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Names: Drame, Elizabeth R. | Irby, Decoteau J. T itle: Black participatory research : power, identity, and the struggle for justice in e ducation / e dite d by Elizab eth R. Drame and Decoteau J. Ir by.
Description: New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, [2015] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015 020256
Subjects: LCSH: African Americans—Education—Social aspects. | Education—Research—Social aspects—United States. | African Americans—Race identity. | African American scholars.
Classification: LCC LC2717 .B566 2015 | DDC 371.829/96073—dc23 LC record avail able at http:// lccn. loc.gov/2015020256
A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Librar y.
Softcover reprint of the hardcov
r 1st
We dedicate this book to Black researchers who sometimes get lost in the weeds, in the Ivory towers, in the trenches, and in the web of identities and complexities we bring to our work. We dedicate this d book to Black researchers who use their lived experiences to disrupt an calm turbulent waters of injustice in the pursuit of liberation for, with, and on behalf of Black peoples in the Black Diaspora.
s
of Tables
A Acknowledgments xi s
Introduction. Black Brid ges, Troubled Waters, and t he Search for Solid Ground: The People, the Problems, and Educational Justice 1 Decoteau J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
Part I Dark Waters: Navigating the Ripple Effects of Education ff Reform on Black Children in New Orleans
1. Striving toward Collective Solutions in Race-Conscious New Orleans 23 Elizabeth R. Drame
2. Nothing about Us, without Us (Nihil de Nobis, Sine Nobis) 35 Deirdre Johnson-Burel
3. Crisscross Applesauce: Reflections on Intertwined Identities 55 Elizabeth R. Drame
Part II All-Out War: Fighting against the White Appropriation of Jailed Wisdom
4. Working with Adult Non-Completers to Address the School Dropout Problem 71 Decoteau J. Irby
5. Commitment, Love, and Responsibility Are Key 87 Gerald Bolling
6. Be Catty and Piss on Your Work: A Cautionary Tale of Researching while Black 105 Lynnette Mawhinney
Part III Eradicating the Waste: Challenging Western Education Dominance in Postcolonial West Africa
7. Navigating Age, Gender, and Cultural Crashes and Clashes in a Youth-Led PAR Project in West Africa 125 Dominique Duval-Diop
8. Littering, Planting, and Harvesting: Imagining Going Green in the Sands of Senegal 141 Fernie Diop, Ndeye Mama Diop, and Soukeyna Abbott
9. Unveiling the Bias Within: The Power of a Single Narrative to Oppress the P in Participatory 159 Dominique
Decoteau J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
1.1 Umbrella Group—nonprof it network of organizations focused on public school reform
4.1 Research study partners: name, race, sex, and position
7.1 GL A F project participants
7.2 Project phases and sta keholder engagement
Acknowledgments Ack nowled gments
Iwant to thank Liée Ralaivao for inviting me to be part of the sustainable development project t hat she had origina lly conceived and for being a partner on t he journey. I want to t han k t he Green Leaders of A f rica’s Future students, Sandy Sa la-Dia k and a, Fra line Sa la-Dia k and a, Taira Brod, Fernie Diop, Dirk Vanbevren, Emmanuella Tchona, Betty T homasi, A nousha Mendy, Lyka Gueye, Assane Seck, Aby Sy, Pape Niang, Modibo Diarrah, Abdoul Aziz Faye, Ndambao Sene, Ndeye Mama Diop, and Soukeyna Abbott, for trusting us, committing their time and their energy, for working through the difficulties to learn something about themselves and others, and for working together and supporting each other. I want to thank them for accepting us as their leaders with all our imperfections and for allowing us the privilege to accompany them on their journey as leaders. I want to thank Doussou Karibuhoye Said, the youth who supported the project as an intern, working on French-to-Eng lish translation, allowing the Francophone children to have their voices fully included. Finally, I would like to thank the school that allowed us to conduct this project with its students, as well as the students’ parents who allowed their children to participate.
Dominique Duval-Diop
We want to thank the two project leaders for guiding us throughout the project and making us better leaders.
Fernie Diop, Ndeye Mama Diop, and Soukeyna Abbott
I would like to thank Elise Frattura for being an integral collaborator on the journey. Thank you, Thor Stolen, for pushing us to even deeper levels of reflection. I would like to thank the Umbrella Group who opened their doors, hearts, and minds to the power of participatory research to eng a ge community voice. I would like to thank Deirdre Johnson-Burel for the fearless leader she is. I am humbled by her honesty, integrity, and commitment to her home, New Orleans. It is a privilege to walk beside her as a friend and partner in justice for Black children. I would like to
y
t han k Decoteau, my brot her f rom anot her mot her. Fina lly, I t han k m dear husband, Dji ly Drame, and my two ch i ld ren, Sou leymane Drame and Khadijah Drame. They are the heart and soul of everything I do.
Elizabeth R. Drame
I would like to thank everyone who partnered with us to carry out the g research project described in this book. Special thanks to Gerald for givin his time and energy to this book. Thank you, Liz Drame and Lynnette Mawhinney, for being awesome sister colleagues and friends that you are. Thanks, Thor Stolen, for your partnership and dedication. Thanks, Emery Petchauer, for offering critical feedback on our early book proposals. Thanks, Monique Liston and Cindy Clough, for your patience and for being willing to work with me. Thank you, Shemeka Irby, for your patience. Thank you, Kayla and Miles Irby, for your inspiration.
y Decoteau J. Irb
I would like to first thank my wonderful husband, Dwight J. Burel, who has made room for this work over the past six years. Thank you for your patience, your belief in me and t h is work, and t he sacri f ices you have made, which have made my work possible. Thank you to the incredible community activists I have been fortunate to work with—there are too many to name. But all of you dream of a city where our children are able to fully actualize their gifts and talents and you work to create it. Your commitment is my energy. Fina lly, I wou ld li ke to t han k t he incred ible ind ividua ls t hat comprise my board of d irectors. T han k you for your courage and for showing how to have the most important conversation in the room.
l Deirdre Johnson-Bure
I would like to thank the participants in this work that really made me g grow and stretch in wonder f u l and uncom fortable ways—t han k s for bein
r my teachers. I wou ld a lso li ke to ack nowled ge Dr. Decoteau J. Irby fo being a great collaborator, friend, and advocate.
y Lynnette Mawhinne
IdBlkBd Introduction. Black Brid ges, Troubled Waters, and the Search for Solid Ground: The People, t
he Problems, and Educational Justice
Decoteau J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
Black professional researchers often serve as cultural brokers or “brid ges” between White-dominated institutions and marg inalized Black communities that are in dire need of educational justice. Identifying as Black and as part of Black communities is important k for many people of the African Diaspora, including academically trained researchers, especially since community itself serves as an important unit of identit y 1 Black researcher racial self-identification and alignment with Black communities reflects a commitment to self-definition, determination, and liberation. One of the sites of struggle where these identities are leveraged to produce change is in the field of urban education. y Students in urban public schools in the United States are particularl vulnerable and at a disadvantage by virtue of their position in a grossly v ulnerable unequa l public education system.2 Jennifer L. Hoschild explains that youth’s position in public schooling is nested in at least four ways—states, districts, schools, and classes—that each compound and result in gross inequa l ities in public education.3 Nowhere are t he inequities more apparent than in comparing urban schools with suburban schools, and White
Decoteau J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
students wit h non-W h ite students in t he United States. Because of persistent racial segregation, in the public school context, the term “urban” can, in a sense, be regarded as non-White, poor, and working class, while “suburban” serves as a proxy for White and middle class.
