The diversity trap? Critical explorations of black male teachers’ negotiations of leadership and learning in London state schools

ABSTRACT

Black and minority ethnic teachers are significantly underrepresented in British schools. Despite increasing anxieties about Britain’s ‘diversity shortage’ among teachers, recent studies on the experiences of Black teachers generally, and Black male teachers specifically, remain rather sparse. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 Black Caribbean and Black African male teachers with five or more years of experience in London schools, this article deploys Bourdieusian conceptions of organizational habitus to explore the ways in which the national ‘diversity shortage’ can lead to a local ‘diversity trap’ in state schools that limits the range of roles Black male teachers are encouraged to pursue in schools. Findings suggest that pressures for Black male teachers to serve in racialized roles as community liaisons, role models, and school-wide disciplinarians, particularly for ethno-racial minority students, have stymied the long-term progress of Black male teachers towards departmental and administrative leadership – ranks at which the diversity shortage is even more acute.     

Missing misters: uncovering the pedagogies and positionalities of male teachers of color in the school lives of Black and Latino adolescent boys

ABSTRACT

Educational stakeholders often recruit male teachers of color as solutions to the problems facing Black and Latino boys and young men in PreK-12 schools. However, given the assumptions made of these teachers’ role in the lives of boys of color and their disproportionally low presence, few studies have considered what boys themselves report as missed because of the absence of Black and Latino male teachers. This case study drew from the voices of five Black and Latino adolescent boys in one urban secondary school in the United States to theorize what the participants missed (e.g. yearned for connections, reflections of self) and missed out on (e.g. seeing positive images of men of color) by not having a more robust presence of Black and Latino male teachers of color or misters. Findings indicated the need for boys’ voices in advancing nuanced recruitment and retention discourses for their male teachers of color.     

Meeting myself: race-gender oppression and a genre study of Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys

ABSTRACT

Increasing the number of Black men teachers and single-sex schooling options have been heralded as necessary to reverse trends in the failure of US education institutions to adequately educate Black boys. Too little research interrogates Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys for how they might reinforce anti-oppressive conceptions of race, gender and sexuality. A genre study – the multidimensional, intersectional examination of social identity to explain one’s persistent dehumanization – was utilized to investigate how Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys shape the boys’ understanding of Black manhood and masculinities. Regardless of schooling arrangement, findings suggest Black men teachers must recognize and disavow hegemonic gender logics in interaction efforts aimed at improving Black boys’ lives. Additionally, I argue the potential of Black men teachers’ interactions with Black boys to function as sites for reimagining Black boys’ humanity in ways that counter persistent messages of their inferiority and disposability (i.e. aniblackness).     

The salience of Black mentors on the teaching praxis of Latino male teachers

ABSTRACT

Despite the growing population of Latino students, little has been done to recognize the potential cultural assets and resilience that Latino communities and Latino teachers can bring to the educational environment. Using Critical Race Theory, in this article, each participant shares their experiences with their Black mentors. This article shares the ways in which Black teachers continue to exemplify Black teaching excellence now with a group that isn’t Black.     

How Australian Female Muslim Students Interpret Challenges in High School Sports

Abstract

The present study focuses on the experiences of female Muslim students in school sporting activities in Australian public high schools. Specifically, the study examines how the students interpret their engagement in relation to their Islamic background. The study aims to provide deeper understanding and greater awareness of female Muslim students’ participation in sporting activities within the public high school environment and the challenges they may face. The study employed critical race and social identity theories as an analytical framework. In addition, the study utilized qualitative research methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 female Muslim students and 4 teachers responsible for sporting activities in school. The findings of the study reveal that despite a variety of sporting activities provided by Australian public high schools, some of these activities were challenging for Muslim girls to participate in. The study also found that there is a strong relationship between students’ Islamic background and their participation in schools sporting activities. The study recommends that educators and teachers who work with youth from different background are provided training on equity issues arising from ethnicity, race, culture, religion and other identity categories.     

