Chapter 10: Reflections on a Clarifying Conversation: Balancing the Responsibilities and Promises of Life in the Academy

Tensions around wholeness and the pursuit of balance among and within professional and personal contexts are inevitable and abundant. I am constantly working to navigate these challenges in my own journey. And I have become increasingly sensitive to the manifestation of these tensions in family life with my wife, Fanny, and our two daughters, Spring and Pamela. Unlike so many precious children, especially those who are Black and Brown, our girls are blessed to have never known what it means to navigate school experiences without watchful and deeply engaged seasoned educators to assist them closely. Their school experiences provide instructive examples to consider and explore as it relates to the questions raised in this volume. To be sure, there are multiple layers and myriad both macro- and microdynamics at play when we consider the issues of work/life balance. Race, gender, and class are among the issues of special importance to me as an educational sociologist and Black man. In this chapter, I reflect on my own struggle for personal and professional balance and reverberations among our family with particular emphasis on the school experiences of our children. I believe that my recounting and reflection on a perspective-shaping conversation that I had with a university administrator just about a decade ago provides a useful starting place for this exploration.