Writing (for) our lives: Black feminisms, interconnected guidance, and qualitative research in special education

Abstract

In this collaborative sense-making of mentorship and interconnected guidance for education research, two Black women academics in special education offer lessons learned from their sustained dialogues with each other, other Black women, and with Black and endarkened feminists’ texts. The authors reflect on how traditional approaches to academic mentorship were, at times, incompatible with their onto-epistemic and methodological needs as researchers. They revisit their initial entry into the field and examine the ways U.S. schooling is implicated in the racism, ableism, and other systemic oppression experienced by multiply-marginalized students, families, and educators. The authors consider the distinctive contributions Black women offer(ed) special education research and revisit the improvisational moves they enact to make space for qualitative inquiry informed by Black and endarkened feminisms.