Black Feminist (Re)Constructions of Education in the Afterlife of Abolition: An Invitation

Abstract

ABSTRACTScholars have utilized the allegory of Reconstruction to trace threads between the historical and contemporary struggles for freedom. In this article, I highlight the ways that abolition has always been a dual project and remains as such in our present time. It calls for the complete destruction of oppressive structures while simultaneously demanding that we consider our world once those structures are ameliorated. Using (Re)construction as a framework, I examine how historical Black women teachers built and created alternatives and struggled for an abolition democracy in the afterlife of abolition. (Re)construction also invites us to explore these alternatives in our current time, with the aim of constructing a New World full of radical (im)possibilities.KEYWORDS: abolitionBlack women teachersBlack reconstructionspiritualityafterlife of slavery Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the American Educational Research Association [Minority Dissertation Fellowship].Notes on contributorsAmber M. Neal-StanleyAmber M. Neal-Stanley, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of curriculum studies in the department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University. Her research agenda converges at the intersections of critical Black studies in education, Black feminist qualitative inquiry, and spirituality as a vehicle for educational transformation. Dr. Neal-Stanley is committed to preparing diverse students to address structural inequity, (re)member Black radical traditions, and employ humanizing pedagogical and research approaches.