Even in racially desegregated schools, academic tracking of students maintains two separate and unequal educational systems: one efficient and high performing that serves East Asian American and White students, and the other failing and low performing that disserves Black, Latino,4 and Southeast Asian students. The systematic and pervasive exclusion of Black students in A sian pervasive students educational settings is evident in a number of ways. Black students in the United States experience negative discipline consequences at much higher rates than their White peers. Black students experience disproportionate representation in special education.5 r For example, Blacks and students of two o more races were diagnosed with emotional-behavioral disabilities and intellectual disabilities at much higher rates than White and Asian students. An emotional-behavioral or intellectual disability diagnosis leads to students being placed in separate, more exclusionary educational settings.6
Urban schools wit h sizable Black popu lations have larger class sizes wit h fewer resources and lower per-pupi l spend ing.7 This is despite school size being a strong indicator of student sense of belongingness and attachment to school, which reduces school disorder.8 School disorder is associated with acts such as bullying, disruption of classroom activities, and general unruliness, which impact student learning and behavior9 f and are pred ictors o crime and violence.10 Reforms intended to add ress t hese cond itions of ten exacerbate the problem. Reformers have changed school discipline systems such that they have widened and deepened over time, producing the likelihood that more students get into trouble at school, and that when they do, t he consequences are more severe, ma k ing getting back on track a ll t he more difficult.11 y Black males and special education students are most affected b overly punitive discipline and are more likely to receive disciplinary referrals, or be suspended, expelled, and placed in a school-to-prison track.12
In add ition, urban schools su ffer f rom a shortage of qua li f ied teachers. Teachers in urban public schools of ten are not certi f ied and teach in subject areas in which they have no academic training. Urban teachers are more likely to leave during the school year than suburban teachers,13 leaving urban students without teachers or with permanent substitutes. Additional support, such as school nurses, counselors, and health-related services, are also not as readily available or of hig h quality in urban districts.14 Urban students are more likely to attend school in poorly maintained facilities and to be provided low-quality technology, supplies, and books. Together, and to be low- qu alit y and books.
these insufficiencies stifle urban youths’ ability, especially Black students, to experience successful academic and socioemotional outcomes, leaving them on uncertain and shaky ground with respect to lifelong well-being. For far too many Black children, schooling is a site of struggle.15 Black researchers and community members realize this.
Black professional researchers’ identification with Black communities often translates into a desire to produce antiracist scholarship, agitate for educational change, and engage in actions to ensure that educational institutions contribute to the academic, socioemotional, and culturally affirming betterment of Black children, families, and communities. Producing antiracist scholarship, and, in particular, engaging in processes of coproducing anti-oppressive research, requires that Black researchers carry out the intellectual, emotional, and creative task of working the margins to produce distinctive processes and analysis steeped in freedom to be both different from and part of the solidarity of humanity.16 Participatory research (PR)17 approaches offer some guiding principles for honoring these commitments. Yet even in using participatory methods, partnerships that do not attend to positiona lities, power d i fferentia ls, persona l biases, and t he racia l oppression in herent in academic research risk reproducing t he very forms of oppression that participatory approaches seek to disrupt.
We, the editors, decided to write this book because in our conversation with one another, we discovered that we put an immense amount of pressure on ourselves to broker opportunities for our ch i ld ren, fami l ies, f riend s, and communities. In ta k ing on t he role of being Black bridges we, at times, find ourselves near the point of collapse. Our conversations helped us to realize we need to do more to care for ourselves and, in doing so, be better for our chosen scholarly fields and communities. Both work colleagues and our Black community-based colleagues depend upon our bridging capabilities to, at minimum, navigate and, at best, overcome the troubled waters of racism, oppression, and dispossession in research. The book is a result of our attempt to understand the dilemmas and contradictions t hat come wit h our positions, statuses, and identities in t he conduct of Black-Black participatory research.
MULTILAYERED CRITICAL REFLEXIVITY IN PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH
Participatory researchers agree that critical self-reflexivity should be a central part of any PR process.18 Our belief in the need for critical reflexivity
J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
was an impetus for us to develop t he book . T h is book is about our commitR ment to making sense of Black people’s roles, positions, and actions in P f projects around the world. The method that underscored the development o g this book is one of critical reflexivity. Critical reflexivity is a sense-makin process that seeks to describe, analyze, and ask questions about critical incidents or events in our lives. Critical reflexivity processes can be taken up individually or corporately and can be facilitated through thinking, dialoguing, and writing. Who is involved in the critical reflexive process depends upon the layer of involvement that requires understanding. Lai Fong Chiu19 and Ruth Nicholls20 identify three layers of reflexivity: selfreflexivity, interpersonal reflexivity, and collective reflexivity. Each is an important aspect of PR.
Transparent self-reflexivity asks research participants to identify the y assumptions that underpin the research, which includes interrogating the research design, proposals, institutional and financial support, and other happenings that led to implementation of the research. Self-reflexivity also requires individuals involved in research to consider the multiple identities, power, privilege, and status they bring to the research project. Although this sort of transparent reflective work contributes to making researchers visible within written accounts of projects, researchers, who reflect only on v isible the self, risk producing overly self-centered descriptions that focus primarily on identity as the unit of analysis.
Interpersonal reflexivit y, t he second layer of t he critica l reflexivity triad, moves beyond identity to consider positiona lity wit h in t he project. We worked to make sure this text was not a collection of reflections on identity. Rather, we aimed to illuminate researcher positionalities. By focusing on positionality, the authors explored their selves in relation to research partners and power brokers as well as t heir subjective positions wit h in geopolitical contexts in ways that honor the inherently relational nature of PR. Engaging in interpersonal reflexivity requires attention to power relations and enables researchers to see their multiple positions, marginalization, and positions of privi lege and power. T he t h ird level of reflexivity, collective reflexivity, is what we hope t h is book wi ll compel researchers and community partners to consider as an essential aspect of PR. This layer begs the question of social change and project impact. It invites all partners to reflect on the research project with attention to questions such as who was in control when, what drove the collaboration and why, and to what ends. Collective reflexivity holds the potential to reveal unanticipated outcomes of a research partnership, and when done as a group may reveal that participants experienced the project as “transformative, affirming, cathartic,
or empowering.”21 It may a lso revea l t he opposite. A lt houg h we d id not engage fully in this final step of collective reflexivity within our respective projects, we now realize the very real need to do so. It may not be possible to reconvene our partners to engage in this process at this point; nevertheless, we do hope that if they read this book, they reengage for the purpose of making sense of our experiences in a more collective fashion. Researchers, or anyone for that matter, can use critical reflexive sensemaking for multiple purposes. It can be used to reflect on past experiences, present action, and future actions. In large measure, the authors presented reflections on past actions and experiences. A second use of critical reflexivity can be to engage in the more difficult process of reflecting in action, while projects are happening in real time. While each of us attempted to reflect in action, we found it quite challenging to do so. While reflecting in action is important and should not be dismissed, it is important to understand the limits of reflecting in action. For us, our senses of urgency for resolutions to the community problems we each confronted in our work constrained our abilities to step back and reflect in the moment. Doing so in t he mid st of our work may have seemed li ke time wasted, self ishness, and counterproductive to t he research project goa ls. We viewed our bridging presence (rather than distance) as the most valuable resource in the moment.
