Manifesting Black Joy in science learning

Building on Miles and Roby's notion of a Black liberatory education where freedom includes experiencing Black joy, this forum article further articulates BlackJoy as a framework for designing research-to-practice spaces that centre Black liberation and flourishing for authentically equitable learning engagements and to counter ongoing deficit narratives and corresponding oppressions that Black and other racialized/minoritized learners experience in schools and other learning environments. The BlackJoy heuristic has four key tenets: Black Excellence, Black Inventiveness, Black Kinship and Black Aesthetics. Data and vignettes from prior research projects will be described of examples of BlackJoy in education and used as a point of departure discussions about the design of research and learning environments that cultivate BlackJoy and expanded ways to think about evidences of learning.

Automated summary

This article introduces a research-to-practice framework centered around BlackJoy, aiming to design equitable and authentic learning environments that promote Black liberation and flourishing, while challenging deficit narratives and corresponding oppressions.