“The Classroom is a Reflection of the Real World”: Black Women Urban Teachers’ Activist Pedagogy and Leadership

Historical and Contemporary Commitments

Many educators of color report a commitment to ethnoracially minoritized students or teaching in schools that mirror their own cultural communities (Achinstein et al., 2010). Historical examples are evident in the legacy of 19th and early 20th-century Black educators. Their commitment to clandestine teaching methods suggests acts of implicit civic resistance in response to subpar teaching from white southerners and northerners intended to reify Black Americans’ social positioning as menial laborers and second-class citizens (Anderson, 1988; Givens, 2021). Even after the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, many African American communities established and funded schools, which signaled a deep commitment to education and the formation of an institutional pathway to self-determination and economic stability.

Although firsthand reports provide conflicting accounts regarding the quality of education (Fairclough, 2004), many agree students in the new schools were often taught by Black teachers who established relationships with students’ families, were respected by the community, and perceived schooling as critical for social mobility (Anderson, 1988). While there was disproportionate access to schooling, education became a viable career option for many scholars and intellectuals who collectively were characterized as a “caring and dedicated Black teaching corps” (Fultz, 2004, p. 402). Black women educators played a prominent role in these schools and by 1910 “women [comprised] two-thirds of the African American teaching force” (Randolph, 2009, p. 26). Leading up to the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Black educators worked alongside members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to enact legal strategy, organizing and leveraging their community relationships to secure evidence leading to the landmark ruling, which overturned the “separate but equal” precedent.

Though the effect of the Brown decision on Black women educators remains understudied, consistent themes surface regarding their lived experiences in the decades that followed and today. First, Black women educators demonstrated a strong commitment to student learning and academically rigorous instruction. For example, in Fraser-Abder's (2010) research with participants possessing at least 10 years of experience, Black women educators conveyed an “in-depth knowledge and love of science” (p. 5) and an “understanding, caring, and commitment to the whole child” (p. 6) stood out as key factors influencing their persistence in urban schools. Other studies noted that Black women educators deeply understood the importance of serving as role models and engaged in othermothering, displays of community-oriented care, and socioemotional nurturing (Case, 1997; Kokka, 2016; Peters, 2019).

Black women educators also maintained a social justice orientation to improve academic and socioemotional outcomes for Black children (Alston & Jones, 2002). Dixson and Dingus (2007) maintained that uplift for one's ethnic-racial community undergirds how Black women teachers are socialized into the profession and inform their teaching philosophy. Finally, a theme gaining recent attention is the urgency Black teachers (particularly those in urban contexts) ascribe to their teaching. As detailed in Acosta's (2018) research, this urgency manifests as both insisting on their students’ academic success and helping Black youth develop the psychological wherewithal to negotiate societal contexts rooted in racism and classism.

Collectively, these themes exemplify the legacy of political and social justice orientation which harken back to the early roots of Black education and the legacies of Black women teachers, such as Anna Julia Cooper and Septima Poinsette Clark (Johnson, 2017). As detailed below, these longstanding themes align with research focusing more specifically on Black women teachers’ pedagogical practices.

Black Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices

Many scholars characterize teachers of color as being adept at interpreting curriculum and pedagogy through the lens of culture by incorporating aspects of students’ ethnoracial or linguistic heritage into the classroom (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2012; Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 1997, 2002; Dickar, 2008). Studies also indicate many teachers of color incorporate pedagogical approaches to build upon and connect to their students’ home and community backgrounds (Foster 1997; Lash & Ratcliffe, 2014). Through the use of ethnographic methods, Dixson and Dingus (2007) explored how these pedagogies are handed from one generation to the next. These methods are neither prescriptive nor identical (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2012; Burciaga & Kohli, 2018; Gaias et al., 2019). However, they do share several common characteristics, as outlined by Ladson-Billings (2009).

Ladson-Billings (2009) described culturally informed approaches as good teaching coupled with cultural competence and critical consciousness. Ladson-Billings' interpretation of culturally informed approaches is characterized by educators who demonstrate a sociopolitical orientation towards teaching and learning, regard the classroom as a site for disrupting structural and institutional inequalities, particularly for historically marginalized groups, and equip students to identify, critique, and act against inequality.

