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Millennial Black women teachers wrestle with two simultaneous
burdens: disrupting the racist and sexist status quo of schooling
through curriculum, and employing tactics to survive school
politics among their majority White women colleagues. This article
describes how the Sisters of Promise (SOP) curriculum aligned with
Black feminism and Black fem...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... to Figure 2, curriculum analysis suggests that there is also a signature of Black feminist pedagogy in the SOP curriculum. Figure 2 displays how Black feminist pedagogy operationalises Black feminism. ...
Context 2
... to Figure 2, curriculum analysis suggests that there is also a signature of Black feminist pedagogy in the SOP curriculum. Figure 2 displays how Black feminist pedagogy operationalises Black feminism. Figure 2 suggests that, in order for liberation and empow- erment to occur, education for liberation and social change must also occur. ...
Context 3
... 2 displays how Black feminist pedagogy operationalises Black feminism. Figure 2 suggests that, in order for liberation and empow- erment to occur, education for liberation and social change must also occur. Moreover, according to Figure 2, once various forms of oppression are exposed in the curriculum, it is necessary to dissect the social constructions that create oppressions, so that they can be recognised and resisted. ...
Context 4
... 2 suggests that, in order for liberation and empow- erment to occur, education for liberation and social change must also occur. Moreover, according to Figure 2, once various forms of oppression are exposed in the curriculum, it is necessary to dissect the social constructions that create oppressions, so that they can be recognised and resisted. Finally, Figure 2 shows how the SOP curriculum connects Black women to each other through intellectual inclusion, partnership, and providing space for the questions and educational experiences of Black women. ...
Context 5
... according to Figure 2, once various forms of oppression are exposed in the curriculum, it is necessary to dissect the social constructions that create oppressions, so that they can be recognised and resisted. Finally, Figure 2 shows how the SOP curriculum connects Black women to each other through intellectual inclusion, partnership, and providing space for the questions and educational experiences of Black women. In this section, I will describe the extent to which the SOP curriculum reflected the following aspects of Black feminist pedagogy: (a) study of social constructions, (b) education for liberation, (c) political commitment via activism and social change, and (d) connecting Black women to each other. ...
Citations
... The picture books about Black girls that are presented in this book can serve as windows and mirrors for all students, provide teachers with texts that help bring about racial representational equity in the classroom, and offer literature that provides Black girls with a chance to have their history, culture, and language centered in the curriculum. Recognizing that historically, Black girlhood has often been rendered invisible in the classroom curricular materials for young people (Price-Dennis, 2016;Nyachae, 2020;Lopez, 2021), picture books about Black girls hold special significance. With the emergence of a growing body of picture books about Black girls, teachers can no longer claim that the books are unavailable or challenging to find. ...
... Similarly, Black Girl curricula can also prove to be rich ground to help Black girls develop strong senses of self and community, as well as a vision for future possibilities. As cocreator of the Sisters of Promise curriculum, Nyachae (2016) and her partners place the stories and lived experiences of Black girls at the center of their teaching practices. Th e program curriculum, which was created by "Black women teachers for Black girls within the margins of school" (Nyachae 2016: 787), intentionally takes into account the girls' sociocultural and geopolitical location-Black girls from the northeast region of the United States who qualifi ed for free or reduced lunch. ...
... 77) across the diaspora, time, space, and geographies Endarkened storywork (Toliver, 2022) Researchers and participants engage in African ancestorial, familial, and spiritual storytelling practices and storylistening to remember, recover, and revive Black storytelling traditions for deeper relationality and creatively expansive forms of data collection, analysis, representations, and reporting; capturing Black girl sociopolitical experiences and otherworld dreaming and imaginings that can guide us to freedom Melt Methodology a (Lewis, 2019) Researchers and participants co-develop processes for engaging their spirits, curiosity, creativity, self-definition, identity, Black girl aesthetics, image-and meaning-making while critiquing and/or disrupting societal representations of Black girls for the purpose of producing a magazine (continued) discover mismatches then we must "do the work to be well" (Kwakye et al., 2017, p. 9). In essence, do the self-reflexive and healing (hooks, 1994) work necessary which may be found in theories of Black girlhood (e.g., R. N. Brown, 2013Brown, , 2014Edwards et al., 2016), endarkened feminism (e.g., Toliver, 2022), Black feminism (e.g., Love, 2017;Nyachae, 2016), womanism, or a theory hybrid (e.g., Lindsay-Dennis, 2015). Moreover, we do not leave our girlhoods behind, attending to how they come alive in contemporary in-person interactions with Black girls. ...
