Being Black, Teaching Black: Black Women Reflect on Teaching Agricultural Diversity Courses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56103/nactaj.v69i1.200Keywords:
agricultural sciences, Black Feminist Thought, Black women, duoethnography, diversity educationAbstract
According to The National Research Council, there is an increased need for Agricultural and Life Sciences (AgLS) to focus on producing a “globally competent” workforce that is sufficiently able to interact with diverse populations and solve the 21st century grand challenges by increasing the numbers of marginalized people in AgLS. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the experiences of Black women graduate instructors as they developed curriculum and taught diversity courses in agricultural education departments at Historically White Institutions. This study is theoretically grounded in Black Feminist Thought and employs duoethnography as the methodology. We found three themes across our experiences: (1) Broadening Perspectives in Agriculture, (2) The Heavy Duality of Representing Blackness and Diversity, and (3) Empowerment and Affirmation. Our study supports and exemplifies the value of the experiences and feelings of Black women in agricultural education, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and could provide insight toward helping understand their lack of representation.
Downloads
References
Acosta, K.M., Moore, H.A, Perry, G.K., & Edwards, C. (2005). Dialogue on diversity teaching: Reflections on research, pedagogy, and passion for social justice. In N. PetersDavies, & J. Shultz (Eds.), Challenges of multicultural education: Teaching and taking diversity courses (pp. 20-38). Routledge.
Ballard, D., Allen, B., Ashcraft, K., Ganesh, S., McLeod, P., & Zoller, H. (2020). When words do not matter: Identifying actions to effect diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy. Management Communication Quarterly, 34(4), 590-616. https://doi. org/10.1177/0893318920951643
Beck, M.M., & Swanson, J.C. (2003). Value-added animal agriculture: Inclusion of race and gender in the professional formula. Journal of Animal Science, 81(11), 2895-2903. https://doi.org/10.2527/2003.81112895x
Bowen, B.E. (1987). A minority perspective on minorities in agriculture. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 60(6), 3-4.
Boyd, R.D., & Meyer, J.G. (1988). Transformative education. International Journal of Transformative Education, 2, 336–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/0260137880070403
Boyer, N. R., Maher, P. A., & Kirkman, S. (2006). Transformative learning in online settings: The use of self-direction, metacognition, and collaborative learning. Journal of Transformative Education, 4(4), 335-361. https://doi. org/10.1177/1541344606295318
Breault, R. A. (2016). Emerging issues in duoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29, 777–794. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839 8.2016.1162866
Brown, S.L. (1993). African-American high school students’ perceptions toward agriculture and careers in agriculture (Doctoral Dissertation). https://lib.dr.iastate. edu/rtd/10406/
Camarao, J., & Din, C. (2022). Creating a teaching community with graduate teaching assistants: A scholarly personal narrative. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 16(2), Article 3. https://doi. org/10.20429/ijsotl.2022.160203
Camarao, J., & Din, C. (2022). Creating a teaching community with graduate teaching assistants: A scholarly personal narrative. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 16(2), Article 3. https://doi. org/10.20429/ijsotl.2022.160203
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139-167.
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299.
Delgado, R., & J. Stefancic. (2001) Critical race theory: An introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Doerfert, D.L. (Ed.). (2011). National research agenda: American Association for Agricultural Education’s research priority areas for 2011-2015. Texas Tech University, Department of Agricultural Education and Communications. https:// aaaeonline.org/resources/ Documents/AAAE%20National%20 Research%Agenda.pdf
Duncan-Andrade, J. M. (2005). Developing social justice educators. Educational Leadership, 62(6), 70-73. https:// eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ725933
Environmental Protection Agency. (2015). Ag 101: Demographics. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag-101overview-agriculture.
Esters, L.T., & Knobloch, N.A. (2012). Developing human capacity through mentoring of women and underrepresented minority graduate students for STEM careers in agricultural and life sciences. Unpublished manuscript, Purdue University.
