Making Space Under Constraint: Black Teacher–Student Relationships as Relational Architecture for Sociopolitical Development in the Alabama Black Belt

Abstract

This dissertation examines how Black teachers in the Alabama Black Belt build and sustain teacher student relationships as relational architecture under constraint, and how that architecture supports Black youths’ sociopolitical development and changemaking. Guided by three research questions, the study asked: (1) How do Black teachers leverage relationships to support students’ changemaking activity, (2) How do they teach toward civic and political agency with intention, and (3) How do they draw on racial identity as a pedagogical resource in that work. Grounded in Sociopolitical Development Theory and Pedagogies of Resistance, the study used a qualitative, multiphase case study design to trace relational practice as it unfolded in everyday classroom life. Data were generated through in depth interviews, classroom observations, and participant written reflections with five Black teachers teaching across multiple counties and content areas in public schools throughout the Alabama Black Belt.

Findings show a sequenced and interlocking relational architecture. Teachers enacted relational protection, interrupting misrecognition, academic shame, and surveillance so students could remain present long enough to risk voice. Within that protected space, teachers converted care into humanizing rigor, pressing for clarity, evidence, and revision as preparation for civic life. Teachers also leveraged racial identity as interpretive expertise and pedagogical praxis, positioning lived experience as an intellectual resource. From there, teachers scaffolded rehearsed public voice, creating structured opportunities for students to practice articulation and recovery in contexts where visibility carries consequence. The dissertation argues that durability is not a student trait, but a developmental condition shaped by relational design and place-based constraint.