An intersectional framework for anti-racist pedagogy in uncertain times

ABSTRACT

Anti-racism is an imperative for those committed to a world and planet free of the manifestations of racial oppression. This correspondence between two critical women teacher educators illustrates ideologically aligned ‘work friends’ theorising anti-racist pedagogy in the context of heightened sociopolitical uncertainty. We explore creative possibilities for uncertainty-oriented anti-racist pedagogy vis-à-vis the aims of inquiry-based, social justice teacher preparation. We co-develop pedagogical insights using an anti-racist intersectional frame as an analytical lens for re-viewing teaching artefacts, reflecting on lived experiences, and posing probing questions. Eschewing feigning pedagogical mastery, we employ the epistolary form to reflexively interrogate the nexus of anti-racism, pedagogy, uncertainty, and teacher education. This exchange contributes (a) an intersectional framework for the practice of antiracist pedagogy, and (b) a model for the emergent, dialogic process of letter writing as a tool for critical collaborative teacher inquiry.

KEYWORDS:

• Uncertainty
• critical theory
• anti-racist pedagogy
• teacher education
• collaborative teacher inquiry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This exchange is inspired by Farah Jasmine Griffin’s (1999) Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters From Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland, and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854–1868. Penned during the Civil War, this archive of letters details the lives of two Black New England women: one who relocated to the Southern United States to found a school for formerly enslaved persons, and the other who stayed in the North, working as a domestic servant.

2. Shirley Chisholm (2010), the first Black Congresswoman in the United States, remarked that ‘in the end, antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing—antihumanism’ (p. 179). Margaret Walker, a poet most associated with Chicago’s African American literary movement, or the Chicago Black Renaissance, postulated that ‘the world has yet to learn to appreciate the deep reservoirs of humanism in all races, and particularly in the Black race’ (as cited in Rowell & Walker, 1975, p. 25).

3. Simms and Stawarska (2014) argued that ‘phenomenology is feminist as long as it includes questions related to gendered experience’ (p. 6).

4. For further reading on uncertainty with regard to racial and social justice, see Darder and Mirón (2006); Deckman and Ohito (2020).

5. For further reading, see Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz’s (2020) racial literacy development model and Jordan Bell’s et al. (2022) exploration of collaborative letter writing as an instrument for racial literacy development.

6. The Wiz is a re-imagined musical version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. The movie premiered in 1978 and starred many prominent Black artists of the time. The music featured distinctly Black musical stylings popular at that time. The Wiz has become somewhat of a cult classic.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Esther O. Ohito

Esther O. Ohito is an assistant professor of English/literacy education at the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow at Maseno University’s School of Education in Kisumu, Kenya. She was formerly an assistant professor of curriculum studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A creative writer and interdisciplinary scholar, she researches the poetics and aesthetics of Black knowledge and cultural production, the gendered geographies of Black girlhoods, and the gendered pedagogies of Black critical educators.

Alison E. LaGarry

Alison E. LaGarry is currently the Director of Research and Education at Participate Learning, and formerly a clinical assistant professor of education at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work is situated at the intersection of education, sociology, and anthropology. Through these theoretical lenses, she uses qualitative methodology to study issues related to equity, anti-racism, and social justice in education.