The radical (im)possibilities of Black women’s democratic pedagogies

Bibliographic Data

ID21747223
AuthorsAmber M Neal-Stanley (0000-0002-1845-8218, Purdue University West Lafayette, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-21
Publication date2025-10-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1550-5170 • E-ISSN: 2156-8154
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15505170.2025.2564808
OpenAlexW4415160914
LanguageEN
References cited52

This paper examines the radical (im)possibilities of Black women’s democratic pedagogies, highlighting the tension of enacting liberatory education within oppressive systems. Across K-12 and higher education, Black women educators cultivate participatory, transformative learning spaces that challenge Eurocentric, patriarchal, and neoliberal norms while centering students’ lived experiences. Drawing on the activism and pedagogical practices of historical Black women, the paper shows how they embody democracy as an ethical, justice-oriented practice grounded in care, dignity, and collective possibility. Using personal narrative, historical analysis, and critical engagement with literature, I trace how Black women have long modeled pedagogies rooted in community, interdependence, and radical hope. At the same time, structural barriers, resistance from students and colleagues, and the epistemic violence of anti-Black institutions render their labor simultaneously precarious and indispensable. This tension—the radical (im)possibility of democratic pedagogy—reveals that Black women do not merely teach democracy; they embody its most expansive, unfinished, and necessary form

Democracy · Democratic Education · Democratic Theory · Inequality · Politics · Critical and Liberation Pedagogy · Critical Race Theory in Education · Race, History, and American Society

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