About Centering Possibility In Black Education

Improving education outcomes for Black students begins with resisting racist characterizations of blackness. Chezare A. Warren, a nationally recognized scholar of race and education equity, emphasizes the imperative that possibility drive efforts aimed at transforming education for Black learners. Inspired by the “freedom dreaming” of activists in the Black radical tradition, the book is comprised of nine principles that clarify how centering possibility actively refuses limitations for what Black people can create, accomplish, and achieve. This interdisciplinary volume also features over 30 original images, poems, and lyrics by Black artists from around the United States, each helping to breathe new life into the concept of possibility and its relevance to remaking Black children’s experience of school. Warren draws on research in history, cultural studies, and sociology to cast a vision of Black education futures unencumbered by antiblackness and white supremacy. This justice-oriented text will inspire innovative solutions to eliminating harm and generating education alternatives Black students desire and deserve. Book Features: Describes practical, antideficit approaches to educating Black children, youth, and young adults.Focuses on productively reorienting visions, philosophies, and rationales guiding contemporary Black education transformation work.Includes relatable stories and anecdotes written in a conversational style.Filled with provocative pieces of original art by Black artists, such as paintings, drawings, photographs, mixed media, spoken word, poems, and song lyrics.

Improving education outcomes for Black students begins with resisting racist characterizations of blackness. Chezare A. Warren, a nationally recognized scholar of race and education equity, emphasizes the imperative that possibility drive efforts aimed at transforming education for Black learners. Inspired by the "freedom dreaming" of activists in the Black radical tradition, the book is comprised of nine principles that clarify how centering possibility actively refuses limitations for what Black people can create, accomplish, and achieve. This interdisciplinary volume also features over 30 original images, poems, and lyrics by Black artists from around the United States, each helping to breathe new life into the concept of possibility and its relevance to remaking Black children's experience of school. Warren draws on research in history, cultural studies, and sociology to cast a vision of Black education futures unencumbered by antiblackness and White supremacy. This justice-oriented text will inspire innovative solutions to eliminating harm and generating education alternatives that Black students desire and deserve. Book Features: Describes practical, antideficit approaches to educating Black children, youth, and young adults. Focuses on productively reorienting visions, philosophies, and rationales guiding contemporary Black education transformation work. Includes relatable stories and anecdotes written in a conversational style. Filled with provocative pieces of original art by Black artists, such as paintings, drawings, photographs, mixed media, spoken word, poems, and song lyrics.

High-quality higher education leadership is critical to student engagement, persistence, and graduation outcomes. With higher education institutions pushing for Black student enrollment and effective and innovative strategies to retain current students, leadership in institutions must reflect the Black academics they serve. In addition, there is a shortage of Black department heads, deans, and provosts to make important decisions about the matriculation of students toward graduation. Therefore, it is essential that higher education institutions take what they have learned from those who have been in academic leadership roles and develop new strategies to recruit, mentor, and retain high-quality Black academic leaders that reflect the student population. The Future of Black Leadership in Higher Education: Firsthand Experiences and Global Impact provides experiences, narratives, and best practices that are more inclusive of Black professionals by allowing them to seek advancement in these critical roles. This book presents crucial knowledge about academic leadership for Black professionals and familiarizes readers with policies, practices, and procedures that impact the experiences of Black leadership. Covering predominantly white institutions, second-career Black women, and Black professors, this premier reference source is a dynamic resource for faculty and administrators of higher education, students of higher education, librarians, researchers, graduate students, and academicians.

A stirring testament to the realities of Black teaching and learning in the United States and to Black educators' visions for the future

This handbook offers a contemporary and comprehensive review of critical research theory and methodology. Showcasing the work of contemporary critical researchers who are harnessing and building on a variety of methodological tools, this volume extends beyond qualitative methodology to also include critical quantitative and mixed-methods approaches to research. The critical scholars contributing to this volume are influenced by a diverse range of education disciplines, and represent multiple countries and methodological backgrounds, making the handbook an essential resource for anyone doing critical scholarship. The book moves from the theoretical to the specific, examining various paradigms for engaging in critical scholarship, various methodologies for doing critical research, and the political, ethical, and practical issues that arise when working as a critical scholar. In addition to mapping the field, contributions synthesize literature, offer concrete examples, and explore relevant contexts, histories, assumptions, and current practices, ultimately fostering generative thinking that contributes to future methodological and theoretical breakthroughs. New as well as seasoned critical scholars will find within these pages exciting new ideas, challenging questions, and insights that spur the continuous evolution and grow the influence of critical research methods and theories in the education and human disciplines.

While schools often are framed as places of neutrality and fairness, many American schools have harmed Black children or been silent in the face of their struggles, under-education, and mistreatment. While there are undoubtedly adults in these spaces who support Black children, many others ignore Black families, minimize students' concerns, and believe that colorblindness will solve the problem of inequity in education. Embedded in everyday realities, the authors outline the many ways anti-Blackness shows up in schools. Drawing on more than 44 years of equity work, they provide concrete, doable, and meaningful ways in which teachers and administrators can create Black-affirming spaces. Written for pre- and in-service teachers and others working with Black children and youth, Anti-Blacknessat School explores both the scope of anti-Blackness and how teachers can reject racism. Book Features: Provides interracial perspectives from authors Joi Spencer, a Black woman from California, and Kerri Ullucci, a White woman from Rhode Island. Uses case studies, activities, lessons, and techniques to talk about anti-Blackness, inventory its presence, and take steps to address the harm caused by it. Calls out how school policies, programs, belief systems, and customs are particularly hostile to Black youth. Explains why diversity work is not synonymous with antiracist work, offering a model focused on justice and equity. Directs practitioners to easily accessible resources that will allow them to challenge racism and uplift Black youth in their care.

This edited volume explores and extends themes in contemporary educational research on teacher preparation and the evolution in social justice education to antiracist pedagogy. These times call for teacher education to reconsider how the work devoted to social justice is explicit and intentional about its commitment to a racially just society. What does it mean for teacher education to seize this moment to confront racism and inequities that continue to perpetuate in society and school? The book highlights efforts that are being augmented to prepare teacher candidates and future faculty to address systemic racism in their teaching practices.

A narrative inquiry into the lives of three men, Robert, Raheem, and Warren, this book shares their stories about over-discipline in school, adverse teacher-student relationships, and violent community policing that proceeded and intersected with their involvement in the criminal justice system. After being incarcerated, the men restored their dreams through the same structure that helped remove them from society—the education system. This book critically analyzes the school policies and individual practices that inflict educational harm upon the lives of students who experience criminalization, disengagement, and lack connectedness and a sense of belonging at school. The narratives center the voices of three men who describe how home environments and educational policies and practices structure schools into locations where Black and other minoritized students are forced to survive. Their stories help examine how criminalized experiences—school removal and incarceration—intersect with historical and social factors that create anti-Black practices in schools and communities. These narrative accounts are critical pedagogical tools for those who work with Black, Latinx, low-income, and other minoritized youth. Readers will have a more in-depth understanding about how Black males experience schools, neighborhoods, and the world. This volume will appeal to teachers and teacher educators in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. More specifically, faculty in programs that lead to elementary, middle, and secondary education certifications can incorporate the stories into courses around cultural diversity, equity and inclusion, social justice, and humanizing pedagogies. Community organizations can use the narrative accounts to create spaces for transformative conversations that aim to improve school and community policing practices.