Worldwide Educators of African Descent: Lessons from International Teaching and Tests in the Field

deadline for submissions: 
September 1, 2017
full name / name of organization: 
Black Educators Abroad

Part travelogue, part professional reflection, this book will be a peer-reviewed anthology of original composition--narratives, interviews, field observations, formal academic writing--about teaching outside one’s country of origin as a person of African descent. The book seeks to augment the voices--and use print publication to promote the career advancement--of black educators who may otherwise not have access to either. In addition to parity, the publication will celebrate the unique perspectives and creative problem-solving that evolve from Africana or black cultural ways of knowing and teaching in intercultural context. Topical considerations may include a variety of impressions about instruction, pedagogy, and institutional leadership.

For example:

-- Gap Year While Black: what I learned while teaching abroad
-- “I remember when”: narrative memories of long ago or previous-career, international teaching
-- Curriculum and/or lesson planning in the Pacific Rim or Eastern Europe from black cultural or historical perspective
-- The use of Africana rhetorical traditions for speech communication instruction in Latin America or India
-- Students’ increased ideological awareness of blackness as racial indicator, socio-cultural identification, or political consciousness in North Africa
-- Advocating for the rights of girl students from black feminist or womanist perspective
-- “Double-consciousness” at the water cooler of the European teachers’ lounge-- in the age of Brexit
-- Managing homesickness as a (or the) racial minority on the ASEAN campus
-- Navigating the African-majority classroom as an African-diasporic teacher, or vice versa
-- Translation and the semantics it disappears or transforms
-- What it’s like to teach with the advantage of bilingual or multilingual cultural literacy
-- Intercultural approaches to bilingual or ESL education that simulate African-American social traditions
-- Hosting parent teacher conferences while Afro-European in the United States
-- The ironies, comedies, or harmonies that have surprised or delighted you as an educator of African descent teaching in your new nation

Don’t see your interest or host country represented? Great: these are just samples, not prompts. Please submit your abstract anyway!

African and Afro-descended graduate students with international teaching experience are especially encouraged to submit. WorldTeach, Peace Corps, Fulbright-- all teachers prepared to write meaningfully or analytically of “educating while black,” students at every grade level (pre-K through university), with or without TESOL certification or specialized training, instructing any academic subject, anywhere other than their country of origin, are welcome to submit original abstracts for essays that have not been previously published.

For consideration, e-mail an abstract (paragraph or two about your proposed chapter contribution) and a short bio highlighting the international teaching you’ve done to: blackeducatorsabroad@gmail.com Feel free to send your questions here as well.

Target deadline for receipt of abstracts: September 1, 2017
Notification of abstract acceptance: January 1, 2018