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

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Given the body of research indicating the positive impact Black teachers have on students, there is a need for scholarship highlighting the complex nature of their teaching and learning experiences. Thus, this symposium aims to achieve the following objectives: (a) utilize historical inquiry to explore the Black teacher construct through metaphor and consider implications for addressing their varied and layered professional experiences; (b) examine how Black teachers, at the intersection of various identity markers, confront and overcome systemic challenges in urban school settings; (c) explore professional development supports tailored to, and differentiated based on, Black teachers’ developmental experiences as novice, mid-career, and veteran teachers; and (d) examine how Black teachers experience and navigate a quasi-market of school choice and competition.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research Focus on Black Education

Chair

• Conra D. Gist, University of Arkansas

Papers

• Understanding the Black Teacher Through Metaphor - Anthony L. Brown, The University of Texas - Austin; Mary E. Dilworth; Keffrelyn D. Brown, The University of Texas at Austin

• What Difference Does Blackness Make? The Impact of Racial Affinity Professional Development on Black Teachers - Micia Mosely, Independent Researcher

• Policing and Teaching: How Black Male Teachers Embrace and Resist the Role of Behavior Manager? - Travis Bristol, Boston University; Marcelle Mentor, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Public Educators Under Private Management: Black Teachers' Experiences in Quasi-Markets of School Choice and Competition - Terrenda Corisa White, University of Colorado - Boulder

Discussants

• Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University

• Derrick Alridge, University of Virginia