Abstract

While language study has the potential to interrupt naturalized hierarchies of race and language, the absence of Black and racially minoritized teachers in these spaces limits access to our insights for continued generations of language learners. This is in part due to the challenges of navigating world language education in the U.S. The antiBlack economic, housing, and educational policies that were foundational to the formation of the nation presently obscure the potential of Black language learners by limiting their access to language study in various ways. Still, the existence of Black language professionals along with the value of our journeys and pedagogical approaches remains underexplored in language education and world language teacher preparation research. How does the unrealized linguistic and cultural sustenance possible in formal world language study and within language teacher preparation disproportionately harm Black and racially minoritized learners and communities? This talk maps the powerful pathways of Black world language professionals. In elevating our first-person accounts regarding our motivations, navigation strategies and labor in the field, it offers approaches for alleviating our undue burdens and potentially increasing our numbers and impact more broadly.

Bio

Tasha Austin PhD is an assistant professor of teacher education, language education and multilingualism for SUNY Buffalo, Graduate School of Education. As a critical theorist, she engages Black feminist epistemologies to qualitatively examine language, identity and power through a raciolinguistic perspective, investigating the manifestations of antiBlackness in language education. Her dissertation and scholarly publications have been awarded by the American Educational Research Association, New York State Foreign Language Teachers and Northeast Conference on Teaching Foreign Languages. Her research can be found in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Foreign Language Annals and Applied Linguistics among others. As a 2024 NAEd/Spencer Fellow who was previously awarded a Spencer Small Grant for her ongoing study entitled, “Excavating the Oral Histories of Black World Language Teachers” (2024), her scholarship aims to reposition teachers as learners particularly alongside their racially minoritized students with an emphasis upon co-constructing knowledges in language education spaces.