Publisher Description
An exploration of how engaging identity and cultural heritage can transform teaching and learning for Black women educators in the name of justice and freedom in the classroom
In The Spirit of Our Work, Dr. Cynthia Dillard centers the spiritual lives of Black women educators and their students, arguing that spirituality has guided Black people throughout the diaspora. She demonstrates how Black women teachers and teacher educators can heal, resist, and (re)member their identities in ways that are empowering for them and their students. Dillard emphasizes that any discussion of Black teachers’ lives and work cannot be limited to truncated identities as enslaved persons in the Americas.
The Spirit of Our Work addresses questions that remain largely invisible in what is known about teaching and teacher education. According to Dillard, this invisibility renders the powerful approaches to Black education that are imbodied and marshaled by Black women teachers unknown and largely unavailable to inform policy, practice, and theory in education. The Spirit of Our Work highlights how the intersectional identities of Black women teachers matter in teaching and learning and how educational settings might more carefully and conscientiously curate structures of support that pay explicit and necessary attention to spirituality as a crucial consideration.
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Dr. Cynthia Dillard has given us all a precious gift in this book, The Spirit of Our Work: Black Women Teachers (Re)member. No matter what your race is, hold this book in your hands with anticipation. Soak up, pause, and reflect as you read each page and prepare to act upon what you learn. Dr. Dillard has shared a road map for how we can transform education through uplifting the lineage and power of Blackness, Black women teachers, and the sacred educational road to Black freedoms. In doing so, Dr. Dillard teaches us that to develop liberatory educational environments where Black women educators can (re)claim and (re)member their inherent freedom means nothing less than liberation for us all.
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Anneliese Singh, author of The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective HealingÂ