Foster, D.D., Lawver, R.G., & Smith, A.R. (2020). National agricultural education supply and demand study, 2019 executive summary7. https://www.naae.org/ teaching/ NSD2019%20Summary_7.15.20.pdf
Gaff, J. G. (1997). The Changing Roles of Faculty & Administrators. Liberal Education, 83(3), 12-17. https:// eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ552311
Gay, G. (2004). Navigating marginality en route to the professoriate: Graduate students of color learning and living in academia. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17(2), 265-288. https://doi. org/10.1080/095183 90310001653907
Gomez, M.L., Khurshid, A., Freitag, M.B., & Lachuk, A.J. (2011). Microaggressions in graduate students’ lives: How they are encountered and their consequences. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(8), 1189-1199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tate.2011.06.003
Griffin, R. A. (2012). I AM an angry Black woman: Black feminist autoethnography, voice, and resistance. Women’s Studies in Communication, 35(2), 138-157. https:// doi.org/10.1080/ 07491409.2012.724524
Hains, B.J., Hansen, G.L., & Hustedde, R.J. (2017). Agriculture and science education: A socio-analysis of their intersection and positions within the educational field. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 12(1), 199-210. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11422-016-9753-5
Herren, R. V., & Hillison, J. (1996). Agricultural education and the 1862 land-grant institutions: The rest of the story. Journal of Agricultural Education, 37(3), 26-32. doi:10.5032/ jae.1996.03026
Hill Collins, P. (1986). Learning from the outsider within: The sociological significance of Black feminist thought. Social Problems, 33, 514-532. https://doi. org/10.2307/800672
Hochschild, A.R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California.
Hooks, b. (1989). Talking back: Thinking feminist, thinking Black. Boston: South End Press.
Huber, M.T. (2002). Disciplinary styles in the scholarship of teaching: Reflections on the Carnegie Academy for the scholarship of teaching and learning. In M.T. Huber & S.P. Morreale (Eds.), Disciplinary styles in the scholarity of teaching and learning: Exploring common ground (pp. 25-43). American Association for Higher Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34(3), 159-165. https://doi. org/10.1080/00405849509543675
Lawver, R.G., Foster, D.D., & Smith, A.R. (2018). Status of the U.S. supply and demand for teachers of agricultural education (2014-2016). http://aaaeonline.org/ TeacherSupply-and-Demand
Lim, C., Maxwell, K.L., Able-Boone, H., & Zimmer, C.R. (2009). Cultural and linguistic diversity in early childhood teacher preparation: The impact of contextual characteristics on coursework and practica. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(1), 64-76. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j. ecresq.2008.10.003
Martell, C. C. (2018). Teaching race in U.S. history: Examining culturally relevant pedagogy in a multicultural urban high school. Journal of Education, 198(1), 63-77. https://doi. org/10.1177/0022057418800938
Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering critical reflection in adulthood. Jossey-Bass.
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass.
Miller, R.A., Howell, C.D., & Struve, L. (2019). “Constantly, excessively, and all the time”: The emotional labor of teaching diversity courses. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 31(3), 491-502. https:// eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1245085
Moon, F.F. (2007). Black in agriculture. Unpublished manuscript, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN.
Morgan, M.L., & Marin, P. (2023). “I was born to do this”: Faculty experiences teaching graduate-level diversity courses. Teaching of Psychology, 50(2), 137-147. https:// doi.org/10.1177/00986283211066943
National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Characteristics of postsecondary faculty. Condition of education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ programs/coe/indicator/ csc.
National Research Council. (2009). Transforming agricultural education for a changing world: Report in brief. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. https://doi. org/10.17226/12602
O’Meara, K., Kuvaeva, A., & Nyunt, G. (2017). Constrained choices: A view of campus service inequality from annual salary reports. The Journal of Higher Education, 88(5), 672-700.
Orthel, G.E., Sorensen, J.L., Leierman, S.R., & Riesenberg, L.E. (1989). High school students’ perceptions of agriculture and careers in agriculture. Proceedings of the 16th National Agricultural Education Research Meeting, 16, 149-155. [Orlando, FL].
