Way More Than Five Minutes: Racial Predicaments of Supporting Black Doctoral Students' Academic Writing Development

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

Abstract

This paper offers a critical reflection on my roles and responsibilities in supporting Black doctoral students’ development into stronger academic writers. Early in my university teaching career, I taught a course called “Black males in the City” at a predominantly white urban university in the northeastern United States. Early in the semester, I noticed that numerous Black male students’ who were enrolled submitted writing assignments that did not reflect the quality or complexity of their in-class discussion contributions. Some submitted papers with fragments. Others run-on sentences. Some used little or incorrect punctuation.
One day a student named Kelechi came to see me about his paper. I asked him if he was familiar with subject-verb agreement grammar rules. He replied “no” and explained that if he was introduced to the concept in the past, he forgot it. I proceeded to explain subject-verb conventions. I started with basic examples such as “the dogs run” and “a dog runs.” I identified two errors in his paper and asked him to talk me through the corrections. I then asked him to review his paper, circle and connect, and then correct every subject-verb pair. He did so with ease. For a brief moment, we talked about the injustice of his errors, school racism, and the consequences of being Black and male – that many teachers and professors failed in their responsibility to adequately prepare him for college. He submitted his remaining papers with no subject-verb agreement errors. Why had no one previously taken the time to support Kelechi? The grammar “lesson” lasted no longer than 5 minutes.
Ten years later I find myself facing similar dilemmas in supporting the academic writing development of primarily Black doctoral students. However, the challenges extend beyond subject verbs into the specifics of academic writing conventions: formulating problem statements, organizing complex ideas, use of evidence, logic and argumentation, integrating theory and literature, and so on. Unlike my experience with Kelechi, my current students require way more than five minutes of support. The challenges are not unique to Black students. But, as hard as it is to admit, I do regard their developmental writing needs are more acute.
My racial identity, as well as my own struggles with academic writing, make it difficult for me to admit my observations. It is even more difficult to point the pattern out to my colleagues. In fact, embarrassing may be a more appropriate word than difficult. Yet, I realize that supporting Black student’s writing is not an issue that I can or should address on my own. It is a systemic problem that results from years of academic neglect and ill-preparation of Black students in U.S. schools. Thus it requires a thoughtful programmatic response from all faculty regardless of race. In my full paper I elaborate on how my realization places me in a racial predicament with myself, my students, and my colleagues.

Author

• Decoteau J. Irby, University of Illinois at Chicago