Despite Black teachers’ positive attributes, it is important to point out that not all Black women easily navigate or adapt to teaching, particularly in urban contexts. Sometimes, due to an educator's own K-12 schooling and upbringing, they may lack cultural competency and the ability to successfully execute culturally informed pedagogy (despite sharing a racial or ethnic identification with their students) as revealed in Coffey and Farinde-Wu's (2016) case study research. Yet, even when successful, many studies also indicate that teachers of color—and Black women teachers in particular—experience mixed messaging about culturally informed teaching methods.

While some claim Black teachers are celebrated for their ability to connect with Black students (Clark et al., 2013), Black teachers simultaneously face opposition when these strategies are perceived as conflicting with school curriculum and standards-based instruction (Achinstein et al., 2010). Thus, the adoption of culturally informed pedagogies may contradict sociocultural conditions for teaching and learning which create tensions regarding how Black women choose to respond. Hancock et al. (2020) argued Black women often face mental and emotional stress related to defying sociocultural expectations for teaching and learning in schools. In other instances, Black women who enter teaching to affect racial uplift, soon realize their career satisfaction, and self-care outweigh working in particular schools. As a result, some choose to leave the profession. According to Benson et al. (2021), even in the field of education, the “search for physical and emotional spaces for being, existing, and dreaming is agentive self-care” (p. 318).

Black Women Teacher Leaders

While the political and social justice commitments of Black women educators have been well-documented, research on Black women teacher leadership is limited. Grimes (2005) suggested the epistemological standpoint of Black women teacher leaders undergirds their everyday experiences of multiple marginalization and shapes their approach to leadership. Hence, education and schools become the vehicle through which Black women teacher leaders become “creative agents for change and to embark upon the heroic task of re-imagining themselves” and their communities (Hine, 1992, p. 14). At the same time, Black women teacher leaders may encounter organizational resistance to their leadership in the form of racial tokenism and gendered, racial stereotypes (Moses, 1997). Lack of support may set up Black women leaders for excessive scrutiny and failure (Moses, 1997).

Robinson and Baber's (2013) narrative inquiry of three multigenerational teacher leaders pre- and post-Brown revealed efforts to advance equitable conditions for Black children within and beyond their classrooms. These teacher leaders utilized their voices to bring attention to injustice and garner support from colleagues to facilitate organizational change. Similarly, Watson's (2007) phenomenological analysis depicted Black women urban school teacher leaders as visionaries motivated to advance justice for their communities, which influences their decision to work in urban communities and aspirations for leadership. As noted by Watson, “It is imperative not to create a stereotype that all African American women in pursuit of leadership incorporate the same ideals” (p. 9). These studies emphasize the vital role of Black women teacher leaders in advocating for equitable education and underscore the need for research and support in this field.

Participant Selection

In this article, we highlight profiles of three participants drawn from a larger study exploring the organizational experiences of Black women teachers in urban schools. Social media advertising and strategic sampling were used to select 11 information-rich eligible individuals (Creswell & Clark, 2017). To participate in the study, individuals had to: (1) self-identify as a Black woman (including African American, African, Black American, and Afro-Latinx/a), (2) have at least 1 year of teaching experience in a traditional public or public charter school, and (3) currently work in an urban intensive environment with a population of at least one million (Milner, 2012). From the initial group of 11 participants, we selected three individuals who demonstrated involvement in both formal and informal leadership activities beyond their classroom responsibilities. These participants openly discussed the sociopolitical tensions of 2020 and their impact on the urban communities surrounding their schools, their school contexts, and their experiences as teacher leaders. Please refer to Table 1 for the demographic details of each participant.

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Table 1.

Participant Profiles.

