2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

This roundtable examines black women’s education struggles from the Civil
Rights era through recent iterations of neoliberal education reform.
During this period, teaching was a largely feminized workforce. This was
especially true for African Americans. Black women constituted the vast
majority of Black educators. While Black women educators are often
obscured or discounted in contemporary debates about education reform,
they powered movements for educational equity historically. This
roundtable centers Black women educators’ experiences and political work
historically and makes connections to continued education struggles today.
Participants will focus on Black women who worked within and outside of
schools during different time periods, at different levels of governance,
and in different regions of the country (the South, Midwest, and
Northeast): Black women HBCU educators who challenged both
heteropatriarchal and white supremacist ideologies and practices in the
post-World War II era; Black women parents and teachers who produced
diverse visions of Black politics and education reform in Chicago that
eventually impacted the national stage; and Black women educators and
administrators’ efficacy and resilience in the face of school choice and
other education reform policies during the late twentieth century in
Philadelphia. The participants in this session are academics, but have
also worked as K-12 teachers, education activists, curriculum developers,
and teacher educators. The roundtable format will allow for a rich
discussion that builds on the participants’ diverse interests and
experiences, invites audience participation, and considers the policy
implications of this history for researchers, practitioners, and our
broader communities.

This session will be taped for later broadcast on C-Span.