Date of Award
Fall 1-8-2021
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Policy Studies
First Advisor
Joyce E. King, PhD
Second Advisor
Kristen Buras, PhD
Third Advisor
Janice Fournillier, PhD
Fourth Advisor
Natasha Thornton, PhD
Abstract
Teachers in urban school districts are both gatekeepers and the frontline of defense against a myriad of injustices Black students and Black communities experience. The goal of this participatory action research (PAR) study was three-fold: 1) to provide teachers a safe but challenging space to identify their biases, assumptions, and fears about working in Black communities, 2) to provide teachers with social, cultural, historical, and political information not otherwise included in teachers’ traditional in-service professional development, and 3) to provide teachers an opportunity to co-construct solution-building projects with and within the communities they serve. The three-fold research goal provided a roadmap to examine if participatory action research demonstrated the skills, knowledge, mindsets, consciousness, worldview, beliefs, attitudes, dispositions, that is to say, the souls of teachers. This collaborative study was framed within the Black Intellectual Tradition (BIT) and employed a PAR approach, using focus groups, participant observation, and community listening sessions as data collection methods. The BIT refers to the intellectualism, scholarship, and activism of Black scholars in their quest for 1) liberation from enslavement and colonialism and 2) the interrogation of what it means to be human in a world that relegates Blackness to the margins of society. The BIT frames for education scholars whose knowledge counts and implores scholars to use this knowledge for social transformation.
During the PAR dissertation study, teachers engaged as co-researchers in a smaller study-within-the-dissertation study. The findings from both the dissertation study, and the collective study, suggest that Black teachers, engaged in PAR, demonstrate the capacity for, and commitment to soul-building study and struggle required for teaching and advocacy for educational equity and justice. Collaborative, soul-building study and struggle, on behalf of the communities they serve, led teachers to uncover the “New School Pushout” through a rigorous analysis of gentrification and urban education reform. Findings suggest that through the BIT and PAR, Black teachers persistently demonstrate their souls in urban communities.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/20517596
Recommended Citation
Council, Thais, "The Souls of [Black] Teachers: A Participatory Action Research Approach Engaging Teachers with Communities Against Anti-Black Policies and Practices." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2021.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/20517596
File Upload Confirmation
1