Abstracts
Abstract
Increasingly, literature affirms the integral role Black mothers play in cultivating humanizing learning spaces for young Black children. Such work recognizes the epistemic injustices Black mothers and their children endure in early childhood education and care programs. Despite Black mothers’ prominence in their children’s lives, limited research explores the ways Black mothers’ leadership supports the well-being of young Black children in early learning settings. This arts-informed autoethnography draws on literature and personal stories to investigate how the author, a Black mother scholar, reaffirmed her maternal leadership while attending a child and family early learning program in Ontario.
Keywords:
- Black mothers,
- Black children,
- leadership,
- early childhood education,
- EarlyON centres
Download the article in PDF to read it.
Download
Appendices
Biographical note
Stephanie Fearon is the inaugural assistant professor of Black thriving and education at York University’s Faculty of Education. Her research draws on Black storytelling traditions to explore the ways that Black mothers and educational institutions partner to support Black student well-being. Dr. Fearon uses literary and visual arts to communicate—in a structured, creative and accessible form—insights gleaned from stories shared by Black mothers and their families. Email: sfearon1@edu.yorku.ca
Bibliography
- Abawi, Z. (2021). Privileging power: Early childhood educators, teachers, and racial socialization in full-day kindergarten. Journal of Childhood Studies, 46(1). https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs00202119594
- Aboud, F. E. (1988). Children and prejudice. Basil Blackwell.
- Aboud, F. E. (2008). A social-cognitive developmental theory of prejudice. In S. M. Quintana & C. McKown (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (pp. 55–71). John Wiley & Sons.
- Abraham, M. (2023, March 8). Mo’Nique breaks silence On Netflix boycott, new special, and old feuds. Vibe. https://www.vibe.com/news/entertainment/monique-speaks-on-netflix-special-boycott-update-1234740861/
- Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2014). Autoethnography. Oxford University Press.
- Anderson, E. (2012). Epistemic justice as a virtue of social institutions. Social Epistemology, 26(2), 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2011.652211
- Bailey, M. (2021). Misogynoir transformed: Black women’s digital resistance. NYU Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479803392
- Baker-Bell, A. (2017). For Loretta: A Black woman literacy scholar’s journey to prioritizing self-preservation and Black feminist–womanist storytelling. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(4), 526–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X17733092
- Banks-Wallace, J. (2002). Talk that talk: Storytelling and analysis rooted in African American oral tradition. Qualitative Health Research, 12(3), 410–426. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973202129119892
- Banks-Wallace, J., & Parks, L. (2001). So that our souls don’t get damaged: The impact of racism on maternal thinking and practice related to the protection of daughters. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 22(1), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/mhn.22.1.77.98
- Beagan, B. L., Bizzeth, S. R., Sibbald, K. R., & Etowa, J. B. (2024). Epistemic racism in the health professions: A qualitative study with Black women in Canada. Health, 28(2), 203–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593221141605
- Berman, R., Daniel, B.-J., Butler, A., MacNevin, M., & Royer, N. (2017). Nothing, or almost nothing, to report: Early childhood educators and discursive constructions of colorblindness. International Critical Childhood Policy Studies, 6(1), 52–65. https://iccpsonlinejournal.org/index.php/childhoods/article/view/45
- Boutte, G., & Bryan, N. (2021). When will Black children be well? Interrupting anti-Black violence in early childhood classrooms and schools. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 22(3), 232–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949119890598
- Boutte, G. S., Lopez-Robertson, J., & Powers-Costello, E. (2011). Moving beyond colorblindness in early childhood classrooms. Early Childhood Education Journal, 39(5), 335–342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-011-0457-x
- Bryan, N. (2021). “To me, he teaches like the child learns”: Black maternal caregivers on the pedagogies and schooling practices of a Black male kindergarten teacher. The Urban Review, 53, 491–515. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-020-00577-9
- Cole, A. L., & Knowles, J. G. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues. SAGE.
- Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.
- Del Pozo, B., & Rich, J. D. (2021). Addressing racism in medicine requires tackling the broader problem of epistemic injustice. The American Journal of Bioethics, 21(2), 90–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2020.1861367
- Dumas, M. J., & ross, k. m. (2016). Be real Black for me: Imagining BlackCrit in education. Urban Education, 51(4), 415–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916628611
- Escayg, K.-A. (2018). The missing links: Enhancing anti-bias education with anti-racist education. Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning, and Leadership in Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.32873/uno.dc.ctlle.03.01.1057
- Escayg, K.-A. (2019). “Who’s got the power?”: A critical examination of the anti-bias curriculum. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 13(6). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-019-0062-9
- Escayg, K.-A., Berman, R., & Royer, N. (2017). Canadian children and race: Toward an antiracism analysis. Journal of Childhood Studies, 42(2). https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs.v42i2.17838
- Evans-Winters, V. E. (2019). Black feminism in qualitative inquiry: A mosaic for writing our daughter’s body. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351046077
- Fanon, F. (2004). The wretched of the earth. Grove Press.
