We BEEN Knowin: Black Women teachers (re)member that our language is a living legacy

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how Black Women K-12 Teachers (BWTs) engage with Black Language, challenging prevailing narratives. Despite limited recognition, BWTs advocate for the authenticity of Black Language. The research centres on the 16-week Black Language Learning Series (BLLS), delving into the roots, rules, and ramifications of Black Language. Drawing from Black Feminist Thought (Collins 2000) and (Re)remembering praxis (C. B. Dillard 2016), the study employs the Double Dutch Methodology (Green 2014) to capture BWTs’ diverse experiences. Two pivotal themes emerge: Linguistic Push-Pull (Smitherman 2000) while (re)searching, highlighting the struggle to balance native Black Language with standardised English; and (re)presenting while (re)claiming Black Language through African American Women’s Language (AAWL). Thus, through the process of (re)membering, BWTs navigate cognitive dissonance, challenging harmful norms, resulting in greater awareness and a shift in perceptions of Black language, identity, and culture. The findings illuminate how exploring Black Language transforms BWTs’ self-perception and pedagogies, leading to a complex interplay of liberation and linguistic transformation. Ultimately, BWTs begin and emerge as agents of linguistic justice, poised to reshape education by centring Black language.

KEYWORDS:

• Black language
• proBlack language pedagogy
• professional learning series
• Black Women teachers
• African American women’s language

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Mother tongue and native language will be used interchangeably in this paper. Both nomenclatures signify that our language patterns are linguistic heirlooms passed down generationally. We first learn language in the womb and mimic our mother’s utterance and use of language.

2. Bailey (1965); Ball, 1992, 1995; Smitherman (1994); Ladson-Billings, 1994; C.D. Lee (1995), Baker-Bell, (2020a), to name a few.

3. Like Baker-Bell (2020a), I use the systematic stressed BEEN, graphonemically represented as BIN. This grammatically correct construction reveals that a completed action happened in the remote past and is likely to still be occurring. The capitalisation of the word indicates the single syllabic stress when the sentence is read.

4. Or the “humanity within each Black student and the language their Black students spoke and the cultural references they used, as well as the pain and joy they shared” (Willis, McMillon, and Smith 2022, 33–34).

5. With the spirit of the Black Feminist tradition to say their names (Crenshaw 1991) or to “publicly acknowledge” (Willis, McMillon, and Smith 2022) the mind, body, and spirit of Black Women who have been sacrificed and who have sacrificed and who continue to sacrifice their lives, I cite Black Women scholars in fullness, rather than in relation to their work(s) (e.g. Mitchell-Kernan 1972) to emphasise the centrality of their whole selves in their labouring in the name of love and for the love of Black children.

6. I emphasise the term diverse to illustrate that Black culture, Black women are not a monolith. I use the definition a participant, Veronica, provided in one of our sessions. Veronica is an award-winning middle school teacher at a predominately white affluent suburban school. She said “We all identify as Black women who may have some similar experiences, but most likely have experienced them differently based on our prior experiences.”

7. I use this term in light of Reynolds, Botts, and Pour-Khorshid’s (2021) theorising of Critical Sisterhood Praxis which demand “…that we show up … for each other – with unapologetic authenticity, compassionate care, and sacred intention”.

8. Smitherman (1977) defines tonal semantics as meaning conveyed through intonation, pitch, and rhythm in USBL. It adds emotional depth beyond literal words.

9. A linguistic perspective that promotes the idea of a single, standardised language variety as the norm, often disregarding or devaluing regional dialects, variations, or other languages.

10. The incitement and development of consciousness and confidence of USBL as a result of naming and learning about USBL through USBL (Baker-Bell 2020a).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Notes on contributors

Teaira McMurtry

Teaira McMurtry, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the United States. She researches and writes about promising outcomes of centering Black Language in K-12 curriculum and pedagogy, and teacher education.