Abstract: Background/Context: Although James Baldwin’s work is beginning to receive attention by political and social theorists, his work does not currently influence educational conversations. I believe this is unfortunate, and the goal of this article is to make the case that Baldwin’s work has a great deal to teach educators, especially teacher educators.
Research Design: Reading through all of Baldwin’s nonfiction, I draw out interconnected themes that run across his work, and which I found most interesting as I thought about my work as a teacher educator. These themes are: innocence, fear, and love. For each theme, I draw on different aspects of Baldwin’s published nonfiction, attempting to create a conversation between aspects of Baldwin’s work and issues of importance to teacher educators.
Conclusions/Recommendations: I conclude by making the case that Baldwin’s work deserves a wider hearing, especially his thinking on love. I develop the concept of “tenacious understanding” to highlight the types of teaching that teacher educators will need to engage in if they are to realize Baldwin’s prophetic call that I resound in this article.
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Abstract: The aim of this article is to establish--and explore--James Baldwin's significance for educational theory. Through a close reading of "Everybody's Protest Novel", I show that Baldwin's thinking is an important (if unrecognized) precursor to the work of Stanley Cavell and Cora Diamond, and is relevant to a number of problems that are educationally significant, in particular problems of race and racism.
Abstract: In this paper I raise and respond to the question: Is John Dewey's understanding of growth sufficiently responsive to problems associated with race and racism? I begin with a discussion of Dewey's essay "Racial Prejudice and Friction," and show that Dewey lets a major objection to his response to racism and prejudice stand without comment. By focusing on this objection I will show that--by Dewey's own admission--one cannot grow morally without confronting aspects of moral psychology that Dewey downplayed in offering his response to racism. I will then show that James Baldwin's work offers resources that help us confront these aspects of moral psychology, and argue that bringing Dewey in conversation with Baldwin allows us to reconstruct our understanding of growth so that it becomes more responsive to problems associated with race and racism.