Chapter 3: What Got Me Through: The Importance of Mentoring and Affinity Groups for Teacher Educators of Color

Over the past five years, teaching Social Studies has been problematic at best (Ledesma et al., 2023) due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges posed by legislation limiting curriculum focused on race, diversity, and equity. States are passing legislation intended to censor educators on how they approach issues centered on race, gender, and systemic oppression (Krebs, 2022, p. 194). My experience as a Black heterosexual male middle school social studies educator has allowed me to see the importance of mentoring and affinity groups in promoting joyful teaching practices as acts of resistance. It is no secret that to many social studies educators, the presidential memo issued in 2021 halting and prohibiting divisive and anti-American propaganda in classrooms has created a culture war in many schools across the country (Farag, 2023; Memorandum for the Heads of Departments and Agencies on Training in the Federal Government, 2020). Citizens who are often riled up by sensationalized social media accounts and fictitious stories from politicians have turned to school board meetings across the country to voice their concerns over the indoctrination of their children by liberal school teachers (Farag, 2023). Using the community cultural wealth gained in my mentoring and affinity groups, this chapter looks to identify how I was able to center my instruction on fugitive pedagogies as a form of resistance. This chapter also aims to explain how I navigated the myriad of issues brought about by the politicization of Critical Race Theory in the public school system while still trying to teach social studies in a predominantly white school district.