Looking back, it is clear that not only did we need to reflect on how t he work was evolving, but we a lso needed to give ourselves permission to explore our emotiona l, spiritua l, and psychologica l connections to t he work and understand how intertwined these connections were to our feelings of powerlessness, desires for control, commitments, and our socioemotional well-being. We realize now that building opportunities for multilayered 22 critica l reflexivity is a ll t he more necessary because of t he urgency of t he work. Several years removed from the initiation of our respective projects, we came to terms with our realities. Yet, the critical reflexivity processes we engaged in, in those forms and times, paled in comparison to our offt he-record conversations, our h idden transcripts (Scott 1990).23 PR literature d id not attend to t he race-speci f ic issues we experienced. We had no examples of the critical reflexivity required to heal ourselves from researching while Black (as researchers and Black folks) or to help Black communi- k ties process the harms of social science research. Although PR offers some novel insights into beginning this work of critical reflexivity, as a relatively new field of study, ways to attend to the challenges of specific principles of racial justice and anti-oppression remain underexplored.24 As Black communities face persistent educational challenges, which spill over into our
k
d ai ly lives, it is critica l to unpack t he unique possibi lities of Black-Blac research partnersh ips and t he role t hey mig ht play in advancing t he cause of Black liberation.
BLACK PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH
This book is our attempt to forge such a conversation about the limits of P by attending to its assumptions about the usefulness of cross-racial research collaborations as a vehicle for advancing antiracist education research, policy, and practice. We explore being Black, partnering with Black communities in PR projects, and the struggles that reaching solid ground entails. We invited this book’s contributors to turn within, reflect, and search for deeper understandings of their own personal and cultural biographies as significant sources of knowledge.25 g By engaging in the critical reflexive methods of examinin the self, the self in relation to others, and the collective,26 we hoped to arrive at clearer understandings of how to proactively confront our individual and collective experiences with internalized and externalized forms of oppression. By embracing our margina lity, we focused on self-def inition and self-va luation, which we believe, in turn, better positions us to (re)assert our rig htd ful place as humans in a world where we, Black folks, are often not treate k as such. Methodologically, we remain interested in the ways that Blac Participatory Research (BPR) might advance humanistic approaches to social science research. We define BPR as a strand of participatory action t research (PAR) where (a) the primary parties responsible for carrying ou research in Black communities self-identify as Black, (b) Black perspectives are purposefully centered and White perspectives deliberately de-centered, r (c) marginalized voices from within the African Diaspora are uplifted fo Black empowerment, healing, and liberation, and (d) the normative underpinnings of PR are suspect and subject to cultural and political critique. We intentionally and purposefully use the word “Black” throughout this introduction and in naming the research studies explored in this book. Black f is a socially constructed racial identifier popularized by people of k African descent in the United States of America during the 1960s and 1970s Civil Rights and Black Power Eras. It remains important as a social and political construct that signifies the unity of people of the African Diaspora. Blackness signifies a cultural and psychological connectedness y to a common African ancestry while also recognizing that racial identit is wrought with conflict, and is political, complex, and multifaceted. Yet, we claim our Blackness with no apologies. We explore the complexities
R
and promises of advancing Black research partnersh ips and outcomes in a context of global White supremacy.
We make visible the intersectional power, privilege, and status differences between research partners who share common racial identity but who differ in terms of their professional priorities, socioeconomic status, class, cultures, gender, literacy and language abilities, and ethnic identities. Through engaging this kind of critical reflexivity, we expect that Black researchers will be better positioned to collaboratively challenge the marginalizing effects of research, intersectional power differentials, and ultimately the reproduction of inequalities that are the roots of many “Black problems.”
PRESENTING OUR HIDDEN TRANSCRIPTS
Three central questions are addressed throughout this text. First, how do Black researchers and Black community partners make sense of PR as a process for expanding access to and improving educational opportunities for Black people? Second, how do the intersectional identities of Black community researchers and Black professiona l researchers collide and coa lesce as t hey collaborate to add ress institutiona l racism and marginalization in research? Third, what critical issues should Black professional researchers and Black community researchers anticipate as they initiate and implement PR projects?
We address these questions through three unique case studies. The first case examines an education reform project in New Orleans, Louisiana. The second case explores a collaborative project to address low high school completion rates in the Philadelphia-New Jersey-Delaware region. The final case focuses on a sustainable development youth leadership project in a bilingual middle school in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. Each of the Black-led PR projects were carried out in sites marred with histories of colonialism, racism, and racial oppression. These sites are also home to Black folks who have not allowed racism and White supremacy to dampen t heir ambition to seek recognition, rig hts, and opportunities to l ive hea lt hy and productive lives.
A lthough we believe participatory approaches have tremendous potentia l to d isrupt t he oppressive nature of socia l science research, we problematize the tacit assumption that multiracial research teams are best suited to advance research that disrupts White supremacy and the racist underpinnings of social science research in Black communities. Academic researcher identities are inextricably linked to White supremacist institutions. Their
J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
scholarly cu ltivation occurs wit h in institutiona l contexts and power structures t hat have h istorica lly pi llaged people of color for t heir k nowled ge, labor, and resources.27 Exploitative research practices continue in subtle k and not-so-subtle ways. We would do Black communities (and the Blac researchers who identify with them) a disservice by ignoring the possible ways that participatory approaches, too, despite the noble intentions of noble its proponents, might contribute to the reproduction of racial inequality. However social justice-oriented and anti-oppressive participatory action researchers wish their work to be, the mere fact that their researcher identities, social locations, and positionalities are influenced by their socialization toward Western social science research makes them suspect. So where does that leave Black researchers?
In our numerous conversations about our experiences as Black scholars, we constantly found ourselves coming back to concerns about how we ourselves experienced marginalization in the academy. We often felt this marginalization vis-à-vis that of our White research partners and peers. We found ourselves being critical of some of our colleagues and wrestling being over our relationsh ips wit h t hem as well as t he nature of our “ brid ge” status. W hose brid ge? To where? And over what waters? For t he most part, we kept these reflections to ourselves. When we did share our feelings and thoughts, it was with people who we believed would “get it.” As members of subordinated groups, we created what James C. Scott 28 referred to as “ h idden transcripts” of our true t houg hts and emotions. So as we shared our “hidden transcripts” with one another, we were troubled by what we considered some White colleagues’ sense of entitlement and ownership over “our” research projects. We were more troubled by our own silence. In hiding our transcripts, we propped up racism within the academy. g We consider ourselves Black outsiders wit h in t he academy. Reflectin Patricia Hill Collins’s29 theorization of Black feminist positionality, we are professionally socialized to work within a patriarchal White normative knowledge paradigm. Yet, we consciously and unconsciously remain rooted wit h in our own experiences as a Black man and a Black woman. In a our efforts to master socia l science research parad igms, we have retained critical posture toward them and therefore are positioned to bring a special perspective not only to the study of Black people but also to some of the f fundamental issues facing participatory educational research itself. One o these issues is our difference as Black people. As Collins e 30 noted:
Outsider within status is bound to generate tension, for people who become outsiders within are forever changed by their new status. Learning the subject
matter of sociology stimulates a reexamination of one’s own personal and cultura l experiences; and yet t hese same experiences paradoxica lly help to i lluminate sociolog y’s anomalies. Outsiders within occupy a special place—they become different people and their difference sensitizes them to patterns that may be more difficult for established sociological insiders to see.
