“It Felt Like We Were a Council of Elders”: Black Teacher-Coaches Sustaining Professional Identity with Affinity, Support, and Communal Care

Abstract This study examines how Black teacher-coaches (BTCs) build and sustain professional and pedagogical networks of support amid divisive concepts legislation that restricts classroom discussions related to race, identity, inequality, and systemic oppression. Drawing upon frameworks of communalism, collective Black identity, and Black historical consciousness, this research investigates how three BTCs collectively responded to legislative pressures that seek to constrain instructional autonomy and limit engagement with Black intellectual traditions. Findings demonstrate that these educators tended to each other with communal efforts that mirrored the purpose and functionality of a Black affinity group. Collectively, the participants supported one another’s beliefs and practices through mutual care, demonstrating what it meant to learn from their respective communities, and how their shared identities as Black educators and athletic coaches shaped their bond. This study contributes to scholarship by highlighting how communal educational practices function as mechanisms of support and resilience under restrictive legislative conditions.