In this article, we argue that the humanity and mattering of Black people have always lived in Black girlhood, but the potentiality of Black girlhood as a creative space for designing Black approaches in educational research has yet to be fully realized. Therefore, we (re)turn to Black girlhood frameworks and theories in our contribution to Black approaches in educational research. Looking to where Black girls live and be (re)defines notions of human, humanity, humanness, and living for it begins at Black girl epistemes. Following Wynter’s call for a new humanness, one that promises liberatory futures, we offer Project-Praxes of Black Girl Otherworld-Making to scholars and researchers occupying educational space, considering their/our responsibility and answerability firstly to Black people, and secondly, to the fields of Black Studies, Black Girlhood Studies, and education in a transdisciplinary sense. Project-Praxes of Black Girl Otherworld-Making includes the following seven pursuits: (1) humanness outside the white gaze and after Man; (2) remembering where Black girlhoods lived; (3) ethical engagements with Black girl(s)/hoods; (4) Black girlhood approaches in educational research; (5) reflexivity in doing freedom work in unfree places/spaces; (6) transdisciplinary intellectual rendezvouses that seriously read and cite Black women; and (7) writing with regard for the spectrum of legibility. Through Project-Praxes of Otherworld-Making, Black girls can show up as their most authentic selves and fully expect the same of us as researchers. This framework is not invested in projects of changing, fixing, or colonizing young Black girls. We instead acknowledge that they already have the language to express how they feel and what they know. We hold their descriptions as truth and learn from them to honor their/our lives in the work. Project-Praxes of Otherworld-Making makes possible Black girls’ humanity and freedom dreaming.
... The inherent and lingering racism that operates in South African universities has commonalities with racism elsewhere in the world. Nyachae (2016) argues that this is complicated by neoliberalist values, and the desegregation and inclusivity practices that make discomfort difficult to express. When class, race, gender, sexuality, religious differences are depoliticized and individualized for compliance with policies that aim to streamline and mask the messiness of difference, people at the intersections of these differences do not necessarily feel legitimacy to articulate discomforts. ...
... Although critical in all learning spaces, curriculum curation is not easy, especially in connection to the curatorial work required to create learning spaces that are welcoming for Black girls. As Nyachae (2016) argued, designing curriculum for Black girls is a complicated endeavor, as there are varying and broad arguments about what should or should not be included in Black girls' learning spaces, and there is difficulty centering blackness and Black herstories in a pedagogical world confined by individuality, conformity, and antiblackness. Still, even amidst complications, several scholars have made recommendations that detail specific acts that must be considered when curating curriculum for Black girls. ...
Studies centralizing youth responses to literature have changed the landscape of literacy classrooms and continue to shape literature instruction. Still, there is limited scholarship that explores the intricate ways in which Black girls respond to literature which inhibits curricular possibilities for Black girls in
literacy spaces. Considering the dearth of research on Black girls’ reading responses, this article builds on the theoretical foundations of Culturally Situated Reader Response and the
Black Girl Literacies Framework to ground the following research questions: (1) What culturally situated positions did Black girls assume as they transacted with a speculative short
story? and (2) In what ways do Black girls’ responses highlight the complexity of Black girls’ reading response practices? In centralizing these questions and theoretical framings, the
author highlights how Black girls’ incisive responses to a literary text suggest the need for educators and researchers to expand how we consider culture in our pedagogical and curricular decisions, particularly related to Black girls’ literature engagement
... Much of the research about Black women Millennials has been conducted within the United States (e.g., Apugo, 2016Apugo, , 2021Hope, 2019;Kaplan, 2020;Marbley et al., 2011;Nyachae, 2016;Lynch-Alexander, 2017). There is paucity of literature of Black Millennial women in the African context, and this is where the novelty of this research lies. ...
The South African government continues to work tirelessly to reverse the effects of apartheid by addressing social inequalities and transforming the higher education sector by dismantling structural, cultural, institutional, and interpersonal discrimination. Black1 South African women have fought for the right to access education as well as to pursue higher education to the top levels of teaching in these institutions. Traditionally, the custodians of knowledge have been older white men. Millennial Black women’s presence in these spaces of higher institutions is disruptive and continues to be a site of conflict and negotiation for younger Black women academics. This article argues that race, intersecting with gender, age, and class, influences their teaching experiences in universities and how students perceive Millennial Black women in postapartheid South African universities. Intersectionality underpins this qualitative study, which explores nine Black Millennial women’s teaching experiences in universities in South Africa. The findings suggest that these women’s experiences are influenced by the kind of university in which they teach. The narratives showed how Millennial Black women lecturers at historically white institutions experience more hostility, mostly from students who share their same race and gender. This contrasts with the experiences of Millennial Black women who teach at historically Black institutions. The study has implications for university and government transformation agendas.
... WOC feminisms have rendered us theoretical space to act and be in solidarity with one another; and to reimagine how classrooms can cultivate the full humanity and intellectual destinies of Students of Color, while impacting their material realities in tangible and just ways. We acknowledge the "complicated contradictions" of learning in teacher preparation programs that may perpetuate dominant cultural practices for building classroom environments while navigating the undermining of our own knowledges and cultural practices within the teaching profession (Nyachae, 2016). Although we held the very best intentions for our students, at times, we were not exempt from enacting neoliberal management ideologies that did not align with what we believe to be the political, humanizing, and social purposes of education (e.g., Freire, 1970;Henry, 2005;hooks, 1994;Nyachae, 2016). ...