A s Black researchers who embrace PR approaches, we possess an acute awareness of how racism and other forms of marginalization are experienced by both ourselves and our community partners. We realize that, if we are able to balance our professional training and what we can of fer in terms of personal and cultural experience, our status is itself a position of power. T h is awareness a lone puts us in a power f u l position. Knowled ge brokers or “ brid ges” “ have d i fferentia l access to community k nowled ge, resources, and sources of power, and therefore, in a twist to the [racial and cu ltura l power] dynamics may have bot h less (in terms of decisionmaking) and more (in terms of access to information) power than their outsider researcher counterparts.”31
Our awareness of power, positionality, and identity shifts and fluctuates across time and space. What happens in the moments where Black researchers’ racial consciousness, solidarity, and reasons for project involvement are at odds with the research team’s priorities and commitments? W hat happens when Black researchers decide that they do not want to be a “bridge” for advancing a research project? What if Black researchers decide that their project is appropriating rather than co-constructing knowledge? W hat happens when Black researchers confront the reality that they are positioned to be instruments of oppression rather than liberation? This book contains hidden transcripts.
RACE AND RACISM IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
RE SEARCH: A CRITICAL RACE THEORY PERSPECTIVE
Critical Race Theory (CRT) was first articulated by Derrick Bell as a way to explain the persistent racism that grips the US legal system.32 CRT is an activist-oriented theory that critiques “incrementalism and step -by-step progress, liberal order, equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.”33 CRT aims to demystify supposed race neutrality and recognizes racial oppression as socia lly constructed and relationa lly maintained.3 4 Furt her its proponents call for purposeful and concise uses of lang ua ge in leg al scholarship and recognize that although race is socially constructed, its social effects
Decoteau J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
mani fest to shape our materia l rea lity. In ot her word s, racism ma kes race real. CRT scholars have applied the theory and its six tenets to understand historical events and to conceive of ways to improve a wide range of policyrelated disciplines, including education.35
Critical race theorists are perhaps most renowned for their bold claim that racism in the United States is endemic, stubbornly persistent, and permanent. Race, according to CRT, thrives in a culture where race neutrality and color blindness mask its very real presence and effects. Racism f manifests in the social organization of societies, as well as in the form o micro-a gg ressions that create oppressive life conditions and experiences for Black people while propping up White superiority and privilege. Racial categories exist because human beings categorized “other” human beings on the basis of observable physical attributes. Racial ideology developed in tandem with European imperialism as a means of achieving global economic exploitation to enrich European nobles by dehumanizing nonEuropeans. The detriment of European imperialist conquests and the racist ideology that drove colonial expansion is expansive: dehumanization, use of physica l and psychologica l violence, cu ltura l anni h i lation, enslavement, and genocide of numerous popu lations of “ot hers” encountered during imperialist expositions. Racial ideology and White supremacy explain W hite racial solidarity and White racial identity formation 36 and underpin the ongoing racialization and social oppression of people of color throughout t he world.37
f Racia l construction cannot be relegated to h istoricism and our use o the term racialization underscores the social fact that racial formation is an ongoing and continual process, whereby race is given power and salience in contexts of time, space, material reality, and power.38 Critical race t heorists’ commitment to unmask ing t he intricacies of racia l formation is reflected in their adopted approach of viewing racial identity as fluid, ever a changing, and differently experienced by each person classified as part of racial group. Antiessentialist research approaches recognize that although ind ividua ls who fa ll under t he same racia l category share a collective experience of oppression, “t he forms of t hat oppression can vary considerably”39 dependent upon the ways their racial identity intersects with other aspects of their identities. The identities included cultural, ethnic, linguistic, genr der, sexual orientation, and national identities and can be empowering o disempowering factors that marginalize some and center others within the same racial g roup.40
Critical race theorists seek to understand the variability that stems from intersectional racial experiences. Thus the perspectives of the oppressed intersectional racial Thu s the of the
and marginalized are best captured through individual counter-narrative accounts. It is a lso important to account for t he contexts, times, and t he spaces from which voices of color emerge. The CRT counter-narrative approach compels researchers to rethink historical accounts by critiquing the credibility, integrity, and biases from which historical accounts and dominant narratives emerge. In particular, interest convergence theory calls into question the so-called racial advancement in the United States by recognizing that what counts as “progress” is questionable based on the fact that progress for people of color is tenuous within a context of global W hite supremacy. Interest convergence critically reg ards historical social and racial progress as viable primarily insofar as it stands to benefit White people.
Concepts such as endemic racism, race as a social construction, racialization and differentiation, antiessentialism/intersectionality, voice and counter-narratives, and interest convergence are not unique to CRT. Indeed, scholars who operate within other race and cultural frameworks utilize these concepts. Some also critique them and pose direct challenges to CRT’s emphasis on race.41 T hese include A f rocentrists’ t heoretica l commitment to centering cu lture and its insistence on identi f ying an essentia l A frican way of being in the world,42 Marxists’ (and neo-Marxists’) emphasis on classism and material determinism,43 and Black feminists’ centering of the interlocking nature of gender-race oppression.44 CRT’s usefulness lies in its synt hesis of t heories of oppression as well as its broad commitment to articu lating an explanatory metat heory t hat “treats race as a def ining principle rather than a variable within research . . . lending it credibility on questions of origin and causality.”45 ” CRT is a useful theoretical lens for making sense of our hidden transcripts. For example, we came to understand our research collaborations as moments of interest convergence. We v iewed many of our interactions with colleagues as micro-aggressions. In thinking about different experiences, we understood intersectionality. But racism was a common denominator across our experiences. It provided usef u l ways for us to ma ke sense of our collective experiences. But what is notably missing f rom CRT, beyond t he f ield of law where it was initially formulated, is a specific research orientation. Its action is to present a different set of facts based on counter-narratives. While CRT works well for the purposes of education policy critique, understanding historical and current events, it does less to illuminate the challenges of engaging in action for the purposes of compelling change. For these purposes, we turn to PR methodolog ies, which, in our estimation, provide a complementary framework to disrupt the racism that CRT so eloquently critiques.
