Browsing by Author "Jackson, Tambra O."

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    Creating Racially Safe Learning Environments: An Investigation of the Pedagogical Beliefs and Practices of Two African American Teachers in Racially Hostile Urban Elementary Schools
    (2020-09) Bangert, Sara Elizabeth; Jackson, Tambra O.; Lewison, Mitzi; Taylor, Kara; Zaccor, Karla M.
    Many Americans espouse “post-racial” conceptions of race and its role in children’s access to equitable learning opportunities; however, recent studies have illuminated the need to examine the ways in which “new” forms of institutionalized and interpersonal racism continue to hinder the schooling experiences of students in urban schools. Despite that students in urban schools are predominantly African American (27%) and Latinx (41%), the teaching force remains predominantly white (71%). Within these schools, white teachers’ lack of cultural competence and racial literacy marginalize students’ opportunities for social, emotional, and academic development and, thereby, foster racially hostile learning environments. However, cases of teachers in urban schools who create and sustain learning environments in which their students thrive socially, emotionally, and academically exist and need to be studied. This case study investigated the pedagogical beliefs and practices enacted by two highly regarded African American educators who created racially safe learning environments in two racially hostile urban elementary students. Ethnographic data was collected over a five-month period. Using constant comparative analysis within and across both cases, several significant findings emerged. Findings revealed how “new racism” manifested in the discourses, policies, and practices at both schools and, thus, illuminated the ways in which race marginalized not only the schooling experiences of African American and Latinx students, but their African American educators as well. Findings examined how each teachers’ pedagogical enactments aligned with the ideologies, beliefs, and practices associated with African American pedagogy and revealed how they fostered cultures of community, love, and achievement within their classrooms. Findings suggest that their culturally specific pedagogical beliefs and practices have the potential to create racially safe learning environments within, otherwise, racially hostile schools. Although African American pedagogical excellence is often relegated to discussions of practices needed to reach African American students, this study expands the knowledge base needed to center AAPE in discussions of best practices for teachers in urban schools. This study adds critical insights to discussions of race and its role in the schooling experiences and opportunities to learn in racially hostile urban schools.
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    Social and Racial Justice in Teacher Education: An Africana Womanist Mandate
    (Cambridge, 2022-08-17) Kazembe, Lasana D.; Jackson, Tambra O.; School of Education
    This essay discusses the concept of social and racial justice in teacher education in tandem with core tenets drawn from Hudson-Weems’ theorizing on Africana Womanism: spirituality, respect for elders, family centeredness, mothering. As Africana people continue to grapple with reverberating crises within education, it is increasingly clear that we need to embrace and articulate a theoretical lens, philosophical stance, and praxis rooted in Africana perspectives and in the centrality of our culture in order to move us toward mental and cultural liberation. Aside from parents, educators represent the largest group of socializing agents who directly and consistently impact the lives of children and youth. Thus, if Black educators operate from a colonized ontology and epistemology, then Black children are likely to be seen as empty vessels in need of fixing. In order for our social and racial justice project to flourish, it is critical that we engage in a constant shedding (i.e. unlearning/relearning) of non-Africana knowledge hierarchies while simultaneously re-orientating and re-rooting ourselves in liberating paradigms and practices drawn from Africana culture and traditions of educational excellence. The result is a restorative approach to teacher education, informed by the liberatory theoretical vision and generative possibilities of Africana Womanism.