Teaching to transgress: Black womyn teaching diversity in counseling and higher education
Conference Strand
Teaching, Training, and Supervision
Abstract
Black womyn faculty disrupt Whiteness and patriarchy at the intersection of race and gender. Using Black Feminist Thought as a framework, three Black womyn faculty will share their experiences and challenges in teaching diversity-focused courses in counseling and higher education. The presenters will identify strategies for professional development, reflective teaching practice and self-care for Black womyn educators entering the academy.
Evidence
Alexander, Jr., R. & Moore, S. E. (2008). The benefits, challenges, and strategies of African American faculty teaching at predominantly White institutions. Journal of African American Studies, 12, 4-18.
Closson, R. B., Bowman, L., & Merriweather, L. R. (2014). Toward a race pedagogy for Black faculty, Adult Learning, 25, 82-88.
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment. New York and London: Routledge.
Flynn, J. E. (2015) White fatigue: Naming the challenge in moving from an individual to a systemic understanding of racism. Multicultural Perspectives, 17(3), 115–124.
Griffin, R. A. (2012). I am an angry black woman: Black feminist autoethonography, voice and resistance. Women’s Studies in Communication, 35, 138-157.
Haskins, N. H., & Singh, A. (2015). Critical race theory and counselor education pedagogy: Creating equitable training. Counselor Education & Supervision, 54, 288-301.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress. New York: Routledge.
Hytten, K., & Warren, J. (2003). Engaging whiteness: How racial power gets reified in education. Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(1) 65-89.
Locke, D. C., & Kiselica, M. S. (1999). Pedagogy of possibilities: Teaching about racism in multicultural counseling courses. Journal of Counseling and Development, 77, 80-86.
Patton. L. D. (2016). Disrupting postsecondary prose: Towards a critical race theory of higher education. Urban Education, 51(3), 315-342.
Patton, T. O. (2004). Reflections of a black woman professor: Racism and sexism in academia. Howard Journal of Communications, 15(3), 185-200.
Shillingford, M. A., Trice-Black, S., & Butler, S. K. (2013). Wellness of minority female counselor educators. Counselor Education & Supervision, 52, 255-269.
Yoon, E., Jérémie-Brink, G., & Kordesh, K. (2014). Critical issues in teaching a multicultural counseling course. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 36, 359-371.
Format
Panel Presentations
Biographical Sketch
Adrienne Erby, Ph.D., LPC, NCC is an Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at Ohio University. She holds Master’s and doctoral degrees in Counseling from Oklahoma State University and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte respectively. Her clinical areas of expertise include college counseling, school-based mental health counseling with adolescents, and grief and loss counseling. Her research and professional areas of interest include multicultural counseling and counselor education, LGBTQ+ issues in counseling, grief and loss, and identity development.
LaWanda Ward. J.D., Ph.D., is a Assistant Professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at Ohio University. Her research interests include critically assessing the legal discourse around higher education race-conscious admissions and exploring the experiences of collegiate Black female students and faculty. LaWanda earned a law degree from Indiana University McKinney School of Law and a doctorate from Indiana University. For almost 20 years, she has served in various capacities in higher education ranging from residence life hall director to law school career services advisor.
Mona Robinson, Ph.D., LPCC-S, LSW, CRC is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at Ohio University. She has a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Services (Rehabilitation Counselor Education) from The Ohio State University. She is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor Supervisor and Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. Her areas of expertise include multicultural counseling, dual diagnosis, clinical supervision, and disability advocacy.
Start Date
2-9-2018 1:00 PM
End Date
2-9-2018 2:15 PM
Recommended Citation
Erby, Adrienne; Ward, LaWanda; and Mona, Robinson, "Teaching to transgress: Black womyn teaching diversity in counseling and higher education" (2018). National Cross-Cultural Counseling and Education Conference for Research, Action, and Change. 3.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ccec/2018/2018/3
Teaching to transgress: Black womyn teaching diversity in counseling and higher education
Black womyn faculty disrupt Whiteness and patriarchy at the intersection of race and gender. Using Black Feminist Thought as a framework, three Black womyn faculty will share their experiences and challenges in teaching diversity-focused courses in counseling and higher education. The presenters will identify strategies for professional development, reflective teaching practice and self-care for Black womyn educators entering the academy.
Description
With a litany of professional literature focused on experiences of Black faculty in institutions of higher education, there are many experiences unique to Black womyn faculty. On a daily basis, Black womyn faculty disrupt Whiteness and patriarchy at the intersection of race and gender. This disruption seems most pronounced in the classroom when teaching diversity-focused topics as the classroom often reflects the attitudes, perceptions and hostility of society at large in recognition of the relevance of race, racism, White supremacy, and genderism in counseling and higher education. In these often-assumed diverse, humanistic professions, embedded assumptions and practices of racism and genderism are evident. Diversity scholarship in counseling and higher education often focus on the content, but there are many dynamics unique to the process of teaching diversity-focused courses in counseling and higher education. Black Feminist Thought offers a unique framework for examining the sociopolitical climate of the classroom, engaging in reflective teaching practice and promoting an intersectional approach in multicultural education.
Drawing on the experiences of three Black womyn, the presentation will address unique experiences teaching diversity-focused courses through the lens of Black Feminist Thought. The presenters will (a) review Black Feminist Thought; (b) share experiences from teaching their courses; (c) identify similar and different dynamics within counseling and higher education; and (d) identify strategies for professional development, reflective teaching practice, and self-care for future Black womyn educators entering the academy.