Angered: Black and non-Black girls of color at the intersections of violence and school discipline in the United States

While most research examining school discipline policies have focused on the experiences of boys of color, this article explores the relationship between violence and school discipline as they shape the lives of girls of color and their disciplinary records. Using in-depth interviews, this article re-narrates the experiences of Black and non-Black girls of color who have discipline records to explore their experiences. The author found that in addition to being subject to multiple, intersecting forms of violence outside of school, girls of color – particularly Black girls – are also subject to schools as sites of control that elicit their anger and resistance. This author contends that faculty should establish new ways of understanding Black and non-Black girls of color by accounting for the ways that intersectional violence shapes the girls’ lives and supports their ‘anger’, agency and resistance to violence.     

‘How I show up for Brown and Black students’: Asian American male mathematics teachers seeking solidarity

ABSTRACT

The ratio of Asian American teachers to Asian American students is the most disproportionate of all racial groups, where Asian American students are least likely to have an Asian American teacher. In addition, little research focuses on the experiences of Asian American teachers, particularly in connection with issues of racism. Using AsianCrit, internalized racism, and stereotype management, this study investigates how Asian American male mathematics teachers conceptualize their racial/ethnic and mathematics teacher identities given the prevalence of the Model Minority Myth. Using photovoice interviews, findings indicate that participants experienced internalized racism and engaged in stereotype management by distancing themselves from other Asian Americans, discussing their own difficulties in mathematics, and actively reaching out to form relationships with Black and Latinx students. We recommend supports for Asian American teachers and all teachers of color to build critical consciousness to reduce internalized racism and empower themselves and their students.     

‘The world they’ve been born into’: Black male teachers on Blackness,masculinities and leadership

ABSTRACT

In this article, life history methodology and principles of counterstorytelling are used to examine moments when one Black male preservice social studies teacher and three Black male social studies teachers challenge Black masculinist visions of leadership, and moments when they seem complicit in perpetuating these visions. Findings indicate that these educators’ understandings of Blackness, maleness, and the pursuit of Black masculine recognition are fluid, developing and sometimes contradictory. We argue that while necessary across disciplines, interrogations of Black masculinity are uniquely imperative in social studies teacher education due to how assumptions about Blackness and maleness have shaped struggles for Black civic recognition.     

In hindsight and now again: black male teachers’ recollections on the suffering of black male youth in US public schools

This article draws from data in a larger qualitative study on the lives of black male teachers in US public urban schools. I examine their schooling experiences as black male youth. By coupling theories of social suffering with life history methodology, this research analyzes how three black male teachers experienced frustration, marginalization, and misery as students. For these participants, academic tracking was a site of social suffering. This suffering persisted into their adult lives as classroom teachers, as they witnessed and attempted to mitigate the struggles of their own black male students. The findings in this study have implications for further research on black male teachers as well as their recruitment and retention in US public schools.     

Advancing teacher preparation through ethnic studies: portraits of Filipino American self-identified male teachers

ABSTRACT

At once a political and cultural intervention, Ethnic Studies as a field sought to create an education whereby students’ knowledges and experiences were valued. While research demonstrating how Ethnic Studies affects students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes, the prowess of Ethnic Studies, as a site for teacher preparation remains under examined in empirical research. Drawing from portraiture, critical race and Ethnic Studies frameworks, I analyze in-depth interviews, focus groups, and artifacts with Filipino American self-identified male teachers. I work to make explicit how Ethnic Studies prepared these teachers in ways their formal teacher education did not. I conclude with recommendations for how teacher education steeped in Ethnic Studies supports culturally sustaining, critically conscious, and community responsive learning for students and teachers committed to justice.     

