Exploring How Two Black Men's Resistance to Teaching Narratives Contributes to the Recruit and Retain Discourse/Dilemma

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Scholar to Scholar: A Collaboration Between Practitioner Scholars, Researchers, and Organizational Stakeholders

Abstract

In this study, we consider the increasing power and presence of a national discourse to recruit and retain teachers of color, particularly teachers who are Black men, who make up just 2% of U.S. teachers. Research illustrates, on one hand, the value that Black men teachers add to students’ learning experiences (Gershenon, Holt, & Papageorge, 2016); and, on the other hand, there are critiques of the racialized expectations of Black men to enact pedagogies of compliance, particularly for youth of color in urban schools (Bristol & Mentor, 2018; Pabon, 2016; Villegas & Irvine, 2010). Although Black men in teacher roles are few in number, they often see themselves responding to the call for and commitment to social change (Lynn, 2002). While we see the importance of diversity in the teacher workforce, we ultimately see the “recruit and retain” discourse as a discourse about race and resistance.

We argue that a greater focus should be placed not on how institutions can coax more Black men into becoming teachers but, rather, on understanding Black men’s resistance to teaching as a site of critical knowledge. As such, to understand these sites of critical knowledge, we use a transformational resistance theory (Solorzano & Delgado-Bernal, 2001) to explore how Black men, as critically conscious agents, actively resist “traditional” teaching roles in schools. This study focuses on two purposefully selected (Maxwell, 2012) Black men–Dr. Jackson, an elementary school principal and Mr. Thomas, a director of an outside of school time program for Black, high-school boys. In particular, this study explores a) how these two Black men frame their resistance to teaching narratives and b) how institutional power shapes their discursive and resistance practices.

We use a Critical Narrative Analysis to better understand, through in-depth interviews, the nature of their resistance to teaching narratives and to examine how their language reflects both a sense of agency and a meta-critical awareness of racial inequities. Preliminary findings suggest that these Black men’s resistance to teaching narratives are the anti-thesis to the broader discourse and national effort to diversify the teacher workforce because their narratives raise salient discussion points about a) the racialized duality of overt-compliance and covert knowledge construction in the context of teaching and learning, b) what it means for Black men to be resistant inside and outside of a White-dominant, institution and c) the value and intellectual contributions of transformationally resistant Black men in both traditional and non-traditional teaching roles.

Third Author and Second Author’s resistance narratives illustrate how some Black men in educator roles demonstrate resistance in ways that are grounded in advancing racial equity in schools. The findings from this study are significant because they contribute insight into legislation and school policy arguments on racial diversity. Second, we see these findings generating new methodological tools and research inquiries into the “recruit and retain” discourse/dilemma. Finally, these findings have the potential to extend theoretical frames for investigating how institutional racism operates in the context of teaching, learning and school policy.

Authors

• George Jackson, Mt. Laurel Schools

• Malcom Thomas, Neighborhood Learning Alliance

• Adan Alvarez, Rowan University