J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
PART ICIPATORY RESEARCH AS A RESPONSE TO RACISM I N EDUC AT ION RE SEARCH
y Researchers who engage in PR, PAR, and community-based participator research (CBPR) projects of ten do so seek ing to add ress complex commuf nity-based problems t hat, i f solved, wou ld improve t he qua lity of li fe o people in local communities.46 PR’s criticality is located in its epistemic stance that co-constructed knowledge, which is produced through the encounter between an ind igenous (insider) k nower who is tacit ly fami liar with a phenomenon and a person for whom a phenomenon is unfamiliar w it h a and a person for a is un fami liar (outsider), is more complete t han eit her of t hese ways of k nowing a lone. y Ind ividua ls who conduct PR projects do so wit h in a web of mutua lly constituted socia l relations. First, individuals are subjects of communities.s Individuals are situated within constantly evolving webs of human relag tionsh ips t hat center t hem in some communities wh i le margina lizin them in other communities. Individuals are able to move between and w ithin these communities.47 Second, a individuals are racialized subjects in White supremacist social world . As d iscussed in t he section on CRT, ind i- d viduals and groups are assigned to racial categories. These categories are v idua ls and groups are to racia l T hese categories are historically situated and culturally maintained, imbued with assumptions of White superiority and Black inferiority, which institutions and societal structures perpetuate or challenge.48 Third, f individuals are subjects o time, space and place. Time, space, and place profoundly shape ind ividua ls’ e and groups’ social experiences and realities, yet individuals, through their actions, actively shape time, space, and place.
We make no claim to understand Black researchers’ different motivations for engaging in research. But for those who adopt participatory, vations engaging in researc h. But for t hose who adopt participatory, community-based, and related research approaches, we assume t hat t he approach, as would be the case with researchers of all races, align with their values and commitments to co-construction as a preferred method of inquiry.
Because of participatory researc hers’ critica l stance on t he production k of k nowled ge, t he f ramework is usef u l for Blac k researc hers to push bac on dominant social science assumptions that dispossessed and marginalized people have little to contribute in terms of solving the world’s most y pressing problems or indeed the problems they encounter in their dail lives. Such a framework, in fact, recognizes marginalized populations may have more acute understanding s of the structures and processes that (re)produce inequa l ity.49 Moreover, by understanding that part of the dehumanization of people of color includes the devaluation of the ways
of knowing of people of color, then the question of “whose knowledge is va luable” is apropos. A h a ll mark of PR is its priority, i f not insistence, on engaging marginalized populations in conducting research and contributing their knowledge and skills to exercises of academic research. Within the PR paradigm, insider knowledge, active engagement, and expertise are considered essential to knowing about community problems. Action g research goes further to suggest that insiders must be a part of using the knowledge generated to effect change. But this insistence on voice and i nclusion is itself a point of contention that is shaped by who insists, who resists, and how racialized subjects make sense of both participation and nonparticipation. Exercising nonparticipation may be beneficial and instrumental given one’s positionality in a project. Epistemologically, scholars who engage participatory approaches frame the validity of research knowledge claims in terms of (a) cogeneration of knowledge and (b) insiders’ increased capacities to solve their own problems. The quintessential questions in this emerging field relate to “how participatory is the project?,” “how empowering is the project for the marginalized groups?,” and “when is nonparticipation an exercise of power?” PR sc holars eva luate projects f irst based on t he extent to wh ic h t he k nowled ge development processes (i.e., research) are genuinely cogenerative and attentive to active and equal engagement of indigenous research partners and traditional researchers. Traditional social science paradigms separate researchers f rom researc hed participants. In participatory para d igms a ll participants are considered researc hers. T he primary d istinction is based upon t he type of knowledge the researcher is assumed to possess at the onset of the project. While the knowledge possessed is deemed to be different, it i s regarded as equally important. Each partner has knowledge to impart and to gain. T he researc h process t hen is based upon mutua l benef it t h at i s maximized throughout the cogenerative knowledge development process. Participants are theorized to exist along a horizontal spectrum (not vertical, as the process is intended to challenge knowledge hierarchies) based on t heir respective level s of cu ltura l embedded ness in t he ind igenous community’s cu lture, wh ic h h as come to be k nown as an insideroutsider continuum.50
The insider-outsider framework inherent in PAR can be viewed along two dimensions—the participants and s the participation process. At one end of the spectrum are indigenous insiders, participants who bring to bear indigenous knowled ge and whose priorities and concerns should ideally direct the participatory collaboration. At the other end are outsiders who bring skills, access to resources, and cultural-political capital that can be
Decoteau J. Irby and Elizabeth R. Drame
f leveraged wit h ind igenous insiders’ capacity to act on t heir k nowled ge o problems and solutions. Outsiders a lso bring a f resh set of eyes to problems that insiders may be, by virtue of their deep cultural embeddedness, unable to recognize without the assistance of an outsider. The contributors to the book fall on neither end of the spectrum. We (the book’s contributors) are mutually implicated in one another’s lives.51 We possess within us, at once the oppressive consciousness of the White supremacist, the patriarch, and the colonizer and the consciousness that can be a springboard for liberation.
ORGANIZATION AND OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
This book is organized into three cases that offer reflections from professionally trained researchers and community-based researcher partners. In part one’s case, “Dark Waters: Navig ating the Ripple Effects of Education Reform on Black Children in Post-Katrina New Orleans,” Deirdre Johnson-Burel and Elizabeth Drame reflect on experiences, challenges, and lessons learned f rom t heir participation in an education reform project in post-Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana. In part two, “All-Out War: Fighting against the White Appropriation of Jailed Wisdom,” Decoteau Irby, Gerald Bolling, and Lynnette Mawhinney provide insights into the y racial and cultural-politics of their study, which brought together formerl incarcerated school non-completers, researchers, and local policy makw ers to address low high school completion rates in the Philadelphia-Ne Jersey-Delaware metropolitan region. The third part, “Eradicating the Waste: Challenging Western Education Dominance in Post-colonial West A frica,” focuses on the experiences of students and teachers who developed a youth leadership environmental sustainability project in a bilingual middle school in Dakar, Senegal.
Each part contains an opening case description where the authors provide an overview of a research project. After each case introduction, contributing aut hors reflect on t heir perspectives, experiences, anxieties, hopes, and d isappointments regard ing t heir involvement in t he projects. Whereas many PAR projects result in coauthored chapters that present “co-constructed ” k nowled ge, we regard community members as texper research partners who have their own unique analytical lenses and insights s about the projects. As such, we invited both formally trained researchg ers and community partners to contribute chapters to the book. Invitin community members to submit their own chapters reflects our genuine
attempt and commitment to not merely center but also elevate community members’ voices in what is of ten t he most contentious and d i ff icu lt stage in PR—the knowledge distribution stage (specifically, the peer-reviewed publishing enterprise in which Black people are hyper-marginalized). In the conclusion, we reflect on the recurring themes and unique aspects of the cases in the book.
OVER TROUBLED WATER
We conceived this book with both professionally trained researchers and community-based research partners in mind. We named this introduction “Black Bridges, Troubled Waters, and the Search for Solid Ground” to reflect the precarious position of community-based and professional Black researchers as “bridges” and the anxieties that bearing the weight of being a bridge or connector entails. The water symbolizes the troubles of White supremacy, oppression, marginalization, and dispossession in education that we seek to overcome by embracing the relationships and coconstruction of knowledge that are part of PAR. In this quest, we seek to find or, more accurately, construct solid ground that is educational justice. An identifiable solid ground, a site of nurturance and belonging, and the solace and comfort it brings seem ever elusive for far too many Black people and communities. The solid ground is inextricably linked to one’s identity and might be found in a profession, a community of people with whom one strongly identifies, or a combination of the two. We hope this book lends theory substance through conveying stories and presenting multiple voices from which readers might find resonance. We hope that community members and professionals of all races will read this book before, during, and after engaging in research projects and use it as an example, with all its shortcomings, of what critical reflexivity in PR might entail.