Pseudonym	Race and ethnicity	School context	Years of experience and leadership status
Camile	African American	Public charter (high school) 89% Black, 7.7% Hispanic/Latino/x, and 3% white and two or more races 9–12 Social Studies Grouper	10th year teaching Cultural competency teacher leader
Ana	Black (Afro-Honduran)	Public charter (high school) 93.9% Hispanic/Latino/x, 5.6% Black or African American, and .5% white and two or more races 9–12 English Language Arts/Special Education Loner	8th year teaching Professional development teacher leader
Annie	Black American	Traditional public (high school) 88.7% Black, 7.3% Hispanic/Latino/x, and 4% white and two or more races 9–12 Social Studies Loner	4th year teaching Roster chair Enrollment manager

We introduce three study participants using pseudonyms: Ana, Annie, and Camile. They resided in large Northeastern cities comparable in population density to Chicago or Houston. All participants self-identified as women, with Ana identifying as Black of Honduran (Garifuna) descent, Camile as African American of Guyanese and West African descent, and Annie as Black American. They preferred teaching in urban settings with students who shared their cultural backgrounds. We classified Camile as a grouper, working with four or more Black women teachers, while Ana and Annie were loners as the only Black women teachers in their buildings (see Bristol, 2018). School demographics and contextual information were sourced from publicly available documents (Creswell & Clark, 2017).

Data Collection

Multiple data sources were used to collect demographic information from study participants. A 22-item survey was developed by the lead researcher, covering various topics such as U.S. geographic location, years of experience, and subject(s) taught. Additionally, the survey included three open-ended questions prompting participants to share significant experiences as Black women teachers. Participants were also asked to select a pseudonym and indicate their ethnic-racial classification, aligning with the research design's emphasis on the Black feminist principle of self-definition.

Interviews

To collect detailed information (Harrell & Bradley, 2009), researcher-generated interview protocols were used in three rounds of semistructured virtual interviews conducted over 6 months. Each round focused on dimensions of the participants’ professional experiences. The first round, held in April and May 2021, featured questions about the teacher's entry into teaching (e.g., “Tell me the story of how you became a teacher. What brought you to teach at [your school]?”) and organizational information about their schools (e.g., “What are your main duties at [your school]?”).

In the second round, held in June and July 2021, questions explored the influence of identity (e.g., race and gender) and the external sociopolitical environment (e.g., COVID-19 public health crisis, police brutality, and legislative censorship) on the participants’ personal and professional lives as Black women teacher leaders. The final round, held in September and October 2021, included questions about their intention to remain in teaching such as “Have you ever considered leaving the profession?”

Analysis

After each round of interviews, we organized transcripts by participants and conducted a multistep coding process. Initially, we re-read each of the transcripts and memoed the data to identify initial patterns. We then employed open coding to generate initial codes with definitions and examples derived from the data. These codes included decision-making related to teaching and learning, philosophy and beliefs about teaching, and relationships and experiences with same-race students. We then met to discuss the initial codes and establish code definitions using the language of the participants (Creswell & Poth, 2016).

For the second round of deductive coding, we focused on sections of participant data featuring examples of classroom pedagogy and interactions with students. Sample codes from this round included actions related to pedagogy and leadership; beliefs about pedagogy and leadership; relationships and interactions with students; and relationships and interactions with colleagues. Following this round, we organized coded excerpts into categories, combining similar categories and assigning new labels to develop themes that addressed the research question (Saldaña, 2014).

Trustworthiness and Credibility

We employed three strategies to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of our study findings: (1) data triangulation through semistructured interviews and written anecdotes (Lather, 1991), (2) regular meetings to analyze emerging patterns and themes, and (3) the utilization of thick description by incorporating detailed participant stories to center their lived experiences and provide compelling evidence (Eisner, 1991).

Limitations

This study had two main limitations. Firstly, due to pandemic-related restrictions and the shift to remote learning, it was impossible to observe the teachers in their actual work settings. Secondly, the timing of the interviews resulted in participants recounting their experiences during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent sociopolitical tensions several months after the events, potentially influencing their narratives. Despite these limitations, this study significantly contributes to understanding Black women urban teacher leaders.

Facilitating Conversations About Race-Related Current Events

Participants explained that although media portrayal of police brutality heightened their racial trauma, they perceived it was important to adapt their instruction to incorporate these conversations into the classroom. Efforts to facilitate conversations regarding race-related current events in the classroom also mirrored participants’ efforts to draw attention to race and racism in their work as teacher leaders.

Media depictions of racial violence and anti-Black racism took a substantial toll on Annie. She said,

My mental health was in jeopardy to the point where it kind of made me go crazy…[On television] I saw so many Black bodies being put in jeopardy by people who were sworn to protect us.