- Fearon, S. (2020). For our children: Black motherwork and schooling [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto]. TSpace. https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/items/cb670ac3-79f0-42b3-99c7-7a56324c4bbb
- Fearon, S. (2023). At Mummy’s feet: A Black motherwork approach to arts‐informed inquiry. The Canadian Review of Sociology, 60(2), 326–331. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12434
- Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice : Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press.
- Georgis, D. (2013). The better story: Queer affects from the Middle East. SUNY Press.
- Gingrich-Philbrook, C. (2005). Autoethnography’s family values. Text and Performance Quarterly, 25(4), 297–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462930500362445
- Gordon, A. (1997). Ghostly matters: Haunting and the sociological imagination. University of Minnesota Press.
- Hall, P., & Berman, R. (2023). What early childhood educators need to know about fostering Black children’s positive identification with Blackness: Foregrounding mothers’ perspectives (Version 1). Toronto Metropolitan University. https://doi.org/10.32920/21909246.v1
- Hartman, S. V. (2007). Lose your mother : A journey along the Atlantic slave route. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.
- hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. South End Press.
- hooks, b. (2015). Feminist theory: From margin to center. Routledge.
- James, C., Este, D., Thomas Bernard, W., Benjamin, A., Lloyd, B., Turner, T. (2010). Race and well-being: The lives, hopes and activism of African Canadians. Fernwood.
- Johnson, L. L., Bryan, N., & Boutte, G. (2019). Show us the love: Revolutionary teaching in (un)critical times. The Urban Review, 51(1), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-018-0488-3
- Kissi, E., & Ewan, A. (2023). The erasure of Blackness and shortcomings within the early learning and care sector in Canada: Recommendations for the way forward. Journal of Childhood Studies, 48(3), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs20746
- McKittrick, K. (2021). Dear science and other stories. Duke University Press.
- McLennan, D. P, & Howitt, C. (2018). Learning from birth: Ontario’s EarlyON child and family centres. Young Children, 73(4). https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/sep2018/ontario-earlyon-centres
- Nxumalo, F., & Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2023). Centering Black life in Canadian early childhood education. Gender and Education, 35(2), 186–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2022.2050680
- Ontario Ministry of Education. (2019). EarlyON child and family centres. https://efis.fma.csc.gov.on.ca/faab/Capital%20Asset%20Valuation/EarlyON_EN_2019.pdf
- Onuora, N. A. (2015). Anansesem: Telling stories and storytelling African maternal pedagogies. Demeter Press.
- O’Reilly, A. (2004). Toni Morrison and motherhood: A politics of the heart. SUNY Press.
- ross, k. m. (2020). On Black education: Anti-Blackness, refusal, and resistance. In C. Grant, A. Woodson, & M. Dumas (Eds.), The future is Black: Afropessimism, fugitivity, and radical hope in education (pp. 7–15). Routledge.
- Ruddick, S. (1989). Maternal thinking: Toward a politics of peace. Beacon Press.
- Sharpe, C. (2016). In the wake: On blackness and being. Duke University Press.
- Stirling-Cameron, E., Hickens, N., Watson, C., Hamilton-Hinch, B., Pimentel, M., & McIsaac, J. D. (2023). Anti-Black racism in the early years: The experiences of Black families and early childhood educators in Nova Scotia. HPCDP Journal, 43(8), 355–364. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.43.8.01
- Toliver, S. R. (2021). Recovering Black storytelling in qualitative research: Endarkened storywork. Routledge.
- Tuck, E. (2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–428. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15
- Watson, T. N., & Baxley, G. S. (2021). Centering “grace”: Challenging anti-Blackness in schooling through motherwork. Journal of School Leadership, 31(1–2), 142–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052684621993085
- Wilderson, F. B. (2018). “We’re trying to destroy the world”: Anti-Blackness and police violence after Ferguson. In M. Grzinic & A. Stojnić (Eds.), Shifting corporealities in contemporary performance (pp. 45–59). Palgrave Macmillan.
- Wynter, S. (2001). Towards the sociogenic principle: Fanon, identity, the puzzle of conscious experience, and what it is like to be “Black.” In A. Gomez-Moriana & M. Duran-Cogan (Eds.), National identities and sociopolitical changes in Latin America (pp. 30–66). Routledge.
- Wynter-Hoyte, K., & Smith, M. (2020). “Hey, Black child. Do you know who you are?”: Using African diaspora literacy to humanize Blackness in early childhood education. Journal of Literacy Research, 52(4), 406–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X20967393
- Zaidi, Z., Young, M., Balmer, D. F., & Park, Y. S. (2021). Endarkening the epistemé: Critical race theory and medical education scholarship. Academic Medicine, 96(11S), Si-Sv. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004373