Diverse children's literature can support understandings of our world as culturally, linguistically, and socially rich. It can cultivate empathy and understanding, and open a dialogic space of possibilities. In this article, we examine how "purposefully selected" children's literature prepares needed conditions for dialogic space:…

Schools are adopting social emotional learning (SEL) programs, intending to provide students with intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to better prepare them for life. Transformative SEL is designed to promote the building of relationships between diverse students and educators to build more just schools and society. Because SEL models are…

It is evident that many Black women teachers (BWTs) are leaving the teaching profession due to mental and emotional health, professional and collegial relationships, as well as curricular and school culture. In this article, we use the story of Alicia to explore the instructional, professional, and emotional stress that many Black women teachers…

Black women educators have a legacy of political clarity about teaching and learning as well as about anti-Black racism. Scholarship on Black women teachers has begun to map out this political clarity (e.g), yet is continually at risk of being devalued and deintellectualized in an educational era that privileges universalist and reductivist…

Drawing on calls to diversify the teacher workforce, this paper demonstrates the need for a commitment to diversity and equity in recruiting Black women into the recruiting practices of educational organizations. Three approaches by which educational organizations incorporate diversity and equity into their recruiting practices are organized in a…

This article features interview excerpts from 10 Black women who worked as educators in marketized cities and schools, including urban charter schools operated by charter management organizations, and independent schools, known as standalone charter schools. Using a critical race policy framework, the article considers the pedagogical implications…

At a time when schools are destroying the minds and spirits of Black and Brown students, as educators, we must work differently to make sure our children's souls are not claimed by those who refuse to acknowledge their brilliance. The purpose of this essay is to explore the educational activism and scholarship of three Black women educators in an…

Considering Black women's historic contributions and enduring legacy in education, their continual disproportionate underrepresentation in US public schools is severely problematic. The absence of Black women in many public schools nationally is disconcerting given their potential to improve school outcomes for students of Color. Despite this…

The purpose of this article was to problematize the recruitment, preparation, and retention of Black women teachers in an effort to promote awareness, research, and action. Black women teachers impact the educative and socioemotional needs of all students. However, this impact is most noticeable when Black women serve large populations of Black…

Black women educators are severely underrepresented and make up just 5% of US public school teachers. For critical Black women educators working in the hostile racial climates of schools, the ideological marginalization compounds the intersectional racial and gendered alienation they feel. In this article, we theorize the racialization critical…

Given the clarion call for culturally relevant and sustaining practices, it is often assumed that Black women have a deep well of knowledge about Black history and culture to draw from. However, given that today's Black teachers were mostly educated post-integration, they were rarely afforded accurate representations and cultural knowledge of…