Despite these effects, Annie brought these conversations into the classroom to raise students’ awareness of the global spotlight on systemic racial injustice. She explained,

I want to be mindful that … [my students] are kids and these are concepts that are well beyond their years, but it's still something that they need to understand because they are a part of history. Their children are going to ask where they were when George Floyd was murdered and the entire country was burning. And they [my students] can look back and explain that they understood the underlying reasons for the racial protests because their teacher explained it to them.

Despite experiencing the embodied effects of living as a multiply-minoritized individual, Annie's urgency was heightened to engage her students in these conversations. This finding aligns with Grimes’s (2005) findings, which use feminist frameworks to explain how Black women educational leaders’ experiences of race and gender socialization lead them to have different perspectives of social justice than their white counterparts and engage in consciousness raising against structures of oppression.

Commenting on her personal response to the recent racial violence shown in the media, Camile said,

It seemed to me like there were all those murders [of unarmed Black people] within weeks. I know that wasn't the case, but it just seemed like one [murder] after the other day. It brought on so much racial stress, racial fatigue, and righteous anger for me. It was heightened because I work with people and for a school that serves Brown and Black children and claims they are doing enough to address systemic inequalities when we all know they are not.

Camile perceived many faculty were ill-equipped to engage students’ social and racialized realities. While she previously explored race and racism in her African American history class, the media coverage of racial violence intensified her sense of urgency to address these issues. Camile believed it was crucial to incorporate race-related current events in her classroom, especially because she was often her students’ only Black teacher. Camile said, “For many kids, my classroom was like a space for them to talk some of those things out.” Resisting racial hegemony in her school, Camile employed a social justice stance, fostering a supportive environment that gave her students voice to connect race-related events to their everyday lives.

In the previous year, Camile, as the cultural competency leader, facilitated professional development sessions at the charter school on subjects like equity in education. The central office staff of the charter school developed these sessions with the intention that local cultural competency teacher leaders at each site would implement them. At the onset of the 2019 to 2020 school year, Camile conveyed to her principal that she was interested in taking up the work of cultural competency, but the principal did not respond to her request; hence, the position was unassigned until she re-entered the role the following year.

Following the murder of Breonna Taylor, Camile observed that her principal had not created a space for school staff to discuss these issues nor were directives given from the central office to address these topics with teachers. She encountered questions from some of her colleagues about how to address police brutality in their classrooms. She explained,

This year, [the principal] never responded, so I assumed I wasn't going to do it. It wasn't on my mind until spring 2020 during professional development (PD). School leaders remained silent about addressing these issues in our classrooms with students. It seemed absurd because everyone, especially fellow teachers were reaching out, asking for book recommendations on race and whether they should discuss racial injustice with their students. Fueled by these factors, one night I stayed up late for about four hours and created a newsletter. Without permission, I sent it to the entire staff and central office. It was wild, but I needed to take action.

Likewise, Ana facilitated discussions on race-related current events with students and staff. When asked how she experienced police brutality and other forms of racial injustice in 2020, Ana responded, “I experienced it as an educator first, not necessarily as a Black woman. I asked many questions to understand how to bring this dialogue into the classroom for my students to have this conversation.”

Ana expressed it was important to cultivate a safe space for her Black and Latino/x students to discuss racism in her classroom, particularly because they observed the salience of these constructs in their urban communities but had limited opportunities to engage in these topics in school. Ana was committed to holding space for her students. She said, “No matter how small [the event] is, it gets brought into the classroom. The classroom is a reflection of the real world.”

Ana's facilitation of race-related discussions in the classroom mirrored her efforts in her teacher leadership role as a professional development leader, in which she led sessions on cultural competence and antibiased/antiracist (ABAR) practices. In response to the sociopolitical environment, Ana muted her reactions to the murders of unarmed Black people to address the needs of her colleagues. She explained,

I didn't take the time to grieve until much later. I didn't take the time to process it until a lot later. My first instinct was to read and learn and try to figure out how we could bring these issues into professional development for them. I didn't leave any room for any personal feelings because it was about helping other people.

