Growing Our Own: African American Teacher Recruitment and Professional Development at Lincoln High School, 1931–1949

• In Event: Educators and Leadership for Social Justice

Abstract

AERA’s 2016 theme is an exciting call for educational research that draws on history to inform present challenges and abiding societal dilemmas. In this regard, recent studies of African American segregated schooling have begun to illuminate the vibrancy, resilience, resourcefulness and professionalism that existed in African American school communities behind the oppressive veil of Jim Crow. Through this effort, scholars are recovering narratives of activism, leadership practices, and theorizing that shape our understanding of American history extending the foundation from which we can draw solutions. This study adds to that effort by describing the strategies for teacher recruitment, retention and professional development used by the administration of Lincoln High School, an African American segregated K-12 school in Gainesville, Florida.

Author

• Diedre Faith Houchen