Healing Justice Practice Professional Development Program for Black K‐12 World Language Educators

Abstract In this conceptual article, I present the Healing Justice Practice (HJP) Professional Development (PD) Program as a restorative model designed for Black K‐12 World Language (WL) educators working within predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Rooted in Afrocentric pedagogy and Healing Justice frameworks, this work addresses the racialized linguistic trauma, emotional labor, and professional isolation that Black WL educators experience in U.S. schools. The article situates Black WL educators' underrepresentation, only 4% nationally, within historical patterns of systemic exclusion and loss of communal networks following desegregation. The proposed HJP PD program integrates Healing Justice principles (Brown et al., 2014) with Spelman College's African Diaspora and the World (ADW) curriculum to restore community, affirm Black linguistic and cultural identities, and reimagine WL education as a site for reparative transformation. The program framework centers three core themes, Identity, Co‐construction, and Resistance, while unfolding across five sessions that guide participants through self‐reflexive storytelling, trauma‐informed dialogue, and Afrocentric curricular design. Participants engage in readings, reflective journaling, and collaborative inquiry aimed at reclaiming narrative authority, cultivating professional identity, and translating healing into liberatory teaching practice. The article illustrates how HJP PD serves as both personal restoration and institutional intervention, and calls on PWIs and school systems to recognize such programs as accredited professional development spaces that counteract anti Black linguistic racism while fostering retention, leadership, and curriculum transformation among Black WL educators.