The Black male teacher: a 10-year content analysis of empirical research

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to characterize the last decade of Black male teacher empirical research. The present study aimed to elucidate the most salient themes, commonalities, and departures in the literature on Black male educators. A quantitative content analysis was performed to systematically characterize the research trends present in this line of inquiry. The data were collected using an inductively generated coding scheme. A sample of n = 31 studies were identified and examined from articles published between 2006 and 2016. Then frequency data were computed to characterize the data under investigation. The study results indicate that Black male teacher research is nuanced and burgeoning, despite several lapses in article production. The results of this study contribute to the literature on Black male teacher recruitment, retention, and experiences by providing a survey of current research trends that suggest areas of strength, as well as challenges warranting further consideration.     

Shaking the bad boys: troubling the criminalization of black boys’ childhood play,hegemonic white masculinity and femininity,and the school playground-to-prison pipeline

ABSTRACT

Few studies have sought to understand the childhood play experiences of Black boys in early childhood education (ECE), and a majority of those that investigate them often socially construct Black boys’ play as criminal, dangerous, and monstrous. Considering the dangers of hegemonic masculinity and femininity or the racial and gendered power and privilege White boys and girls bring to societal spaces including playgrounds, little is known about how such power influences the experiences of Black boys who play with them. In this conceptual paper, I draw on critical race theory (CRT) to trouble the criminalization of Black boys’ childhood play and hegemonic White masculinity and femininity, which can prove violent and dehumanizing to Black boys. As such, I suggest that similar to the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP), Black boys may become victims of what I call the school playground-to-prison pipeline (SPTPP) as a consequence of White children’s accusations, fears, misperceptions, and misreadings of Black boys’ play. Recommendations are provided for teacher and ECE to better support Black boys and the cross-cultural play interactions between them and White children.     

Racial and ethnic differences in high school students’ perceptions of school climate and disciplinary practices

This study examines the relationship between students’ perceptions of teacher treatment, school suspensions, and school climate in three high schools in Central New York (N = 1,444). Students completed an anonymous questionnaire about their perceptions of school climate and school disciplinary practices. Results showed racial and ethnic differences in perceptions of teacher treatment, suspension practices, and school climate. Race was the most significant predictor of perceptions of differential suspension practices and teacher treatment among students. For Black students, perceptions of differential treatment helped predict school climate perceptions. Students’ perceptions of unequal treatment of racial groups influence their experiences in school. We discuss research-based approaches that address systemic practices and policies, professional training of school personnel and provision of student services to help improve the school experiences of Black and other minority students and reduce the equity gap.     

Daring to care: the role of culturally relevant care in mentoring Black and Latino male high school students

This study seeks to challenge the uni-dimensional way care in school is written about by highlighting an often overlooked aspect of care – the kind that students do for each other. Data is drawn from focus groups conducted with the youth participants and founder of Umoja Network for Young Men (UMOJA), an all-male, school-based mentoring program for over-aged and under-credited (OA/UC) high school students. The authors draw on theories of culturally relevant pedagogy, care, and critical pedagogy to present the findings and propose a form of culturally relevant care (CRC) that entails warm demanding and building mutual trust. This study highlights the humanizing experiences of the Black and Latino male transfer students and their mentor. This focus on the experiences of young Black and Latino male participants seeks to shift the discourse from one focused on deficits to one that recognizes their agency and capacities for social and academic success.     

‘No more Turkish music!’ The acculturation strategies of teachers and ethnic minority students in Flemish schools