NOTES
1. Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (2nd ed.) (New York: Routledge, 1999). t
2 . Dennis J. Cond ron and Vincent J. Roscingo, “Disparities Wit h in: Unequa l Spending and Achievement in an Urban School District,” Sociology of Education 1, no. 1 (2003); Jennifer L. Hoschild, “Social Class in Public Schools,” Journal of Social Issues 59, no. 4 (December 2003). s
3. Hoschild, “Social Class in Public Schools.”
4. Jean Anyon, Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform (New York: Teachers College Press, 1997); Hoschild, “Social Class in Public Schools; Pauline Lipman, d High Stakes Education: Inequality, Globalization, an Urban School Refor m (New York: Routledge/Falmer, 2004); Pedro A. Noguera, d “The Trouble with Black Boys: The Role and Influence of Environmental an Cultural Factors on the Academic Performance of African American Males,” In Motion Magazine (May 2002). e
5. US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs, 36th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Washington, DC: US Department of Education, 2014).
6. Ibid.
7. Hoschild, “Social Class in Public Schools.”
8. Greg Chen, “Communities, Students, Schools, and School Crime: Confirmatory Study of Crime in U.S. High Schools,” Urban Education 43, no. 3 (2008).
A
9. Way ne N. Welsh, Robert Stokes, and Jack Greene, “A Macro-Level Model o School Disorder,” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 37 (2000). y
f
10. Chen, “Communities, Students, Schools, and School Crime; Dan Olweus, “Bully/Victim Problems at Schools: Facts and Effective Interventions: Reclaiming Children and Youth,” J l ournal of Educational and Behaviora Problems 5, no. 1 (2003).” s
11. Decoteau J. Irby, “Trouble at School: Understanding School Discipline Systems as Nets of Social Control,” Equity and Excellence in Education (Special Issue on Understanding and Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline) 47, no. 4 (2014).
12. Henry Giroux, “Zero Tolerance, Domestic Militarization, and the War a gainst Youth,” Social Justice 30, no. 2 (2003); Michael P. Krezmien, Peter E. Leone, e and Georgianna M. Achilles, “Suspension, Race, and Disabilities: Analysis of Statewide Practices and Reporting,” l Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 14, no. 4 (January 2006); Linda M. Mendez and Howard M. Knoff, s f “Who Gets Suspended from School and Why: A Demographic Analysis o Schools and Disciplinary Infractions in a Large School District,” d Education an Treatment of Children 26, no. 1 (February 2003); Carla R. Monroe, “Why Are ‘Bad Boys’ Always Black? Causes of Disproportionality in School Discipline and Recommendations for Change,” The Clearing House 79, no. 1 (September- e October 2005); Edward W. Morris, “Tuck in That Shirt! Race, Class, Gender, and Discipline in an Urban School,” Sociological Perspectives g 48, no. 1 (Spring s 2005); Gale M. Morrison and Barbara D’Incau, “The Web of Zero-Tolerance: Characteristics of Students who are Recommended for Expu lsion from School,” Education and Treatment of Children a 20, no. 3 (Aug ust 1997); Russell J. Skib y et al., “The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionalit in School Punishment,” The Urban Review 34, no. 4 (December 2002); Russell J. w Skiba, Reece L. Peterson, and Tara Williams, “Office Referrals and Suspension:
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and remission of sins; and forgive him every voluntary and involuntary offence: reconcile and unite him to thy holy church, through Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom is due to thee might and majesty, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
After this prayer the priest absolveth the penitent, who lowly kneeleth, saying on this wise, to the completion of the mystery of holy penitence,
Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, by the grace and compassion of his love to man, forgive thee, child, name, all thine iniquities; and I, an unworthy priest, by the power that is given unto me, forgive thee and loosen thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
And finally, the priest, while saying the absolution, signeth the penitent with his right hand with the sign of the cross.
Then, It is very meet.... Glory. Both now. And the dismissal.[12]
Chapter VIII.
PRAYER ON THE RELEASING FROM PROHIBITION.
O benign Lord, good and man-loving, who, for thy mercy’s sake, didst send thine only-begotten Son into the world that he might tear in pieces the accusation of offences against us, and burst the bonds of them that are bound by sin, and preach deliverance unto the captives; do thou thyself, O Master, by thy grace, deliver thy servant, name, from the bond that lieth upon him, and grant unto him that, in every time and place, he may without sin draw nigh with boldness unto thy majesty, and, in a pure conscience, entreat the rich mercy that is from thee.
For a merciful and man-loving God thou art, and to thee we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
Chapter IX.
THE ORDER THAT IS USED AT BETROTHALS.
After the divine liturgy, while the priest standeth in the sanctuary, they that purpose to be joined together stand before the holy doors, the man on the right side and the woman on the left. And on the right side of the holy table are laid their two rings, a golden one and a silver one, the silver one towards the right and the golden one towards the left, close to one another. And the priest signeth the heads of the bridal pair thrice, and giveth them burning tapers, and leadeth them within the temple, and censeth crosswise, and by the deacon is said, Bless, master.
And the priest. Blessed be Our God....
Choir Amen.
Deacon. In peace let us pray to the Lord.
For the peace that is from above, and for the salvation of their two....
For the peace of the whole world, the good estate....
For this holy temple, and for them that with faith....
For the most holy governing Synod....
For our Most Pious....
For the servant of God, name, and for the handmaid of God, name, who are now being betrothed to one another, and for their salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
That there may be vouchsafed unto them children for the succession of generation, and all desires that tend to salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
That there may be sent down upon them perfect love, peace, and assistance, let us pray to the Lord.
That they may be preserved in unanimity, and stedfast faith, let us pray to the Lord.
That they may be blessed with a blameless course of life, let us pray to the Lord.
That the Lord our God may grant unto them an honourable marriage, and a bed undefiled, let us pray to the Lord.
For our deliverance from all affliction....
Commemorating our most holy, most pure, most blessed.... Priest.
For to thee is due all glory....
Then he saith the prayer with a loud voice.
O God eternal, who bringest things that are divided unto unity, and imposest upon these an indissoluble bond of love, who didst bless Isaac and Rebecca, and declare them to be the inheritors of thy promise; do thou thyself bless these thy servants, name, name, directing them in every good work. For a merciful and man-loving God thou art, and to thee we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
Priest. Peace to all.
Choir. And to thy spirit.
Deacon. Bow your heads to the Lord.
Choir. To thee, O Lord.
Priest.
O Lord our God, who hast espoused the church as a pure virgin from among the gentiles; do thou bless these espousals, and unite and keep these thy servants in peace and unanimity.
For to thee is due all glory, honour, and worship, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
Then the priest, taking the rings, giveth first the golden one to the man, then the silver one to the woman.
And he saith to the man,
The servant of God, name, is betrothed to the handmaid of God, name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Then to the woman he saith,
The handmaid of God, name, is betrothed to the servant of God, name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
And when he hath thus spoken to each one thrice, he maketh a cross with the rings upon their heads, and placeth them on the fingers of their right hands. Then the sponsor changeth the rings of the bridal pair.
The priest saith the prayer.
Let us pray to the Lord.
