OUR PROGRAM
Just Like a Mom partners with K-12 schools to provide cultural brokering for underserved students through othermothering. Othermothering is critical to the pedagogy of Black teaching, yet Black teachers only make up 7% of the teaching population (Hussar, 2021).
Black students did not begin performing disproportionately lower than any other race until the 1954 ruling of Brown v. Board of Education which dismantled culturally responsive schools and dissolved approximately 40,000 Black teachers and administrators from the profession.
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Black teachers not only have an impact on Black student achievement, Black teachers positively impact student performance in students of all ethnicities as they innately utilize othermothering in their pedagogy. According to Mawhinney (2012), othermothering consists of the following:
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Commitment to Learning
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Advocacy
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Relatedness
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Care and Concern
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Financial Commitment
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In Dr. Stovall' research, she focused on three of the five othermothering pillars above. The purpose of the work at Just Like a Mom is to combat the Black student achievement gap by placing other mothers within schools to partner with teachers and provide Advocacy, Relatedness and Care and Concern to students most in need. Black teachers bring their culture to the classroom, which not only enhances learning for Black students, but all students.
Just Like a Mom seeks to employ and partner with women who can relate to the culture of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students and their families. We understand that one's racial assignment, a social construct, does not mitigate one's ability to experience another's dominant culture and to be able to meet the needs of underserved students and their families.
The day-to-day operations at Just Like a Mom have been outlined above; feel free to schedule a meeting for more information about how this may serve your school site or district.
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Mission Statement:
Ensuring that Black students and their families feel loved, supported and as if they belong at school.
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Vision Statement:
For every school site to have a designated othermother, a culturally responsive school mom.
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