ABSTRACT

While considerable research has focused on the process and factors affecting acculturation, there is little research that investigates how members of minority and majority groups define acculturation in educational settings. Ethnographic research and qualitative interviews in three secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium) show that teachers and ethnic minority students have different ideas and expectancies regarding the concept ‘integration’, which appears to affect student–teacher relationship. Berry et al.’s [1989. “Acculturation Attitudes in Plural Societies.” Applied Psychology: An International Review 3 (2): 185-206. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.1989.tb01208.x.] acculturation orientations are used as a theoretical template to analyse teachers’ and ethnic minority students’ discourses about acculturation. Analyses reveal that students of immigrant descent perceive acculturation mainly in terms of the establishment of intergroup contact. In contrast, teachers find it harder to disconnect cultural maintenance from contact and participation. By suggesting some form of cultural adoption, teachers hope to socialise their ethnic minority students into the culture of the dominant ethnic group and prepare them for their future. These distinct interpretations of ‘integration’ in everyday life (which actually refers to acculturation) often leads to misunderstandings between ethnic minority students and their teachers, even to conflict, as many students feel that their cultural background is disparaged and not fully valued in school.     

Teaching while Black: racial dynamics,evaluations, and the role of White females in the Canadian academy in carrying the racism torch

For racialized academics, life in the academy can be marred by racial violence that leaves them caught between their commitment to their craft, desire for educational attainment and development, and the mental anguish that can dominate their existence. Drawing from experiences of the author and other Black faculty members in Canadian tertiary academic institutions, I provide a theoretical exposition recognizing the role of narratives as an act of counter-storytelling. I draw upon Black feminist epistemology, critical race theory, and critical theory to examine how the experiences of Black academics remain under-theorized, marginalized, and often erased within ‘strong/angry Black woman/man’ caricatures. I highlight how racial evaluation filters reinforce racism and affects the careers of Black academics. I also discuss the role that White women, who are charged with decision-making power, have come to play in carrying the ‘racism torch’ in the academy while adhering to the tropes of innocence.     

Using our voices,losing our bodies: Michael Brown,Trayvon Martin,and the spirit murders of Black male professors in the academy

Abstract

The recent deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and other Black males have generated new civil rights urgencies in Black communities and spirited academic discourses in higher education regarding the educational and social plight of Black males in America. Connecting the deaths of Black males to our lived experiences in the academy, we use a text messaging performative writing style to demonstrate how Black males are not only gunned down in the streets of America by police but also are metaphorically gunned down in the academy. That is to say, white colleagues and students attempt to use what we call the bullet of rejection, the bullet of silencing, and the bullet of disrespect to destroy us and our academic agenda. We conclude with a call to action for teacher education programs as a way to deepen their understanding of the racialized experiences of Black males in the academy and Black males in America.     

“I am here for a reason”: minority teachers bridging many divides in urban education

Minority teachers are overwhelmingly employed in urban schools in underserved, low-income communities with large minority student populations. They receive little in the way of multicultural preparation, mentorship, and professional induction to meet the demands of teaching diverse student populations. This grounded theory study explores the experiences of novice teachers from various minority backgrounds working in urban classrooms. A tentative grounded theory, ‘I am here for a reason’ emerged, suggesting that minority teachers rely on their personal backgrounds and experiences to help them take an insider’s perspective with minority students in light of poor multicultural preparation and limited support in schools. The shared cultural perspective with students enables teachers to connect with and advocate for students, which represents both a strength and challenge for minority teachers. Finally, minority teachers are motivated by a strong desire for social justice as they work to bridge many divides, and are intentional in their work despite facing significant obstacles in training and teaching.     

Brushed aside: African American women’s narratives of hair bias in school

ABSTRACT

For African American women, hair is a key site of identity formation and self-esteem that has been largely ignored by education researchers. Fifty-six African American women shared memories of negative hair experiences in school as a means to magnify the implicit injuries of racial and gender marginalization in educational environments. Memories consisted of hair shaming and suffering the consequences of hair damage, by way of classmate or teacher. Embarrassment and anxiety were the most frequently reported emotional reaction, resulting in participants’ discomfort in school and in their interpersonal relationships. Findings from this study suggest that hair bias represents a source of trauma and identity negotiation within school contexts. Critical Black feminist theories were used to frame the method and interpretation of participants’ reflective narratives. The insights provided through the narrative sample fuel recommendations regarding anti-bias teaching and school policy reform.