Burnout and Race-Related Stress among BIPOC Women K–12 Educators

Understanding how best to recruit and retain Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the education workforce is critical for human resource practice and scholarship. BIPOC educators are consistently shown to positively influence student outcomes, but leave the workforce at a rate 25% higher than their White colleagues. Emerging research points to school climate as a reason that BIPOC educators leave. Relatedly, researchers find that race-based and gender-based discrimination impact job burnout. Guided by the intersectionality scholarship that acknowledges how women of color experience marginalization across multiple identities, the current study examines how race-based stressors, both in daily life and in the work environment, are associated with job burnout for BIPOC women K–12 educators. Multivariate analyses of data disaggregated from an original survey distributed to BIPOC educators in a predominantly White and rural state ( n = 145, 54.6% women) consistently isolate the effect of a racialized school climate on the burnout of BIPOC women educators. Specifically, when BIPOC women educators perceive their schools to be less open to discussing racial conflict, they report greater job burnout. Although there were no differences in the amount of burnout reported across racial groups, there were differences in the levels of daily racial microaggressions experienced. Notably, only school-based racial stressors emerged as a significant predictor of burnout. We discuss implications for organizational policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as the hiring, retention, and promotion of women of color.

Lesser Known Indian Women Educators and Reformers

India can presently be called a leading nation while considering the field of women education. But the scenario was not always the same. Women had to struggle to reach this summit. The path was not easy and smooth. Interestingly enough, eminent women themselves played a crucial role in not only establishing themselves, but also in promoting women’s education, health, shelter homes, care for the orphans etc. They established schools and other institutes to promote education to not only the women but also to the weaker section of the society and fight against the injustice. This paper is an attempt to remember few of these eminent women, like Tarabai Modak, Durgabai Deshmukh, Anutai Wagh, Pandita Ramabai, Pandita Brahmacharini Chandbai, Nawab Begum Sultan Kaikhusrau Jahan, who were path breakers in their attempt to transcend the homely domain and set a new milestone. This paper also attempts to credit these noteworthy women for their extraordinary contribution to social services. Keywords: Women Educators, Women Reformers, Female Education, Indian Women.

We are no one’s shrinking violets: Black women educators demand more in the time of COVID-19

The purpose of this article is to center the perspectives and experiences of five Black women educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use a lens of Black Feminist Thought, which is based in the everyday experiences of Black women, to present our narratives. Our study uses personal vignettes and cross-case analysis to identify key issues emanating from COVID-19—particularly those pertaining to our social locations as Black women educators across the spectrum of public education (e.g., elementary, high school, comprehensive university, research university). This study provides a supportive environment for voicing stories and developing useful strategies for coping with issues related to our social locations, including shifts in education and society.

Womanist Inquiry for Social Justice in Curriculum

Womanism is a social justice-oriented standpoint perspective focusing on the unique lived experiences of Black women and other women of color and the strategies that they utilize to withstand and overcome racialized, gendered, class-based, and other intersecting forms of oppression for the betterment of all humankind. Much of Womanist inquiry conducted in the field of education focuses on mining history to illuminate the lives, activism, and scholarly traditions of well-known and lesser-known Black women educators. Womanist inquiry focusing on the lives and pedagogies of Black women educators serves as an important corrective, adding to official historical records the contributions that Black women and other women of color have made to their schools, communities, and society. By providing insight into the ways in which processes of teaching and learning are understood and enacted from the perspective of women navigating multiple systems of oppression, Womanist inquiry makes a significant contribution to studies of formal curricular processes. Womanist inquiry related to informal curriculum (i.e., educational processes understood broadly and occurring outside of formal educational settings) is equally important because it offers alternative interpretations of cultural productions and lived experiences that open up new spaces for the understanding of Black women’s lived experiences. A common theme of Womanist curriculum inquiry for social justice involves physical and geographic spaces of struggle and possibility. Indeed, many of the culturally derived survival strategies articulated by Womanist scholars focus on the possibilities of working within the blurred boundaries and hybridized spaces of the in-between to achieve social justice goals. In addition to the provision of culturally congruent survival strategies, Womanist inquiry also provides sources of inspiration for contemporary Black women and other women of color engaged in curriculum work for social justice. The diverse forms of and approaches to Womanist inquiry in curriculum point to the fruitfulness of using Womanism to understand the intersectional thoughts and experiences of Black women and other women of color in ways that further social justice goals.

