Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Show Us the Love: Revolutionary Teaching in (Un)Critical Times

  • Published:
The Urban Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the wake of racial violence in urban schools and society, we question, “Can the field of urban education love blackness and Black lives unconditionally and as preconditions to humanity? What does it look like to (re)imagine urban classrooms as sites of love? As educators, how might we utilize a pedagogy of love as an embodied practice that influences holistic teaching? How might we utilize a pedagogy of love to include Black youths’ racialized and gendered life histories and experiences and their language and literacy practices? We outline and discuss five types of violence in schools (physical, symbolic, linguistic, curricula/pedagogical, and systemic school violence) which interfere with the creation and sustainability of revolutionary love in urban schools. We present examples of ‘fake love’ and provide the current backdrop. We operationalize revolutionary love and offer Afrocentric praxis and African Diaspora Literacy as antidotes to anti-Black types of violence that many students experience in urban schools.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, J., & Fair, R. (2003). Where is the love [Recorded by The Black Eyed Peas]. Elephunk [CD]. Santa Monica, CA: Interscope.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asante, M. K. (2007). An Afrocentric manifesto. Oxford, UK: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Au, W., Brown, A., & Calderon, D. (2016). Rethinking the multicultural root of US curriculum. New Yourk, NY: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker-Bell, A. (2017). “I can switch my language, but I can’t switch my skin”: What teachers must understand about linguistic racism. In E. Moore Jr., A. Michael, & M. W. Penick-Parks (Eds.), The guide for white women who teach black boys (pp. 97–109). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well. New York, NY: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boutte, G. S. (2008). Beyond the illusion of diversity: How early childhood teachers can promote social justice. The Social Studies, 99(4), 165–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boutte, G. S. (2012). Urban Schools: Challenges and possibilities for early childhood and elementary education. Urban Education, 47(2), 515–550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boutte, G. S. (2016). Educating African American students: And how are the children? New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boutte, G. S., Johnson, G. L., Wynter-Hoyt, K., & Uyoata, U. E. (2017). Using African Diaspora literacy to heal and restore the souls of Black folks. International critical childhood policy studies journal, 6(1), 66–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boykin, A. W. (1994). Afrocultural expression and its implication for schooling. In E. Hollins, J. King, & W. Hayman (Eds.), Teaching diverse populations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp. 243–273). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butchart, R. E. (2010). Black hopes, white power: Emancipation, reconstruction, and the legacy of unequal schooling in the U.S. South, 1861–1880. Paedagogica Historica, 46, 33–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carey, R., Yee, L., & DeMatthews, D. (2018). Power, penalty, and critical praxis: Employing intersectionality in educator practices to achieve school equity. The Educational Forum, 82(1), 111–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2018.1381793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, T. (2017). A high school is investigating after students discussed “stringing a N***er up” in a group chat. Buzzfeed.com Retrieved December 27, 2017 from https://www.buzzfeed.com/tanyachen/high-school-racist-group-chat?utm_term=.ejZgKE0O9#.wfy7da2lx.

  • Cridland-Hughes, S., & King, L. J. (2015). “Killing me softly”: How violence comes from the curriculum we teach. In K. Fasching-Varner & N. D. Hartlep (Eds.), The assault on communities of color (pp. 99–102). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dei, G. S. (2012). Indigenous anti-colonial knowledge as ‘heritage knowledge ‘for promoting Black/African education in diasporic contexts. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 102–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillard, C. B. (2012). Learning to (Re)member the things we’ve learned to forget. Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, & the sacred nature of research & teaching. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglass, F. (1995). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass. Boston, MA: Dover Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • DuBois, W. E. B. (1903). The souls of Black folk. New York, NY: First Vintage Books/The Library of America Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumas, M. J. (2014). ‘Losing an arm’: Schooling as a site of black suffering. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17(1), 1–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth. New York, NY: Grove.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foner, P. S. (1999). Frederick Douglass: Selected speeches and writing. Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu-Kiau, K. K. B., & Lukondo-Wamba, A. M. (1988). Kindezi: The Kongo art of babysitting. Baltimore, MD: Imprint Editions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutierrez, L. (2017). Hangman with n-word gets students suspended, employee possibly fired. Kansascity.com. Retrieved December 27, 2017 from http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article187518008.html.

  • Helgeland, B. (Director), Helgeland, B. (Writer), & Tull, T. (Producer). (2013). 42 [Video file].

