Chapter 3: Look on Me and Be Renewed: Black Mothers as Scholar-Activists in Teacher Education

In this chapter, we draw upon our individual and collective experiences as Black mother teacher educators. In our work as teacher educators situated in the context of a predominantly white intuition, we bear a heavy responsibility to teach “others” how to teach our children. This chapter is a call to action to establish networks of Black mothers in teacher education who confront racism through teaching, community engagement and public scholarship. We argue that such efforts are necessary to fortify the focus on who is at stake when the construct of whiteness attempts to shake the foundation of the Black community’s love for our children while standing unaccountable and untrustworthy. Thus, it is important to remain in constant conversation with our students, colleagues, and communities so that our perspectives as Black mother teacher educators are heard and acknowledged as viable sources of knowledge production. Since, research, teaching, and service are the primary constructs of academe, our chapter takes up three major questions that help to frame the dialogue: (1) How can Black mother teacher educators demonstrate love for our children through teaching? (2) How can Black mother teacher educators engage in servant-leadership through community engagement and service? (3) How can Black mother teacher educators promote the educational needs of our community through scholarship? We conclude with our recommendations and a call to action for connecting and drawing upon the collective actions of Black women teacher educators as a strategy for liberating Black children and countering the miseducation, misunderstanding and mistreatment of Black children.