Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Instruction & Curriculum Leadership

Committee Chair

Brian Wright

Committee Member

Anna Falkner

Committee Member

Beverly Cross

Abstract

Black women have been the pillar of early childhood education since 1619. Today, Black women continue to be a vital part of the early childhood education workforce in the United States. Unfortunately, while Black women are overrepresented in the early childhood education field, as teachers, they are often unrepresented in decision-making policies in the field. Black women childcare teachers are among the lowest paid workers in the early education sector and they are thusly unrepresented when it comes to equalizing compensation, creating pipelines for childcare teacher advancement, and access to classroom resources. While there is much research on the racist history behind Black women in childcare, there is a gap in educational research elevating the voices of Black women childcare teachers who teach and live in the same community. Using sociocultural theory, this qualitative case study examined the unique characteristics that four Black women childcare teachers bring to early childhood teaching in the communities where they live and work. Furthermore, the study explicated how these characteristics informed the women’s teaching practices as holders of the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Through a series of sixty-minute interviews, the study captured the stories of these four Black women childcare teachers. The findings of this study indicated that Black women childcare teachers who teach and reside in the same community bring meaningful characteristics to the field of early childhood education and their communities. The data revealed the following characteristics to be unique and influential in the teaching styles of these Black women teachers: a connection between mothering and educator; commitment to community; rooted in community, not scholarly context; and from CDA to decolonization.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

PDF

Notes

Open access.

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