De-Centering Whiteness and Teaching the Truth

Participants de-centered whiteness in their work and enacted pedagogy they described as “teaching the truth.” As Black women and teachers of ethnoracially minoritized students, participants explained their efforts to teach hard histories were heightened amidst the sociopolitical landscape of 2020. Compounded by anti-CRT discourse and legislative momentum toward teacher censorship, participants expressed that “teaching the truth” in their English Language Arts and social studies courses was essential for their students’ formation as critically conscious global citizens. Participants perceived that avoiding race, racism, and contemporary political issues was tantamount to complicity in their students’ miseducation (Woodson, 1933). The narratives shared by the participants indicated that their dedication to teaching the truth was reflected in their teacher leadership.

Annie addressed challenging historical topics, situating current events within a broader historical frame to highlight their interconnectedness. Annie gave one such example,

A lot of our class conversations have to do with the mental health of seeing people being brutally murdered on TV in 2020 and how these events reflect what happened decades ago when the police would [enact] violence and put the bodies of Black and Brown people in police cars. I try to show my students that what is happening today has also happened in the past. In fact, we are not too far off. I don't want to traumatize my kids, but that's just American history. American history is a hard pill to swallow.

Participants employed strategies to equip students’ abilities to “analyze and challenge power-laden beliefs” (Delgado & Stefancic, 1993, p. 461) moderated through the school curriculum despite rising legislative censorship of teachers. Ana found it necessary to resist opposition to CRT in her state and believed her students needed to grasp the fundamental theoretical principles. Ana acknowledged, “We are teaching Black children so everything we do is interwoven with CRT. Our students need to be engaged in these concepts.” Ana gave an example,

In my class, we were reading a novel based around two white teenagers. I prompted my students to ask critical questions about the text, such as: Where are the other kids? Where are the kids of color? Why are there no kids of color? I see CRT as asking questions that expand your thinking and help you look at things from a different perspective. It just so happens that that perspective has to do with race. I don't think there's anything wrong with it but for people to go out of their way to make sure kids don't know the reality of the system they're in. That's very problematic.

Regarding CRT, Camile realized that facilitating her students’ awareness of racism was not without potential risk due to the recently proposed legislation in her state. She spoke about potential opposition to equipping students with critical frameworks to disentangle racial realities. However, Camile was unfazed by the prospect of opposition. She elaborated,

I recently shared a meme on social media featuring this child who was looking at an audience of people. An arrow pointed to the child and indicated that they represented veteran teachers who are teaching critical race theory despite opposition. That's how I feel - I don't care about the consequences. If I face trouble for teaching my students about critical race theory, so be it. [My students] need to know it.

Participants’ commitments to teaching the truth and de-centering whiteness were evident in their teacher leadership. Ana challenged racialized assumptions about the local Latino/x community by providing ABAR and equity training to staff. Camile initiated a school-wide Black History Month celebration, coordinating with other teachers to facilitate activities and guest speakers that centered the rich histories, cultural practices, and global impacts of the African diaspora. These leadership examples demonstrate a dedication to expanding colleagues’ awareness of counter-hegemonic knowledge and ways of being.

Promoting Student Safety and Wellbeing Amidst Isolation

Participants promoted student wellbeing and safety by raising awareness about the implications of their racialized bodies and sharing strategies to navigate encounters with authority figures inside and outside of school. This protective stance emanated from their embodied knowledge of racialization as Black women coupled with care for their students. Participants’ concerns for their students of color coexisted with their personal sense of social isolation.

Referring to them as “my kids,” Annie expressed deep worry for her students’ safety during public demonstrations following George Floyd's murder. Annie said, That current moment made me so afraid for my kids. I cried for my kids all the time. I always told them I just wanted them to be safe. I always told them I wanted them to come back to me in one piece. I don't want to lose any students.

The language of “mama bear” is consistent with othermothering within the Black feminist tradition. It describes community-oriented care that emerges from Black women's political commitments and sense of personal responsibility to protect and nurture others in their immediate communities either in the absence of a maternal figure or as a supplemental resource (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 1997; Case, 1997). This is salient given that participants expressed their desire to work in urban settings with minoritized students. Annie used the analogy of a mama bear to position herself as fictive kin, suggesting she deeply cares for her students and is fiercely protective (see Stack, 1974).

