Navigating Difficult Conversations: The Perspective of a Black Professor at a Predominantly White Institution

• In Event: Examining Ourselves in Service of Our Mission: Teaching Leadership for Social Justice

Abstract

Various scholars speak of the need to integrate an anti-oppressive curriculum in principal preparation programs. For example, Gooden and Dantley (2012) call for preparation programs to “include a prophetic voice, a grounding in critical theoretical traditions, the notion of praxis and a pragmatic edge, and the race language” (p. 244). Brown (2004) calls for preparation programs to develop socially just leaders through transformative learning experiences (Mezirow, 1990). These include providing opportunities for awareness through critical self-reflection, rational discourse, and action as policy praxis.
As I work to engage my students in these types of transformative experiences, I am also mindful that I, too, must constantly engage in critical self-reflection so that I can push my own thinking and consistently improve on my own practice. As a Black male instructor at a predominantly White institution where well over 90% of my students have been White, I have to be thoughtful about my approach when engaging them in conversations about race and racism. The literature is clear that people are often resistant to race-based discussions and disengage or become disinterested when concepts of race and racism are broached (Derman-Sparks & Phillips, 1997; Diem & Carpenter, 2012; Singleton & Linton, 2006; Tatum, 1997). In addition, Black teachers, in general, often face additional scrutiny from their students because of their racial identity. Thus, I am constantly grappling with how to engage them in a way that will catalyze the change process, despite the active or passive resistance that I may experience due to my racial identity and/or the content itself. At the same time, I have to practice self-care to avoid any possibilities of “burn out”.
While my racial identity is most salient in my practice, I am also mindful of the fact that I need to constantly reflect on my other various social identities, their intersections, how they connect to larger systems of oppression, and how they play out in my classroom and my social interactions. Not being critically reflective about these things could lead to the perpetuation of the very oppression that I am aiming to disrupt.
My discussion in this session will revolve around the steps that I take to pre-empt or work through resistance when engaging in anti-racist pedagogy. I will also discuss the steps that I take to practice self-care. Finally, I will speak to the approaches that I take to ensure that I address other forms of oppressions in ways that give voice to other marginalized identities, despite the salience of race in my own personal life and practice.

Author

• Daniel D. Spikes, Iowa State University