Challenging White Teacher Professionalism

• In Event: Exploring the Tensions Between Teacher Professionalism and Students’ Rights During the Civil Rights Era

Abstract

Objectives
This paper examines the ways in which White teacher professionalism was challenged in the three schools that comprised the Federation of Community Schools in Boston’s predominantly Black neighborhoods in the 1960s and 1970s. The objectives of the paper are to describe the teaching roles of Black parents and community members and of professional (primarily White) teachers in the Community Schools and to consider the impact of this teaching model on students and adults within the schools, as well as on teacher training programs at local universities.

Literature
Historical accounts of racial issues in education in Boston have largely focused on the racial tensions that followed the 1974 federal busing decision. However, a vibrant movement for educational equality existed in Boston’s Black community from at least the early 1960s (Theoharis, 2001). The movement pursued legal remedies to end de facto segregation in the Boston Public Schools, but its critique of the school system also focused on the low expectations White educators often had for Black children, the small number of Black principals and teachers, the racist curriculum, and the limited role given to Black parents. This paper will contribute to the literature by exploring the ways in which some members of the movement created Community Schools that focused on empowering the Black community and questioning the authority of professional (White) educators.

All of the Community Schools stressed the importance of children learning from community members, however two of the schools more directly challenged the authority of teacher professionalism, which they saw as an expression of the dominance of White, middle class America. These schools created teaching models in which parents or community members taught alongside certified (usually White) teachers with equal or greater authority. Despite the criticism the Community Schools had of professional educators, they did create partnerships with local universities. The universities created paths for certification for parents and community members working in the schools, sent student teaching interns into the schools, and provided curriculum support.

Methods/Data Sources
This paper uses standard historical analysis of primary sources from the three Community Schools and the Federation, as well Boston newspapers. While the paper is a case study, the Community Schools are discussed in the national context of decentralization/community control and the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

Conclusion/Point of View
This analysis argues that racial integration could never meet the full demands of the educational equality movement in Boston or in the rest of the United States. Black parents and activists also wanted to change the ways in which power operates in schools through teacher-student relationships, school-parent/community relationships, and curriculum and instruction.

Significance
This paper illustrates the historical tensions between professional (White) educators and Black parents and activists. It raises questions that are still relevant today for public schools and Schools of Education about how professional educators and the Black community (and other minority communities) can work together to ensure that authentic racial integration can occur in our public schools.

Author

• Shaunna Harrington, Northeastern University