O Lord, our God, who didst accompany the servant of the patriarch Abraham to Mesopotamia, when he was sent to espouse a wife for his lord Isaac, and didst reveal to him by means of the drawing of water to betroth Rebecca; do thou thyself bless the betrothal of thy servants, this, name, and this, name, and confirm the word that hath been spoken by them, confirm them by the holy union that is from thee; for thou from the beginning hast created male and female, and by thee a woman is conjoined to a man, for assistance and for the succession of the generation of man. Therefore, O Lord our God, who hast sent forth thy truth unto thine inheritance, and thy promise unto thy servants, our fathers, even thine elect in every generation, do thou thyself regard thy servant, name, and thine handmaid, name, and confirm their betrothal in faith, and unanimity, and truth,
and love. For thou, O Lord, hast declared that troth should be given and confirmed in everything. By a ring was given might unto Joseph in Egypt; by a ring Daniel was exalted in the land of Babylon; by a ring was revealed the truth of Thamar; by a ring our heavenly Father showed compassion upon his son; for, said he, Put ye a ring upon his right hand, and kill the fatted calf, and let us eat and rejoice. Thine own right hand, O Lord, armed Moses in the red sea; for, by thy true word, the heavens were established and the earth firmly founded, and the right hand of thy servants shall be blessed by thy mighty word, and by thine uplifted arm. Therefore, O Master, do thou thyself now bless this putting on of rings with thy heavenly benediction; and may thine Angel go before them all the days of their life.
For thou art he that blesseth and sanctifieth all things, and to thee we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
Straightway the deacon this ectenia.
Furthermore let us pray for our Most Pious, Autocratic, Great Lord, THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER ALEXANDROVITCH of all Russia.
Furthermore let us pray for His Consort, the Most Pious Lady, THE EMPRESS MARIA THEODOROVNA.
Furthermore let us pray for His Heir, the Right-believing Lord, the Cesarevitch and Grand Duke, NICOLAUS ALEXANDROVITCH.
Furthermore let us pray for the Most Holy Governing Synod.
Furthermore let us pray for all Their christ-loving army
Furthermore let us pray for the servants of God, name, and name, who are being betrothed to one another.
Choir. Lord have mercy, thrice.
Furthermore let us pray for the whole brotherhood.... Exclamation.
For a merciful and man-loving God thou art, and to thee we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen. Then the dismissal.
Chapter X.
THE ORDER OF THE CORONATION.
Now if at the same time they desire to be crowned, they go into the temple with burning tapers, preceded by the priest with the censer, and singing psalm cxxvii thus. And the people say after each verse,
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
Blessed are all they that fear the Lord.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
They that walk in his ways.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
Thou shalt eat the fruit of thy labours.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine on the gables of thine house.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
Thy sons shall be as newly-planted olive trees round about thy table.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
Lo, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
The Lord shall bless thee out of Sion, and thou shalt see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
And thou shalt see thy son’s sons: peace be upon Israel.
Glory to thee, O our God, glory to thee.
After this the priest saith a word of instruction, telling them what is the mystery of marriage, and how in marriage they have to live acceptably unto God, and honourably. And after the conclusion of this, the priest interrogateth the bridegroom, saying,
Hast thou, name, a good and unconstrained will, and a firm intention to take unto thyself this woman, name, whom here thou seest before thee?
And the bridegroom answereth, saying, I have, reverend father.
The priest again, Thou hast not vowed thyself to another bride?
Bridegroom. I have not vowed myself, reverend father.
And straightway the priest, regarding the bride, interrogateth her, saying, Hast thou a good and unconstrained will, and a firm intention to take unto thyself this man, name, whom thou seest here before thee?
And the bride answereth, saying, I have, reverend father.
The priest again, Thou hast not vowed thyself to another man?
And the bride answereth, I have not vowed myself, reverend father.
Then the deacon saith, Bless, master Priest. Blessed be the kingdom....
Choir. Amen.
Deacon, the ectenia. In peace let us pray to the Lord.
For the peace that is from above....
For the peace of the whole world....
For this holy temple....
For the Most Holy Governing Synod.
For our Most Pious....
For the servants of God, name, name, who are now being conjoined to one another in the community of marriage, and for their salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
That this marriage may be blessed as was that in Cana of Galilee, let us pray to the Lord.
That there may be vouchsafed unto them chastity, and fruit of the womb for their benefit, let us pray to the Lord.
That they may be rejoiced in the beholding of sons and daughters, let us pray to the Lord.
That there may be granted unto them the acquisition of fair children, and a blameless course of life, let us pray to the Lord.
That there may be granted unto them and unto us all desires that tend unto salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
For their deliverance and ours from every affliction.
Help us, save us, have mercy....
Commemorating our most holy, most pure, most blessed....
Priest, with a loud voice,
For to thee is due all glory....
Choir. Amen.
Deacon. Let us pray to the Lord.
Choir. Lord have mercy.
The priest, with a loud voice, this prayer.
O God most pure, and the Author of all creation, who, through thy love to man, didst transform a rib of Adam the forefather into a woman, and didst bless them, and say, Increase and multiply, and have dominion over the earth, and, by the conjoining, didst declare them both to be one member; for because of this a man shall forsake his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and the two
shall be in one flesh; and whom God hath joined together let man not put asunder; who didst also bless thy servant Abraham, and open the womb of Sara, and didst make him the father of many nations; who didst bestow Isaac upon Rebecca, and didst bless her offspring; who didst join Jacob unto Rachel, and from them didst make manifest the twelve patriarchs; who didst yoke Joseph and Aseneth together, and as the fruit of generation didst bestow upon them Ephrem and Manasse; who didst accept Zacharias and Elizabeth, and didst declare their offspring the Forerunner; who out of the root of Jesse, according to the flesh, didst produce the Ever-Virgin, and from her wast incarnate and wast born for the salvation of the human race; who through thine unspeakable grace and plenteous goodness, wast present in Cana of Galilee, and didst bless the marriage there, that thou mightest show that a lawful union, and a generation therefrom is according to thy will. Do thou thyself, O most holy Master, accept the prayer of us, thy servants, and, with thine invisible presence being here, as there, do thou bless this marriage, and give unto thy servants, name, name, a peaceful life, length of days, chastity, love for one another in the bond of peace, a long-lived seed, grace upon their children, and an unfading crown of glory. Count them worthy to see their children’s children; preserve their bed undefiled; and give them of the dew of heaven from above, and of the fatness of the earth. Fill their houses with corn, wine and oil, and with every bounty, that they may have to give to them that are in need, bestowing also unto them that are here assembled with us all desires that tend to salvation.
For a merciful, and compassionate, and man-loving God thou art, and to thee we ascribe glory, with thine unbeginning Father, and thy most holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
Deacon. Let us pray to the Lord.
Choir. Lord, have mercy.