  • Hilliard, A. G. (2002). African power: Affirming African indigenous socialization in the face of the culture wars. Gainesville, FL: Makare Pub.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilliard, A. G. (2009). What do we need to know now? In W. Au (Ed.), Rethinking multicultural education: Teaching for racial and cultural justice (pp. 21–36). Milwaukee, WS: Rethinking Schools, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress. Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, B. (2000). All about love. New visions New York, NY: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard, T. (2014). Black maled: Perils and promises in the education of African American males. New York, NY: Teacher College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, T. O., & Flowers, N. C. (2017). Much to lose: Black mother educators respond to Donald Trump’s comments about schools. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(10), 994–998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, L. L. (2016). Using critical race theory to explore race-based conversations through a critical family book club. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 65, 300–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, L. L. (2017). The racial hauntings of one Black male professor and the disturbance of the self(ves): Self-actualization and racial storytelling as pedagogical practices. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(4), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/086296X1773379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, L. L., & Bryan, N. (2016). Using our voices, losing our bodies: Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and the spirit murders of Black male professors in the academy. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(2), 163–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, L. L., Jackson, J., Stovall, D. O., & Baszile, D. T. (2017). “Loving blackness to death”: (Re)Imagining ELA classrooms in a time of racial chaos. English Journal, 106, 60–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, J. E. (1991). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. The Journal of Negro Education, 60(2), 133–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, J. E. (1992). Diaspora literacy and consciousness in the struggle against miseducation in the Black community. Journal of Negro Education, 61(3), 317–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, J. E. (Ed.). (2005). Black education: A transformative research and action agenda for the new century. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, J. E. (2017). Who will make America great again? ‘Black people, of course…’. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(10), 946–956. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2017.1312605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, J. E., & Swartz, E. E. (2014). “Re-membering” history in student and teacher learning. An Afrocentric culturally informed praxis. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, J. E., & Swartz, E. E. (2016). The Afrocentric praxis of teaching for freedom: Connecting culture to learning. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladson-Billings, G. (2011). Boyz to men? Teaching to restore Black boys’ childhood. Race Ethnicity and Education, 14(1), 7–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynn, M. (1999). Toward a critical race pedagogy: A research note. Urban Review, 33(5), 606–626.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynn, M., Jennings, M. E., & Hughes, S. (2013). Critical race pedagogy 2.0: Lessons from Derrick Bell. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(4), 603–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matias, C. E. (2016). Feeling white: whiteness, emotionality, and education. Boston, MA: Sense Publishers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Matias, C. E., & Allen, R. L. (2013). Loving whiteness to death: Sadomasochism, emotionality, and the possibility of humanizing love. Berkeley Review of Education, 4, 285–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milner, H. R. (2010). Start where you are, but don’t stay there: Understanding opportunity gaps, diversity and teaching in today’s classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milner, R. H., & Lomotey, K. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of urban education. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Musca, T. (Producer), & Menendez, R. (1988). (Director). (1988). Stand and deliver [Motion picture]. US: Warner Brothers.

  • Phillips, K. (2017). ‘That’s how people like you get shot’: Video shows high school teacher threatening his student. Washingtonpost.com Retrieved 15 December 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/11/07/thats-how-people-like-you-get-shot-video-shows-high-school-teacher-threatening-his-student/?utm_term=.51ca247fb0bb.

  • Rooney, C., & Morales, M. (1991). Real Love [Recorded by Mary J. Blige]. What’s the 411 [CD]. New York, NY: Uptown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz-Sealey, Y. (2016). Why Black girls’ literacies matter: New literacies for a new era. English Education, 48(4), 290–298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shujaa, M. J. (1994). Too much schooling, too little education: A paradox of Black life in White societies. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, J. (2015). The miseducation of African American male college athlete. In E. Comeaux (Ed.), Introduction to intercollegiate athletics (pp. 193–206). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stovall, D. O. (2013). “Fightin’ the Devil 24/7”: Context, community, and critical race praxis in education. In M. Lynn & A. D. Dixson (Eds.), Handbook of critical race theory in education: CRT and innovations in educational research methodologies (pp. 287–301). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • “Sweet Honey in the Rock - Ella’s Song.” YouTube, YouTube, 2 Dec. 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Uus–gFrc.

  • Thomas. (2017). The hate u give. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, C. (2017). Urban preparation: Young Black men moving from Chicago’s South side to success in higher education.

  • Woodson, C. G. (1933/1990). The mis-education of the Negro. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michigan State University, 619 Red Cedar Rd, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Lamar L. Johnson

  2. Department of Teacher Education, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    Nathaniel Bryan

  3. Teacher Education, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Gloria Boutte

Authors
  1. Lamar L. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nathaniel Bryan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gloria Boutte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lamar L. Johnson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Johnson, L.L., Bryan, N. & Boutte, G. Show Us the Love: Revolutionary Teaching in (Un)Critical Times. Urban Rev 51, 46–64 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-018-0488-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-018-0488-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation