“More than lo visible”: Black world language teachers' use of identity to contest culturelessness

The limited presence of Black world language teachers (BWLTs) has been attributed to a lack of interest, ability, or access. In navigating societal forces that perpetuate anti-Black stereotypes, BWLTs challenge these and similar narratives (e.g., the belief that they cannot be both Black and command the target language). We qualitatively analyze interviews with nine BWLTs, exploring how their identities and teaching practices mutually inform one another, highlighting processes of redefining Blackness and the target languages across ethnoracial and linguistic boundaries. Findings reveal that BWLTs contest racial and linguistic power dynamics by drawing on Black cultural experiences impacted by racialization. Across various U.S. regions, levels of instruction, and communities, we propose an intralocutory method coarticulating our evolving understandings of self and Black languaging possibilities. We discuss the value of representational pedagogies, curricular autonomy, and engaging culture in language study as flexible and inextricable from broader racializing forces and contexts.