Promoting Black Excellence: Understanding the Success of Black Male Teachers With Black Male Students

• In Event: Confronting and Countering Racism, Sexism, and Discipline Patterns in Early Childhood and Elementary Education Contexts

Abstract

The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males (2015) reported that graduation rates of Black males in the United States for 2012-2013 were 59% compared to the 80% graduation rates of White males. The disparity between the graduation rates points to an apparent opportunity gap (Akiba, LeTendre, & Scribner, 2007). Ensuring that African American males have equitable opportunities will assist in eliminating the academic gaps that persist. There seems to be a crisis in the research that is available about Black males in education, especially surrounding educational opportunities, positive learning environments, and teacher/student relationships for the youngest learners in American schools. Ladson-Billings (2011) reflects on the perception that young Black boys in U.S. schools are often regarded as being academically incapable. This literature review analyzes the relationship between student/teacher racial congruency, specifically between Black male teachers and Black male students.

Research shows that school integration, as a way of providing Black students with more equitable educational experiences, resulted in a detrimental shift in not only the education of Black students, but their communities as well. Prior to the integration of schools, teaching was considered a prestigious profession within Black communities. Teachers of Black children were considered integral members of the community. Desegregation crippled many communities that were once grounded in Black excellence. Black principals who were able to obtain jobs in White schools were demoted to assistant principals of discipline of Black children, thus the American schooling obsession with controlling Black bodies (Ladson-Billings, 2011) began as a direct offset of integrating Black children within White schools. The cultural mismatch between White teachers and Black students resulted in more students, predominantly Black males, being ejected from classrooms. Black male teachers, however, better understood the importance of listening to their Black male students, “Recognizing and affirming the challenges that Black students, particularly Black male students face in the classroom…attempts to break the cycle of Black youth being funneled out of school and into the streets and into prisons” (Hayes, Juarez, & Escoffery-Runnels, 2014, p. 7).

In addition to recognizing and affirming Black male students, there are certain traits of African American teachers that enhance the overall success of their Black students, when compared to teachers of different backgrounds. These traits include: culturally responsive approaches, culturally informed relationships, mentoring and role modeling, parental connections, culturally congruent instructional practices, and Black teachers’ ability to provide counter-narratives on behalf of Black students (Milner, 2006). Without essentializing, there is evidence that Black male teachers apply three common discourses (Black functionalism, Black liberalism, and Black nationalism) when educating Black male students. These frameworks are developed through an understanding of the Black male experience in the United States (Brown, 2009). Reviewing literature on the success of Black male teachers with Black male students presents opportunities for further research. The literature challenges one to consider how teachers of various races and cultures can learn from the teaching strategies of Black men who are successful in educating Black males.

Author

• Nicole McGowan, Teachers College, Columbia University