Found in the Shadows of the Liberty Bell: Racial Microaggressions, Repression, and Redemption, and Redemption in a Northern Predominately White High School

ABSTRACT The current qualitative study was used to explore the lived experiences regarding racism and microaggressions experienced by 6 Black women who all attended the same predominately White high school in the northern region of the U.S. Critical race theory approach to storytelling was used to expose Pennsylvania High School’s (pseudonym) colorblind stance to negative racial interactions and the responses of the Black women who attended this predominately White institution (PWI). Interpretive theoretical frameworks, critical feminist race (Wing, 2003) and Black feminist thought (Collins, 1990), were used to provide interrelated concepts to further an understanding of the hostile learning environment during the course of the participants high school years. Included in the findings were 3 overarching themes: (a) hostile racial climate and racism caused the participants to create strategies to navigate and practice; (b) self-preservation, and resistance of the myth and stereotypes of Black females; (c) persistence toward high school graduation. The participants told counterstories of covert racism or microaggressions and microassault, and the counterstories were documented. Participants felt targeted based on oppression regarding race, gender, and class. Participants were able to “talk back” and resist the dominant narratives of the White staff members and students, while forming a womanist support system. Resilience to dispel the negative stereotypes and myths projected upon the participants was achieved upon their graduation. Curriculum reform using culturally responsive pedagogy is needed to aid the school officials in attaining a cohesive learning environment for all students

Counternarratives of Curriculum in Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities in the South

Presentation given at the Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative Conference. In this interactive curriculum dialogue symposium, a group of multiethnic practitioner researchers explore diverse forms of curriculum inquiry (e.g., oral history, fiction, graphic novels, documentary novels, memoire, poetry, comics, etc.) to dive into the life of schools, neighborhoods, and communities in the U. S. South. We particularly focus on the power of counternarratives to contest metanarratives that often portray the South as backward, deficient, and inferior. We explore how critical theory, Black feminist thought, womanism, Black protest thought, Black liberation theology, critical race theory, critical race currere, multiracial or mixed race theory, and indigenous or decolonizing theories empower us to tell silenced and neglected stories of repressions, suppressions, and subjugations that challenge stereotypes of Southern women, Blacks, and other disenfranchised individuals and groups and to examine the forces of slavery, racism, sexism, classism, religious repression, and other forms of oppression and suppression on the life and curriculum in schools, neighborhoods, and communities in the South. The major purpose of this presentation is to share experience of developing diverse forms of curriculum inquiry and to recognize the importance of, and ways of engaging in such a wide array of forms to embody a particular stance in relation to integrity, beauty, humanity, and freedom, to move beyond traditions and boundaries, and to embed inquiry in school, neighborhood, and community life to transform research into positive social and educational change. This is a continuation of dialogue on curriculum in the South

Counternarratives of Curriculum in Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities in the South

In this interactive curriculum dialogue symposium, a group of multiethnic practitioner researchers explore diverse forms of curriculum inquiry (e.g., oral history, fiction, graphic novels, documentary novels, memoire, poetry, comics, etc.) to dive into the life of schools, neighborhoods, and communities in the U. S. South. We particularly focus on the power of counternarratives to contest metanarratives that often portray the South as backward, deficient, and inferior. We explore how critical theory, Black feminist thought, womanism, Black protest thought, Black liberation theology, critical race theory, critical race currere, multiracial or mixed race theory, and indigenous or decolonizing theories empower us to tell silenced and neglected stories of repressions, suppressions, and subjugations that challenge stereotypes of Southern women, Blacks, and other disenfranchised individuals and groups and to examine the forces of slavery, racism, sexism, classism, religious repression, and other forms of oppression and suppression on the life and curriculum in schools, neighborhoods, and communities in the South. The major purpose of this presentation is to share experience of developing diverse forms of curriculum inquiry and to recognize the importance of, and ways of engaging in such a wide array of forms to embody a particular stance in relation to integrity, beauty, humanity, and freedom, to move beyond traditions and boundaries, and to embed inquiry in school, neighborhood, and community life to transform research into positive social and educational change. This is a continuation of dialogue on curriculum in the South