A Tale of Collective Achievement

• In Event: Male Teachers as Cultural Workers in the Lives of Children, Families, and Communities

Abstract

New teachers often face a number of obstacles that challenge the principles of effective teaching learned from their teacher education programs. A practice of “hazing” by established teachers for a new teacher can cause new teachers to question those principles. In the course of establishing one’s self in such an environment, cultural differences can amplify the overwhelming effect of the “hazing” process. Being an African American male in a school dominated by White female teachers can cause the novice educator to have difficulty standing by their convictions.

After his first year of teaching, the presenter found he could not identify with any conviction or real proof what he had taught his students. He vowed to make this question a priority in his teaching. He noticed that Black and Latino students were often negatively influenced by the school environment and realized that to counteract this he needed to stay informed on his students’ needs and interests. Student success was directly tied to keeping the lines of communication between home and school open and active. He also found that his students played an active part in the educational process and that he was only an effective teacher if they were effective learners. While his high expectations of his students sometimes caused consternation from his colleagues, he nonetheless followed through with his convictions, and carried this philosophy forward into his work as a teacher educator, where he found collective achievement to be a model of reciprocity and that the fate of teachers and students are linked.

As an autobiographical account of his own teaching experience, this narrative takes a close look at the path of one teacher in order to better inform other African Americans and males entering the teaching profession. The audience will hear excerpts from the paper and have the opportunity to consider what it means to be an African American male teacher of young children.

Author

• Darrell C. Hucks, Keene State College