Padilla, A.M. (1994). Ethnic minority scholars, research, and mentoring: Current and future issues. Educational Researcher, 23(4), 24-27. https://doi. org/10.1080/00221 546.2016.1257312
Palmer, D. (2021). I got a lot to be mad about: Sista circles as a counterspace for Black women doctoral students. [Doctoral Dissertation, Indiana University]. ProQuest.
Patton, L.D. (2009). My sister’s keeper: A qualitative examination of mentoring experiences among African American women in graduate and professional schools. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(5), 510-537. https:// doi.org/10.1080/00221 546.2009.11779030
Perry, G., Moore, H., Edwards, C., Acosta, K., & Frey, C. (2009). Maintaining credibility and authority as an instructor of color in diversity-education classrooms: A qualitative inquiry. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(1), 80-105. https:// doi.org/10.31390/taboo.18.1.02
Prieto, L.R. (2018). Incorporating diversity content into courses and concerns about teaching culturally diverse students. Teaching Psychology, 45(2), 146153. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0098628318762875
Roby, R.S., & Cook, E.B. (2019). Black women’s sharing in resistance within the academy. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 18(1), 5-17. https://doi. org/10.31390/ taboo.18.1.02
Roland, E., Hughes, T.N., & Simmons, F. (2021). Imagine paying for a course, then you end up teaching: Black women doctoral students in equity, social justice, and diversity courses. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https:// doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000368
Saldaña, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
Sawyer, R. D., & Norris, J. (2012). Understanding qualitative research: Duoethnography. Oxford University Press.
Sawyer, R.D., & Norris, J. (2013). Duoethnography. Oxford University Press.
Stein, S. (2020). A colonial history of the higher education present: Rethinking land-grant institutions through processes of accumulation and relations of conquest. Critical Studies in Education, 61(2), 212-228. https:// doi.org/10.1080/175 08487.2017.1409646
STEM Food & Ag Council. (2014). STEM annual report. https://www.stemconnector.com/initiatives/food-ag-careersinnovation-lab/
Swortzel, K.A. (1998). Differences in reasons why individuals choose to become agricultural teacher educators by demographic characteristics. Journal of Agricultural Education, 39, 61-72. https://doi. org/10.5032/ jae.1998.02061
Talbert, B.A., & Larke, A. (1995). Factors influencing minority and non-minority students to enroll in an introductory agriscience course in Texas. Journal of Agricultural Education, 36(1), 38-45. https://doi.org/10.5032/ jae.1995.01038
Talbert, B.A., & Edwin, J. (2007). Agricultural education faculty: Are they prepared for diversity? NACTA Journal, 51(2), 55–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43766150
Tindell, S., Young, L., O’Rear, E., & Morris, P. (2016). Teaching Assistant Perspectives on a Diversity and Social Justice Education Course for Collegiate Agriculture Students. NACTA Journal, 60(2), 158-166. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/nactajournal.60.2.158 Turner, C.SV. (2002). Women of color in academe: Living with multiple marginality. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(1), 74-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2 002.11777131
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). (2015). Employment opportunities for college graduates in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources, and the environment. United States, 2015-2020. https://purdue.edu/ usda/employment
Vincent, S.K., & Torres, R.M. (2015). Multicultural competence: A case study of teachers and their student perceptions. Journal of Agricultural Education, 56(2), 64-75. https://doi. org/10.5032/jae.2015.02064
Wade, J.M., Bean, A., & Teixeira-Poit, S. (2019). Students, universities and employers: Why we all win when we promote social justice through SoTL. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13(3), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.20429/ ijsotl.2019.130302
Westbrook, J.R., & Alston, A.J. (2007). Recruitment and retention strategies utilized by 1890 land grant institutions in relation to African American students. Journal of Agricultural Education, 48(3), 123-134. https:// eric. ed.gov/?id=EJ840145
Williams, G.M. (2011). Examining classroom negotiation strategies of international teaching assistants. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(1), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.20429/ ijsotl.2011.050121
