational initiative implemented to empower and promote agency among Black female students. As an example of woke pedagogy, this educational initiative offered Black girls at the intersection of race, gender, and class an opportunity to critically question their world and become aware of racial and social injustices impacting their everyday lives and community.

Conceptualizing a Black Female Teacher Pipeline: From Recruitment to Retention to Retirement

ABSTRACT Considering Black women’s historic contributions and enduring legacy in education, their continual disproportionate underrepresentation in US public schools is severely problematic. The absence of Black women in many public schools nationally is disconcerting given their potential to improve school outcomes for students of Color. Despite this finding, teacher education programs and school districts struggle to effectively recruit and retain Black women. Employing Black feminist epistemologies, this paper conceptualize a Black female teacher pipeline (from recruitment to retention to retirement) within a cultural-ecological framework to uncover deeper understandings of the systemic processes that hinder access of Black female teachers in K-12 classrooms. The paper then provides a discussion of specific practice and policy recommendations and concludes with implications for Black women educators and the diversification of the US teacher workforce.

Present but Unaccounted For: Practical Considerations for the Recruitment and Retention of Black Women Teachers

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article was to problematize the recruitment, preparation, and retention of Black women teachers in an effort to promote awareness, research, and action. Black women teachers impact the educative and socioemotional needs of all students. However, this impact is most noticeable when Black women serve large populations of Black students. Yet, Black women represent a population of teachers who remain consistently underrepresented in K–12 classrooms. Moreover, Black women consistently represent a substantial portion of the teachers who are “pushed out” or involuntarily exit the classroom each year, and they represent a small percentage of those new to the profession. Despite these trends, few educational policies and programs target the recruitment, preparation, and retention of Black female teachers. Based on our expertise and educational praxis, we utilize empirical research to characterize these challenges and provide solutions for consideration and refinement.

‘Being at the university is a retreat!’: a Black female student teacher’s views on the role of the university

ABSTRACT This article sets out to understand what the views of Ruvimbo, a Black female student teacher, are on the role of the university, and how and why these views emerged. The social philosophy of higher education of Ronald Barnett was used as a theoretical framework, and arts-informed methods such as drawings and photovoice, were used for data construction. The student teacher recognised the university–knowledge relationship but foregrounded her appreciation of having a safe and pleasant environment, developing cultural tolerance, and developing herself as a human being. Her view contradicts the predominant concern about the transformation and decolonisation of the curriculum in South Africa as a way of attaining epistemic justice, and claim for a more ecological approach to university education.

A Seat at the Kitchen Table: The Lived Experiences of Black Female Preservice Teachers in an Urban Education Cohort

ABSTRACT The authors of this qualitative study provided Black female preservice teachers in an urban cohort at a predominantly white institution a seat at the kitchen table to share their racialized and gendered experiences. The research questions centered around the experiences of Black female preservice teachers, their participation in anti-racist spaces, and the role of critical for teacher educator programs in coursework and program development. The authors drew on Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Feminism as theoretical frameworks. Findings include the cultivation of sisterhood based on multi-layered identities and experiences, how the participants navigate racial fatigue on and off campus, and how the participants embody an intergenerational alliance between them and Black faculty members. Implications for practice are included.

Critical Self-Reflection as Disruption: A Black Feminist Self-Study

As the PK-12 student population grows more diverse, the teaching population steadfastly continues to be white middle-class women (NCES, 2016). Critical teacher educators understand the importance of preparing pre-service teachers to become culturally responsive and sustaining (CR/S) practitioners by engaging in culturally relevant education (CRE). Critical teacher educators, particularly those of color from historically marginalized groups, can be important advocates in the struggle to strengthen the teaching candidate pool of CR/S practitioners. Building a cadre of teachers, who are poised to decolonize minds and spaces, sustains the work of many teacher educators of color. However, the acts of teaching and learning in most institutions of education are inundated with oppressive norms such as white privilege, xenophobia and anti-blackness. It is this reality in which I, a Black female junior teacher educator, attempt to disrupt normative teaching practices within a special education course. This self-study examined insight derived from a focus group as well as from my self-reflections conducted over the course of two semesters (Spring 2018 to Fall 2018). Using a qualitative methodological approach, the findings indicated tensions between my vulnerable position of being a junior faculty member and my desire to dismantle normative deficit practices through critical self-reflection.
 

Evaluating Multicultural Education Courses: Promise and Possibilities for Portfolio Assessment

As multicultural education continues to evolve, better assessments are necessary to provide a holistic measure of the effectiveness of multicultural education in the academy. Unfortunately, as multicultural scholars champion the cause for social justice, equity, and access for school children they remain vulnerable to negative promotion and tenure determinations due to misaligned measures of teaching effectiveness in the academy. In this article, a Black female teacher educator at a Predominately White Institution describes how she utilized a Multicultural Education Teaching Portfolio (METP) as a means to inform the measurement of her instructional quality and effectiveness. This discussion provides an overview of current challenges to assessing quality within Multicultural Education courses and provides an outline of possible components of the METP for further consideration.

The Paradox of Pedagogical Excellence Among Exemplary Black Women Educators

Research has documented that effective Black educators ignite the torch and light the path toward effectively meeting the needs of all students, particularly African American. However, descriptions of “highly qualified” teachers often ignore the critical insights and practices that undergird the success of Black teachers, and one consequence of this pedagogical negligence has been the professional alienation of effective Black female educators. This article shares findings from a study with five community-nominated Black female teachers, and uses the theories of intersectionality and positionality, along with discourse analysis, to investigate the groups’ perceptions of their professional positionality. Findings reveal a distinctive narrative in which participants expressed being positioned in ways that reflect negative stereotypical images of Black women despite their effectiveness in promoting student success. Implications and recommendations for teacher effectiveness research, teacher preparation, and teacher quality policy are included.

A mulher negra professora e seus lugares de pertencimento

Este artigo é o resultado de uma investigação realizada com um grupo de mulheres negras professoras de um programa de formação continuada, promovido pelo Órgão de Educação e Relações Étnicas (ODEERE), da Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia (UESB). Focaliza a construção dos saberes profissionais, privilegiando as identidades de gênero e étnica. Para tanto, objetivou-se investigar como professoras negras egressas do Curso de Extensão em Educação e Culturas Afro-brasileiras do ODEERE têm articulado as questões de gênero e etnicidade aos seus saberes profissionais, buscando compreender os percursos e dilemas desse processo. Nesse sentido, analisou-se as categorias gênero, identidade étnica e saberes profissionais. Trata-se de uma pesquisa empírica, de natureza qualitativa, ancorada na História Oral. Os achados apresentam elementos para pensar os sentidos atribuídos ao curso de formação continuada na percepção, reconhecimento e/ou embasamento teórico para a identidade de gênero e afirmação do pertencimento étnico, assim como a mobilização de saberes profissionais para lidarem com questões dessa natureza em suas práxis.