Ramdeo, Janet ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2744-8572 (2026) Enhancing anti-racist school-based practices through learning from ‘Memory-Responsive Teaching’ pedagogies of Black women teachers. In: British Educational Research Association (BERA) TEAN Conference 2026, 20th - 21st May. 2026, Sheffield Hallam University.

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Abstract

Key issue: The discourse about ethnic minority student outcomes and underachievement remain a concern, particularly in the light of disproportionately representative teaching staff that lacks diversity (Gorard et al., 2025; Demie, 2025). Black women teachers can and do take a trauma-informed approach to their praxis (Farinde-Wu et al., 2023), drawing on memories of educational oppression and undervalued abilities they faced in their own schooling to justify entering the teaching profession (to make changes) and to provide a more socially just form of pedagogy to ethnic minority learners. These negative memories form the basis of empowerment and resistance to structural and institutional oppressions that exist and persist in schools as a legacy of education policies that have historically and continue to marginalise racialised pupils. So, what can be learnt from Black women teachers to enhance anti-racist practices in schools?

Theory: ‘Memory-Responsive Teaching’ (Obaizamomwan-Hamilton et al., 2024), a concept embedded within Femmenoir Pedagogies, is a lens to illuminate how childhood learning and school experiences influences and informs Black women educators’ classroom practices and pedagogies to improve ethnic minority learner experiences. It is seen as necessary to name as a method of ‘rescripting and embodying roles that were structurally denied to them during their own educational experiences’ (Obaizamomwan-Hamilton et al, 2024: 13) so that Black women teachers become transformative agents that enable racially minoritised pupils to succeed in their classrooms and schools now.

Research: Narrative inquiry interviews were conducted with 10 Black women teachers at various stages of their career across England. Thematic analysis identified examples of how memories of their own educational oppression influenced reasons to enter the teaching profession and ways in which their practices specifically support ethnic minority learners in school settings.

Findings: Examples demonstrate the ways that these women were oppressed and undervalued as learners, such as teachers suggesting that specific subjects were not chosen for GCSE level of study despite previously good outcomes and careers recommendations that belittled their aims to become teachers. Yet through their own determination, familial empowerment and resistance, they succeeded within the educational system when they saw how peers did not and draw on their experiences to tackle social injustices and underachievement in schools today.

Implications: What can we learn from Black women teachers’ trauma-informed memory-responsive practices to tackle persistent ethnic minority underachievement? How can their experiences be heard in anti-racist approaches? Can these experiences be included in initial teacher education and training?

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	memory-responsive teaching, Black women teachers, anti-racist praxis, English schools
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races L Education > L Education (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Education (EDU)
Last Modified:	26 May 2026 12:31
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/53579

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