Intertwined with promoting student wellbeing and safety was fostering their critical consciousness to discern racism within the school. Annie also expressed concern about their psychological wellbeing and potential racism from white colleagues. She noted that divided opinions on police killings heightened her awareness that “not every smiling face is a friend.”

Annie shared many of her colleagues expressed sentiments in favor of racial justice but often exhibited visible discomfort engaging students:

I've noticed many of my co-workers hold prejudices, whether they're unaware or unwilling to admit it. It's those who claim to have a Black best friend who seem the most uncomfortable or have the most tension with our Black students. I'm still identifying who these people are and learning how to protect my Black and Brown students from them or at least give them a heads up about their existence. Some of my students have a distorted understanding of what an ally is. They believe that if white people aren't overtly racist or using racial slurs, they're allies. That's why I struggle with these concepts and bringing them into the classroom, especially now.

Ana perceived sociopolitical tensions during the COVID-19 pandemic heightened her urgency to raise awareness of the subtlety of racism with her 12th grade students considering their present and future safety and wellbeing. She detailed, “[I] feared what was going to happen in the real world if I didn't explain something or because [my students] didn't understand. [Teaching students about racism] felt different than it has in the past.” As many students were to transition to college upon graduation, she designed instruction reflecting on “What do they need to know [about racism] before they step foot on campus?” She also knew students needed language to describe “the change[s] they are experiencing… the social, political, cultural layers and the climate” they would face when they are away from their urban neighborhoods and in predominantly white spaces.

Participants’ concerns for the safety and wellbeing of their students of color occurred alongside their personal experiences of social isolation as the one and only (a loner) or one of few (a grouper) Black teachers in their school. Ana shared she had amicable relationships with other faculty members who referred to each other as la familia [the family], but these familial ties fell short when addressing race and racial inequality. A loner, Ana experienced racial tokenism at school (“When [the reporters and their video cameras] come around to school, it's never a surprise they are brought to my room.”). She explained that she felt unable to take up these issues with her colleagues:

Don't get me wrong. But [my colleagues] are very much politically correct but when it comes to certain experiences I must deal with at school, there's a gap… I often wonder, am I really seen or am I just the Black teacher in the school?

Ana was interviewing for jobs at other schools at the time of data collection. She revealed her motivation: “I want to be around people that look like me. Where I have a conversation about hair and people know what I am talking about and I don’t have to worry.” For many Black women and women of the African diaspora, hair holds social and cultural significance and is intertwined with colonial histories of “oppression, misogyny, and social class hierarchy” (Brooks & McNair, 2015). Ana's aspiration exemplifies the pursuit of a “safe space” to buffer against the racialized encounters she faced as an isolated individual. Collins (2000) discusses the creation of safe spaces for Black women to mitigate marginalization, “Historically, safe spaces were ‘safe’ because they represented places where Black women could freely examine issues that concerned us. By definition, such spaces become less ‘safe’ if shared with those who were not Black and female” (p. 110). The notion of “safe spaces” is consequential, as Black women co-construct them to survive and creatively struggle through adversity, deriving strength from each other's resilience and collectively redefining their realities (Grimes, 2005). Participant narratives also reveal “safe spaces” go beyond material and physical aspects. While affinity groups (Kohli, 2019; Pour-Khorshid, 2018) can provide reprieve, even seemingly minor elements such as hair can underlie safe spaces.

Also a loner, Annie revealed social isolation moderated through gendered and racial micro-aggressions from colleagues. They questioned her professional credentials despite her successful completion of two degree programs in education, her competency as a classroom teacher, and her qualifications to be a teacher leader. Annie gave examples:

I don't think they take me seriously. Sometimes I think because I am Black and young that my colleagues don’t want to take me seriously. When discussing my students, my colleagues downplay my achievements by attributing them to my resemblance to the students. While it's true that I look like them, I also relate to and effectively manage their behavior better than most other staff. It frustrates me when my colleagues assume that my success is only due to my appearance.

A grouper, Camile revealed social isolation influenced by racial stress characterized her workplace experiences. She reported,

Not only do I have the racial stress coming from all of the [police] killings, but also, I then have to work in a school with people who don't say the right things or don't do the right things.

