This book utilizes the theory of intersectionality to focus on the divergent identities and experiences of marginalized groups and to analyze the ways these experiences infiltrate the classroom. It examines teaching and learning as integrated and synergistic practices and highlights the personal and institutional power dynamics existing between scholars and students. Starting with the premise that institutions of higher education must pay attention to the ways intersecting identities and structures of privilege and disadvantage enter all educational settings, the contributors to this text represent a range of academic disciplines and they are both scholars and students. This approach demonstrates that ideas related to teaching and learning should not follow models that separate teachers, students, and disciplines, but rather that significant learning occurs in the areas where they overlap. Each chapter provides pedagogical strategies and methods for classroom practice that facilitate student learning, equitable classroom environments, and a social justice agenda.

This book documents the academic and social success of Black women undergraduates as they negotiate dominant educational and social discourses about their schooling lives. Starting with the premise that Black women undergraduates are not a homogenous group and that they are being successful in college in greater numbers than Black men, this book examines the ways they navigate being traditionally underprepared academically for college, the discourse of «acting white, and oppressive classroom settings and practices. This work expands the theoretical concept of cultural capital by identifying the abundant and varied forms of cultural capital that Black women undergraduates provide, develop, and utilize as they make their way through college. The discussion of their raced, classed, and gendered experiences challenges the academy to make use of this understanding in its work towards educational equity. This movement has wide-reaching implications for ethos, policy, and practice in higher education.