Positional Frustration: Brown’s Unintended Impact on the Racial Uplift Component of Black Teachers’ Pedagogy

• In Event: Deepening the Discourse on Black Educators’ Experiences and Pedagogy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate Black teachers’ perceptions of how they impact Black student achievement. Study participants included teachers from school districts located in a large metropolitan area in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Teachers’ years of experience ranged from 2 to 15. Data collection occurred during the school year 2011-2012 and methods included journal writing, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and a questionnaire. Findings reveal that teachers found it difficult to positively impact Black student achievement because of frustrating situations they faced in their school settings. This paper focuses specifically on the finding of “positional frustration.” Positional frustration involves teachers’ push-back against the “racial uplift” teaching philosophy that has historically informed Black education, as well as, contrarily, teachers’ sense of guilt about not living up to the “racial uplift” standard set by Black teachers from previous generations.
Situated within the literature on Black teachers published post-1970, the findings add complexity to the common portrayal of Black teachers as culturally-synchronized (Irvine, 1990) othermothers (Foster, 1993; Irvine, 2002), mentors, and role models (Irvine, 1989) for Black students. The findings also extend the discussion about the unintended negative consequences school desegregation had for Black teachers, Black students, and the Black community at large (Fairclough, 2004, 2007; Foster, 1993; Fultz, 2004; Milner & Howard, 2004; Walker, 2009, 2012), particularly the elimination of “racial uplift” pedagogy from the curriculum (Walker, 2012). According to teachers in my study, racial up lift was not central to their pedagogy because they did not feel comfortable explicitly discussing race in racially-integrated environments. If we accept that part of what made Black teachers successful with Black students pre-Brown was their ability to talk frankly with students about race and the need to gain education in order to compete with White people and uplift the race (Foster, 1990), then we must consider the role racial uplift should play in contemporary integrated and resegregated schools. We must also interrogate why in today’s resegregated schools, Black teachers report experiencing the opposite of what scholars reported many Black teachers experienced pre-Brown. Pre-Brown, according to scholars, Black teachers were honored and revered by Black students (Foster, 1993; Milner & Howard, 2004; Walker, 1996, 2001, 2004). The teachers in this study reported feeling disrespected and dismissed by Black students. In segregated schools, racial uplift was embedded throughout the curriculum (Fairclough, 2004; Irvine, 1989; Walker, 2009, 2012). In today’s de facto resegregated schools, the belief in teaching racial uplift is not shared by all teachers. The teachers in my study grappled with how – and in the case of one of the teachers, whether – they should enact a racial uplift teaching philosophy.
Utilizing Critical Race Theory (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) as a framework, this paper will provide insight into the experiences of teachers who have experienced positional frustration. The paper will also explore the conundrum Black teachers must navigate as a result of Brown’s implementation: How – and whether – to embrace an educational philosophy of racial uplift in Post-Brown America.

Author

• Summer Carrol, Lenoir-Rhyne University