Navigating Rough Waters: Toward a Generative Ethics of Care in Child Advocacy and Ella J. Bakers’ Praxis of Social Change

Abstract

This study situates contemporary child advocacy programming within a historical genealogy of Black women's leadership, focusing on Ella Baker as an instructive figure for future generations engaged in educational justice and Black childhood liberation. Black women have historically led efforts to protect and uplift Black children, often working outside traditional power structures to combat institutionalized violence and educational inequities. The dissertation examines the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools as a continuation of Black child advocacy, rooted in Baker's legacy and praxis. By centering her philosophy of empowerment, grassroots leadership, and social change, this research explores how Baker's work provides strategies for strengthening child advocacy in CDF Freedom Schools and similar programs. These connections not only enrich our understanding of Baker's contributions but offer insights into programming that nurtures children's voices, critical consciousness, and intergenerational engagement. Baker's humanist vision of democracy, honoring the dignity and creative capacities of all people, including children, infuses the CDF Freedom Schools' mission of cultivating agency, leadership, and civic responsibility. These schools serve as critical spaces of hope, affirming the strength within children while equipping them to challenge systemic oppression, despite structural barriers challenging their full potential. Amid state-level attacks on critical race theory and historical truth-telling, this study asserts the urgency of preserving Black women's ethical agency in safeguarding Black children. By engaging Baker's legacy within the CDF Ella Baker Child Policy Training Institute, this dissertation positions her as a contemporary mentor whose philosophy remains instructive for today's advocates. Drawing from my experience with the CDF Freedom Schools program, this research advances a generalizable and coherent ethics of care framework for childhood advocacy ethics. Through genealogical method, I argue that an ethics of care rooted in public policy, empathetic listening, communicative action, and self and communal care provides a unifying foundation for Freedom Schools pedagogy, leadership development, and advocacy, operationalizing Baker's and Edelman's visions into transformative actions that empower children and improve their life chances and wellbeing, recognizing both the possibilities and the limitations inherent in this work.