From Burnout to Balance: Centering Joy and Care in Faculty–Student Mentoring
Location
Morgan
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
This presentation draws on the article, I Need You to Survive: Black Women Resisting White Supremacy Culture for Faculty and Student Wellbeing, which examines how mentoring relationships between Black women faculty and Black students serve as acts of resistance within higher education. Grounded in autoethnography and critical race theory, we highlight how affinity-based mentoring disrupts tenets white supremacy culture while redefining wellbeing for both faculty and students. Key findings illustrate that (1) mentoring replenishes faculty wellbeing through collective healing, (2) counter-spaces such as #BlackTeachersMatter reframe success to prioritize balance, affirmation, and relationships, and (3) intentional decision-making around career and identity can model liberatory practices for students.
Conference attendees will gain tools for identifying and challenging systemic practices that undermine wellbeing in academic spaces. They will also explore strategies for fostering communal care and building sustainable faculty-student relationships that resist institutional oppression. By centering our experiences as Black women, we invite faculty across disciplines to reimagine mentoring as a mutually sustaining practice that disrupts interlocking systems of oppression while cultivating spaces of joy, affirmation, and thriving.
Keywords
Mentoring, Black Teachers, Self-Care
Professional Bio
Dr. Marrielle Myers is a Professor of Mathematics Education and the Director of Faculty Success, Engagement, and Wellness. Her research focuses on teaching mathematics for social justice and supporting teachers’ critical consciousness. In addition to publishing articles and book chapters, she is the author of Operation Feed the Ducks with Marlee the Mathematician, a math children’s picture book. Dr. Lateefah Id-Deen is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and a Program Coordinator. Her work advances culturally responsive, equitable math teaching that affirms identities and belonging. She co-authored two books and several articles that highlight justice-focused pedagogy and supports teachers, schools and districts in transforming curriculum and instructional practices.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Myers, Marrielle and Id-Deen, Lateefah, "From Burnout to Balance: Centering Joy and Care in Faculty–Student Mentoring" (2026). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 89.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2026/2026/89
From Burnout to Balance: Centering Joy and Care in Faculty–Student Mentoring
Morgan
This presentation draws on the article, I Need You to Survive: Black Women Resisting White Supremacy Culture for Faculty and Student Wellbeing, which examines how mentoring relationships between Black women faculty and Black students serve as acts of resistance within higher education. Grounded in autoethnography and critical race theory, we highlight how affinity-based mentoring disrupts tenets white supremacy culture while redefining wellbeing for both faculty and students. Key findings illustrate that (1) mentoring replenishes faculty wellbeing through collective healing, (2) counter-spaces such as #BlackTeachersMatter reframe success to prioritize balance, affirmation, and relationships, and (3) intentional decision-making around career and identity can model liberatory practices for students.
Conference attendees will gain tools for identifying and challenging systemic practices that undermine wellbeing in academic spaces. They will also explore strategies for fostering communal care and building sustainable faculty-student relationships that resist institutional oppression. By centering our experiences as Black women, we invite faculty across disciplines to reimagine mentoring as a mutually sustaining practice that disrupts interlocking systems of oppression while cultivating spaces of joy, affirmation, and thriving.