Voices in the Desert

The experiences of Black women educators are important, and yet their personal and professional experiences are rarely included as part of the faculty narrative at most North American higher education institutions. The continued normalization of White Supremacy and androcentricity, within North American higher education, maintain systems of oppression that perpetuate the systematic marginalization of Black women within the faculty ranks. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of Black women educators in New Mexico's higher education institutions. With a grounding in Black Womanist and Critical Race Theories, this qualitative research study employed snowball sampling as a means to engage ten Black women faculty members, via semi-structured interviews, in critical inquiry about their professional experiences with higher education. Study participants testified about experiences with microaggressions, discrimination, and racial battle fatigue as well as feeling intellectual, campus, and community isolation.

Characteristic and Agentic Qualities of Women Leaders Amidst Global Crises

This chapter serves to deconstruct the characteristic and agentic qualities of women leaders amidst global crises, which are also reflected in the traits of women managing in more recognisable and relatable leadership roles in the context of HE. Within this will be the core acknowledgements that on a global level the impact of crises inevitably leads to a disproportionate impact on women, a lack of prioritisation of global impetus to address levels of gender inequality, and the embedded role of gender equity in relation to human progression and development on a macro level. This global perspective illuminates the inequalities that women educators face and the impact that this has on the broader scope of human development through educational impact. Whilst situational specificity is significant in terms of the context of HE leadership, the universality of human experience underpinning them remains the connecting thread, which enables the deconstruction of meaning making in applied educational leadership.

Reimagining Children's Spaces in the Urban Nightlife

This work explores the socio-spatial relations, urban practices, and institutional arrangements that contribute to the inclusivity of urban nightlife to children. Through a survey of selected literature, this work shows that while there are efforts to address issues of children's overnight experiences, some urban practices also downplay children's urban night experiences. The most significant discussions that emerged from this interest are related to the meaning of public spaces at night; differences in cities' inclusion of children during the day versus the night; privileged and underprivileged childhoods at night; and attention to adults who work on behalf of children, such as women, educators, and neighbourhood communities. Together, the literature reveals the importance of urban policies and research toward children's social integration in the city nightlife. Finally, this chapter proposes the “ethics of care” in everyday life as a framework in creating urban spaces in which children are integrated into the conviviality of the city nightlife.

Keeping It Relevant: Student-Centered Reflections, Choices, and Actions of Critical Race Womanist Pedagogues

This article examines how three Black women educators disrupt oppressive norms in urban schooling through their applications of critical race womanist pedagogy (CRWP). Using narrative excerpts formed from semi-structured interviews exploring how they contend with sociopolitical injustices through their pedagogical choices and actions, CRWP characterizes their daily classroom practices in four ways: (1) teacher reflexivity and student-centered curriculum, (2) authentic and reality-based curriculum, (3) culturally and politically relevant pedagogy, and (4) self-actualization and capacity-oriented approaches. Concretizing enactments of CRWP can inform the work of teachers, teacher educators, and administrators committed to prioritizing student-centered, politicized, academically responsive, and asset-based urban education.

Conceptual Study of Techno-Stress on Women in Non-IT Sector

Over past few months, teaching and technology experienced a special bond owning to the Covid-19 induced new normal. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in a work-from-home (WFH) scenario though proved prospective for many user/educators. In the hindsight, it has disrupted work-life balance causing counterproductive results. The stakes were high with inadequate training, fund allocation, unidentified strategies, skill deficit and scarce collaborative approaches in the teaching fraternity, further making it quite difficult for an educator to cope-up with sudden challenges to re-invent the teaching trends accordingly. Hence, in this milieu, fast gaining attention is idea of ‘Technostress’. It is conceptually defined as any form of ICT that stimulates stress over the user striving to interact effectively through numerous technological platforms/ gadgets for a substantial span of time. Though past researchers had analyzed it with job satisfaction, employee performance, work load, behavioral stress and aspects of work-family conflict; a special treatment of women educators (in Indian context) undergoing the stress is awaited. In furtherance, education technology with its affinity towards pedagogy, educational policy administrators, technology developers and market are yet to identify women educators need exclusively. Together factors bearing stress under technology-overdrive with strategies to alleviate the same. Now, it is time to reckon women educator’s need, ability, and interest, which should be mapped on optimum and effective use of technology.