Policing and Teaching: How Black Male Teachers Embrace and Resist the Role of Behavior Manager?

• In Event: Growing and Sustaining Black Teachers: Examining the Intersection of Identity, Professional Development, and School Context

Abstract

Given the deleterious in- and out-of-school outcomes for some boys of color (Warren, 2016), national (King, 2015), state (New York State Education Department, 2016), and academic (Sleeter, Neal, & Kumashiro, 2014) policy makers have advocated for increasing the number of male teachers of color – specifically Black male teachers. This strategy is predicated on the belief that having same race and gender teachers can improve student learning (Brown, 2012; Milner, 2016a). Black male teacher recruitment efforts could be bolstered by, first, closely examining these teachers’ school based experiences (Author, 2017). This study explores the school-based experiences of 27 Black male teachers. Shedd (2015) characterizes schools in urban spaces serving students of color from working class families as an extension of the “universal carceral apparatus” (p. 95). In these schools, administrators and teachers prioritize discipline and punishment, first, and teaching and learning, second (Foucault, 1979; Sibblis, 2014). As Black boys exhibit the greatest in-school behavioral challenges (Catalyst, 2010), increasing the number of Black male teachers serves as a neo-institutional control mechanism for controlling Black boys’ behavior (Brokenbrough, 2015). In schools, then, the intended or unintended consequence is that Black male teachers’ primary roles become police officers (Pabon, 2014), or agents of the universal carceral apparatus.

We used the qualitative method, specifically phenomenology (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) to understand Black male teachers’ experiences in schools. Given the absence of research that explores how organizational conditions affect the experiences of Black male teachers, a phenomenological study was most appropriate for the questions we sought to answer. We conducted two rounds of semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 2006) and observations (Creswell, 2009). Findings from this study were based on data from 27 Black male teachers across fourteen schools in Boston Public Schools (BPS). We used a purposive sampling (Patton, 1990) to select Black male teachers in different types of schools, namely turnaround, exam, pilot, and traditional district schools. We also selected participants across elementary, middle, and high school who teach a range of content areas.

Black male teachers described an expectation from peers and colleagues - that in addition to their role as classroom teachers - to be the school’s primary adult responsible for redressing “misbehavior” by boys of color. One such teacher, Christopher Brooks, described his classroom as the school’s unofficial “time out room” during his preparation periods. While Brooks described developing positive relationships with the young men, serving in this dean-like role became burdensome according to Brooks: “I have little time to plan my scope and sequence, correct papers. Just the regular things daily things that teachers do.” For Brooks, as well as many other Black male teachers in this study, it was not their social location that made them effective managers of student behavior, but their ability to build relationships with their male students. This study highlights the need for policy makers advocating Black male teacher recruitment efforts in urban spaces to also examine and seek to improve the school-based experiences for these new recruits.

Authors

• Travis Bristol, Boston University

• Marcelle Mentor, Teachers College, Columbia University