Towards Black Gaze Theory: How Black Female Teachers Make Black Students Visible

Authors

  • Diamond Howell University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Aaminah Norris Sacramento State University
  • Krystal L Williams The University of Alabama

Abstract

Damage-centered research (Tuck, 2009) dehumanizes Black people by focusing on disparities rather than cultural capital. Moving away from theories that frame blackness as a deficit, we turn to Black women teachers and educators and their humanizing pedagogies as experts in cultivating cultural wealth of Black children, youth, and families. Building on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 2014), Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2015), and Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000) we look towards Black female teachers and the ways that they mentor and humanize Black students to lay the foundation for Black Gaze Theory as a framework that 1) shifts conceptions of Black children away from a white gaze laden with “amused contempt and pity†(Du Bois, 1994, p. 2) to sociopolitical consciousness and 2) describes the cultural wealth of Black children and youth.

Author Biographies

Diamond Howell, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Diamond Howell is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is pursuing her PhD in Curriculum & Instruction with a concentration in Multicultural Education. Her research interests include social justice education, school/institutional climate, educational access for marginalized students, and identity development within schools. Currently, she is investigating the educational experiences of students of color at Elite Boarding Schools.

Aaminah Norris, Sacramento State University

Dr. Aaminah Norris is an Assistant Professor at Sacramento State University in the Teaching Credentials Department. She has more than 20 years of experience supporting schools and not for profit organizations in addressing issues of educational equity for low income students from historically marginalized communities. Her background in education includes teaching, administration, and curriculum-development for thousands of students in grades K-16. She researches, teaches, and advocates use of digital and social media in formal and informal learning environments to address racial and gender inequities. Dr. Norris authored curricula for the films Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In.

Krystal L Williams, The University of Alabama

Dr. Krystal L. Williams is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama in the department of Higher Education Administration and Educational Leadership Policy & Technology. Her research explores the use of public policies to promote college success for underrepresented students, with a particular emphasis on the interplay between policy initiatives and students’ various psychosocial factors. Most recently, her work has focused on these issues as they relate to broadening participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and reducing students’ economic and academic strains in college.

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Published

2019-03-29

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2019): Hillard/Sizemore Special Edition

Section

Journal Articles

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