Camile's isolation was also influenced by the absence of support from her Black male principal, whom she perceived was passive. She explained,

Not every skin folk is kinfolk. I don't know what pressure is like as a principal, because I have never been a principal, but there were moments when he was dragging his feet with addressing everyone's concerns. He could have carried the team a little bit better during the “racial reckoning.” But maybe he wasn’t comfortable. I feel like as a leader, you have a responsibility to always carry your team, even when the higher ups don't necessarily agree with you, especially when those higher ups are white.

Proceeded by her everyday knowledge of oppression, Camile experienced a heightened urgency to respond to the sociopolitical tensions and expected others to do the same. The seeming inaction of the principal to engage in mobilizing the staff toward awareness raises the issue,

Depending on their positions in social structures and hierarchies, individuals and groups can become part of oppressive systems and reproduce domination. People can at the same time be oppressed in one setting and oppressors in another. (Alinia, 2015, p. 2335)

Recommendations to Support and Retain Racially Diverse Teacher Leaders

The findings of this study are insightful for district and school leaders in urban contexts supporting Black women teacher leaders. In line with Smulyan's (2016) view of teacher leadership as a self-initiated stance, participants assumed formal and informal leadership roles, with the 2020 sociopolitical context amplifying the urgency of their efforts within and beyond the classroom.

To honor the dedicated efforts and impact of teacher leaders, district leaders should actively promote equitable representation by intentionally recruiting Black women and teachers of color into leadership. This includes recognizing and supporting those who assume informal teacher leadership roles without compensation. It necessitates addressing institutional and interpersonal biases and establishing transparent eligibility criteria to dismantle racial and gender discrimination in the recruitment and selection of teacher leaders. In this way, Beck et al. (2022) proposed widespread dissemination of teacher leadership position information and internal accountability measures to ensure district leadership fulfill their commitment to achieving ethnoracial diversity.

In this study, the urban context significantly influenced participants’ pedagogy and leadership, despite facing challenging organizational conditions. One participant even changed schools due to these conditions. This aligns with Ingersoll et al.'s (2022) findings that Black teachers and teachers of color are more likely to work in urban communities but also have higher turnover rates compared to white teachers. Given this dedication to urban schools and the disproportionate turnover, district leadership must implement deliberate strategies to support and retain Black women teacher leaders and other teachers of color.

To address the isolation experienced by teachers of color, district leadership should guide principals and allocate resources to create professional safe spaces that cater to the emotional and professional needs of Black women teacher leaders and other teachers of color. Strategies such as strategic recruitment efforts and racial affinity groups, as suggested by Mosely (2018) and Bristol and Shirrell (2019), can help reduce isolation.

These safe spaces can also take the form of critical professional development that equip participants with tools to recognize and resist workplace marginalization, as explored by Kohli (2018, 2019; see also Kohli et al., 2021) and Lisle-Johnson and Kohli (2020). Professional development programs may offer knowledge and skill-building sessions, collaboration opportunities, and resource-sharing to support formal and informal teacher leadership. These initiatives require district leadership to develop and progress monitor equity-focused and antiracist goals that are authentically integrated into the ethos of the district. Prioritizing equity and antiracism are essential for the education of all students, particularly racially minoritized and low-income students in urban schools, as emphasized by Ladson-Billings (2007).

In a similar vein, principal leadership is necessary to address issues raised in this study. Principals must adopt a listening stance to center the voices of teachers of color, particularly Black women teachers whose commitment to political and social justice is manifest in their pedagogy and embodied in their leadership. Principals should practice culturally responsive leadership (Khalifa et al., 2016), cultivate antiracist staff cultures, and demonstrate awareness in leading for social justice, particularly in moments of heightened sociopolitical tension.

Principals must also provide teachers with the tools and resources to incorporate students’ identities, communities, and cultural contexts into their pedagogy, as well as encourage and support their formal and informal leadership efforts within the school (Ladson-Billings, 2008; Paris & Alim, 2014; Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 2015). Lastly, principals can encourage district leaders and other invested partners to interrogate their racial and gender privilege, appreciate the historical legacies and impacts of educator activists, embrace the political and social justice commitments of Black women and other educators of color, and pursue justice as an ethical aspect of their work.