The priest this prayer with a loud voice.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, thou hierurgist of mystical and pure marriage and lawgiver of that of the body, thou guardian of incorruption, thou good provider of the means of life. Do thou thyself now, O Master, who in the beginning didst create man, and appoint him as the king of creation, and say, It is not good for man to be alone upon the earth, let us make him a helpmeet for him; and, taking one of his ribs, didst make woman, whom when Adam saw he said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of her man: for this cause a man shall forsake his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and two shall be in one flesh: and whom God hath joined, let not man divide: do thou thyself now, O Master, Lord our God, send down thy heavenly grace upon these thy servants, name, name, and grant unto this thine handmaid to be in all things subject unto the man, and to this thy servant to be at the head of the woman, that they may live according unto thy will. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Abraham and Sara. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Isaac and Rebecca. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Jacob, and all the patriarchs. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Joseph and Aseneth. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Moses and Sepphora. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Joakim and Anna. Bless them, O Lord our God, as thou didst bless Zacharias and Elizabeth. Preserve them, O Lord our God, as thou didst preserve Noe in the ark. Preserve them, O Lord our God, as thou didst preserve Jonas in the belly of the whale. Preserve them, O Lord our God, as thou didst preserve the three holy children from the fire, sending down upon them dew from heaven; and may that joy come upon them which the blessed Helen had when she found the precious cross. Remember them, O Lord our God, as thou didst remember Enoch, Sem, and Elias. Remember them, O Lord our God, as thou didst remember thy holy forty martyrs, sending down upon them crowns from heaven. Remember, O God, the parents who have reared them; for the prayers of parents confirm the foundation of houses. Remember, O Lord our God, thy servants, the paranymphs, who are present at this rejoicing. Remember, O Lord our God, thy servant, name, and thine handmaid, name, and bless them. Give them fruit of the womb, fair
children, and unanimity of soul and body. Exalt them as the cedars of Libanus, and as a well-cultured vine. Bestow upon them seed of corn, that, having every sufficiency, they may abound in every work that is good and acceptable unto thee; and let them behold their sons’ sons as newly planted olive-trees round about their table, and, being accepted before thee, may they shine as the luminaries in heaven unto thee, our Lord. And, together with thee, be glory, might, honour, and worship, to thine unbeginning Father, and to thy lifecreating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
Deacon. Let us pray to the Lord.
Choir Lord, have mercy
And again the priest saith this prayer with a loud voice.
O holy God, who didst form man from the dust, and from his rib didst fashion woman, and yoke her unto him a helpmeet for him, because so it was seemly unto thy majesty for man not to be alone upon the earth; do thou thyself now, O Master, stretch forth thy hand from thy holy dwelling-place, and conjoin this thy servant, name, and this thine handmaid, name; for by thee a woman is conjoined unto a man. Yoke them together in unanimity, crown them in one flesh, bestow on them fruit of the womb, and the gain of well-favoured children.
For thine is the might, and thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
And after the Amen the priest, taking the crowns, crowneth first the bridegroom, saying,
The servant of God, name, is crowned for the handmaid of God, name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Then he crowneth also the bride, saying,
The handmaid of God, name, is crowned for the servant of God, name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Then he blesseth them thrice, saying thrice,
O Lord our God, crown them with glory and honour. Then the prokimenon of the epistle, tone viii.
Thou hast set upon their heads crowns of precious stones; they asked life of thee, and thou gavest it them.
Verse. For thou wilt give them a blessing to ages of ages, thou wilt make them glad through joy with thy countenance.
The epistle to the Ephesians, section cci.
Brethren, give thanks.... ending, that she reverence her husband. [13]
Alleluia.
Verse. Thou, O Lord, shalt keep us, and shalt protect us, from this generation, and to ages.
Deacon. Wisdom, standing, let us hear
The gospel from John, section vi.
At that time there was a marriage.... ending, believed on him.[14]
Deacon. Let us all say with our whole soul, and with our whole mind let us say.
O Lord Almighty, the God....
Have mercy upon us, O God....
Furthermore let us pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, and visitation for the servants of God, names, and he commemorateth whom he wisheth.
Exclamation. For a merciful....
Deacon. Let us pray to the Lord.
Choir Lord have mercy
Priest, this prayer.
O Lord our God, who, in thy saving providence, didst vouchsafe in Cana of Galilee to declare marriage honourable by thy presence; do thou now thyself preserve in peace and unanimity thy servants, name, and, name, whom thou art well-pleased should be conjoined to one another: declare their marriage honourable: preserve their bed undefiled: be pleased that their mutual life may be unblamable, and count them worthy to attain unto a ripe old age, keeping thy commandments in a pure heart.
For thou art our God, the God to have mercy and to save, and to thee we ascribe glory, with thine unbeginning Father, and with thine all-holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
Deacon. Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and keep us, O God, by thy grace.
Choir. Lord, have mercy.
That the whole day may be perfect, holy....
Choir. Vouchsafe, O Lord.
An angel of peace....
Pardon and forgiveness of our sins....
What is good and profitable for our souls....
That the remaining time of our life....
A christian end of our life....
Having prayed for the unity of the faith, and the communion of the Holy Ghost....
Choir. To thee, O Lord.
The priest exclaimeth,
And count us worthy, O Master, with boldness to dare without condemnation to call upon thee, our heavenly Father God, and say,
And the people, Our Father all to the end
The priest exclaimeth, For thine is the kingdom....
Peace to all.
Bow your heads to the Lord.
Then the common cup is brought, and the priest blesseth it, and saith this prayer.
Deacon. Let us pray to the Lord.
O God, who by thy might createst all things, and confirmest the universe, and adornest the crown of all things created by thee; do thou, with thy spiritual blessing, bless also this common cup given for the community of marriage unto them that are conjoined.
With a loud voice, For blessed is thy name, and glorified thy kingdom....
Choir. Amen.
Then the priest, taking in his hand the common cup, giveth them to drink thrice, first to the man, and then to the woman. And straightway the priest taketh them, while the groomsman holdeth the crowns behind, and leadeth them in the form of a circle. And the priest, or the people, sing the present troparion in tone v,
Rejoice, O Esaias, the virgin is with child, and bringeth forth a son, Emmanuel, God and man: the orient is his name, whom magnifying, we call the virgin blessed.
Another, tone vii.
O holy martyrs, who valiantly contended, and are crowned; pray ye the Lord for mercy on our souls.
Glory to thee, Christ God, apostles’ boast, and martyrs’ joy, whose preaching was the consubstantial Trinity.
Then, taking the crown from the bridegroom, he saith,
Be thou magnified, O bridegroom, as Abraham, and blessed as Isaac, and increased as Jacob, walking in peace, and performing in righteousness the commandments of God.
And when he taketh the crown from the bride, he saith,
And thou, O bride, be thou magnified as Sara, and rejoiced as Rebecca, and increased as Rachel, being glad in thy husband, and keeping the paths of the law, for so God is well-pleased.
Deacon. Let us pray to the Lord.
Choir. Lord, have mercy.
Priest, The prayer.
O God, our God, who wast present in Cana of Galilee, and didst bless the marriage there; do thou bless also these thy servants, who, by thy providence, are conjoined in the community of marriage. Bless their incomings and outgoings, replenish their life with good things, accept their crowns in thy kingdom unsullied and undefiled, and preserve them without offence to ages of ages.
Choir. Amen.
Priest. Peace to all.
Bow your heads to the Lord.
And the priest prayeth.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the all-holy, and consubstantial, and life-originating Trinity, one Godhead and sovereignty, bless you, and vouchsafe unto you long life, wellfavoured children, progress in life and faith, and replenish you with all the good things of earth, and count you worthy of the obtaining of promised blessings, through the prayers of the holy God-bearing one, and of all the Saints. Amen.
Then they come and congratulate them, and they kiss one another, and the full dismissal is made by the priest.
