Resisting developmentalism: A Black mother-teacher's relational pedagogy of knowing her child

Abstract

Early learning contexts often promote narrow developmental expectations that inherently ignore and dismiss Black boys’ ways of knowing and being. However, adults in their lives can resist how rigid racial-ability hierarchies are instantiated in early childhood. This qualitative case study examines how a Black mother-teacher and her preschool-aged son engaged in co-resistance within their classroom. We asked: How are a Black mother-teacher's beliefs about child development constituted through, and in resistance to, normative developmental expectations, and how she and her son negotiate those expectations in their early learning environment? Findings reveal forms of resistance enacted through protection, the valuing of multiple ways of knowing, and collaborative learning. These insights illuminate how resisting developmentalism in solidarity with Black children is both relational and pedagogical.