Building Black worlds: revisioning cultural justice for Black teacher education students at PWIs

Abstract

This article presents the reflections of the authors, two Black women teacher educators, in ongoing dialogue with Black teacher education students at a PWI. The dialogues generated from several gatherings in which students’ concerns and feedback about their teacher education experiences were solicited. Ultimately, students continued to request a space where they could be candid about their experiences. We contextualize these dialogues with Black students in the literature elevating White supremacy culture and anti-Blackness in teacher education, as well as larger critiques about the complicit role of teacher education faculty in meeting the needs of Black teacher education students. The authors share wonderings about revisioning teacher education as a site for cultural justice and for the professional thriving of Black teacher education students, and offer suggestions about how abolitionist teaching and agitation literacies can be employed by teacher educators in ways that meet these students’ needs.

Keywords:

• Cultural justice
• teacher education
• Black teachers
• abolitionist teaching
• agitation literacies

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Bettina Love, Gholnecsar Muhammad, and the peer-reviewers for providing feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Morgan Z. Faison

Morgan Z. Faison, PhD is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. Her areas of interest include critical multicultural teacher education, narrative inquiry research, and the lived, intergenerational experiences of historical and contemporary Black teachers.

Sherell A. McArthur

Sherell A. McArthur, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. Her research agenda focuses on the intersectionality of gender, race, and class and popular culture engagement in the lives of girls of color in and out of school settings.