... We acknowledge the "complicated contradictions" of learning in teacher preparation programs that may perpetuate dominant cultural practices for building classroom environments while navigating the undermining of our own knowledges and cultural practices within the teaching profession (Nyachae, 2016). Although we held the very best intentions for our students, at times, we were not exempt from enacting neoliberal management ideologies that did not align with what we believe to be the political, humanizing, and social purposes of education (e.g., Freire, 1970;Henry, 2005;hooks, 1994;Nyachae, 2016). Our plight was like that of many Teachers of Color who find themselves to be the targets of racism as one of very few Teachers of Color albeit simultaneously fighting against the criminality and racism of their students through a politicized feminist ethic of collective care and leadership (Pham, 2022a). ...
... In other words, they must "control" themselves and/or be resilient to "overcome" the oppression they experience. Even notions like "self-discipline" still position Students of Color as a "problem" (e.g., Freiberg et al., 2020;Nyachae, 2016;Nyachae & Ohito, 2019). An emphasis on such notions is not used as heavily for white students, suggesting that childhood and childhood innocence is not available to all and is weaponized against Students and Communities of Color (e.g., Kelly & Brooks, 2009;Meiners, 2017). ...
There is growing agreement among educators about the need to move toward more democratic, just, and equitable approaches to building positive classroom communities and learning environments. Yet, there is less clarity about how, toward what, and for/with whom these learning spaces are fostered within schools imbued in and reflective of broader societal contexts (Philip & Sengupta, 2021; Philip et al., 2018). In this chapter, we discuss how racism embedded in teaching and the teaching profession reifies white supremacist, colonial, capitalist, and cishet-eropatriarchal normativity in schooling contexts. We then consider the power of Women of Color (WOC) feminisms as an alternative theoretical, ontological, and pedagogical approach in conversation with equity-centered frameworks (e.g., culturally responsive/relevant/sustain-ing pedagogy and ethnic studies) for realizing and co-creating collective and radical learning spaces. In turn, we build upon arguments to dismantle dominant ideologies and normative approaches for organizing learning spaces by offering the concept of collective intersectional care as a more liberatory approach to teacher practice, embodiment, and enactment.
... Research on Black girls. Recently, educational researchers have examined the heterogeneity of Black girls and productive ways of supporting their academic achievement (e.g., R. Brown, 2013;Cox, 2015;Nyachae, 2016;Toliver, 2019). This work provides complex, nuanced understandings of Black girls across learning contexts. ...
... Given the rise of Black girl criminalization in schools (Hines & Wilmot, 2018), the continued murdering of Black men and women, and the under-theorization of LGBTQ youth of color (McCready, 2010), teachers must be trained to understand intersectional forms of oppression. Black scholars have leveraged intersectional perspectives in educational research, including but not limited to: Black Feminist Thought (BFT) and Womanism (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2002;Dixson, 2003;Loder-Jackson, 2011;Nyachae, 2016), Other-Fathering (Lynn, 2002(Lynn, , 2006, and Queer OC, (Brokenbrough, 2016;Love, 2017). Collectively, these scholars help catalyze an educational movement for Black people who exist at multiple margins. ...
Current configurations of teacher education programs are insufficient in attracting and producing teachers equipped to teach through the permanence of antiblackness, instead still relying on race-neutral or color-evasive pedagogies that perpetuate the misrecognition of antiblackness. As evident by the sustained inequities experienced by Black children and the routine marginalization of Black (teacher) educators in the field, we recognize that teacher education programs, and subsequently P-12 classrooms, are not designed nor equipped to reduce the harm caused by persistent anti-Black racism. Despite the ways Blackness is derided and invisibilized in educator preparation, Black students, families, and communities have long countered anti-Black schooling processes through methods grounded in Black liberation. Specifically, throughout the history of Black education, Black people have engaged in resistance and subversion, spiritual innovation, intersectionality, Black fugitive thought, and Afrofuturism to culturally sustain Blackness amid ongoing racial oppression. Through a multidisciplinary analysis, in this reflective and conceptual essay, we offer the framing of Black Liberation in Teacher Education (BLiTE) to help re/envision the cultivation of classrooms that refuse Black suffering and defend Blackness.
... CRT is used as a tool to make sense of the racialized world these adolescents inhabit, particularly in such an historically race-crippled, poverty-stricken city as described in Chapter One. In this participatory influenced ethnography, the participants and I analyzed curriculum and curricular choices through CRT to engage with material in an honest attempted to liberate while simultaneously avoiding the preservation of the hegemonic status quo (Hayes & Kincheloe, 2010;Nyachae, 2016), a challenging and difficult task. As a justice- (Bell, 2003;van Dijk, 1993), remembering that "critical theorizing rests on the hope of effecting positive change to create an equitable socially just society" (Willis, 2011, p. 423). ...
