Pedagogic Practice as a Form of Social Justice: Exploring Conceptions of Engaged Pedagogy Among Florida HBCUs

Abstract

First-Year Seminar (FYS) is a retention tool post-secondary institutions utilize to motivate matriculation from the first to second year of college for first-time in college students (FTIC). Yet, very little knowledge has been published about the pedagogic and teaching methods of FYS instructors, particularly at Black colleges and universities who have a history of centering social justice practices holistically. The emphasis of this analysis is to disaggregate the approaches and perceptions of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) FYS academic instructional practitioners. Additionally, this work clarifies the forms in which these academic agents, primarily instructors, leverage tenets of culturally appropriate pedagogy to actualize social justice in their instructional methods. Six participants were interviewed, and data were coded and analyzed. Thus, the researchers contend that HBCU FYS instructors enact a curriculum of instruction that is influenced by culture and the historic heritages of the universities as an articulation of social justice in teaching.