The Spirit of Our Work: Black Women Teachers (Re)Member

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.

Author: Cynthia Dillard
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 11/16/2021
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780807013854

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 12/01/2021 pg. 94

About the Author
Cynthia B. Dillard (Nana Mansa II of Mpeasem, Ghana, West Africa) is the Mary Frances Early Professor in Teacher Education and Department Chair in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at The University of Georgia. Her research interests include critical teacher education, spirituality in education, and African/African American feminist studies. Two of her books, On spiritual strivings: Transforming an African American woman's academic life and Learning to (re)member the things we've learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality and the sacred nature of research were selected as Critics' Choice Book Award winners by the American Educational Studies Association (AESA). Connect with her on Twitter at @cynthiabdillard.