Liberatory Potential in K–5 Black History Instruction

• In Event: Rethinking Teaching Black History: Assessing K–12 Teachers' Black Historical Consciousness

Abstract

Introduction:

While marches, rallies, and cries for an end to anti-Black violence echo calls of the civil rights era, viral hashtags share teachers’ altruistic intent to teach for Black Lives. Meanwhile, in the classrooms of America’s majority white (NCES, 2017) K-5 teachers, Black History instruction reveals passivity in the face of Black oppression. As decades of research find Black voices and histories silenced in texts and teaching materials (Yacovone, 2018), celebrations of Black History Month have become a primary method of Black History instruction in elementary schools. First proposed by Dr. Carter G. Woodson as Negro History Week in 1926, Black History Month (hereafter BHM) offers significant possibilities to assess white teachers’ liberatory Black History instruction in schools.

Objectives

This paper presents a narrative analysis of one Wisconsin suburb’s white teacher’s K-5 Black History instruction during Black History Month. It outlines four teachers’ current practices, while exploring barriers and possibilities for a more liberatory pedagogy. The findings and recommendations will contribute to the literature on white teachers’ Black History instruction while presenting an often overlooked elementary perspective on teachers’ Black historical consciousness (King, 2018).

Data Collection:

Data collection began with anonymous surveys where teachers could “opt in” for further conversation. Transcripts from follow up interviews were run through a narrative analysis. These were read multiple times coding for "themes that a[rose] from the story" (Huber & Whelan, 1999, in Creswell, 2013), ultimately becoming "written transcripts" (Castle, 2012) as codes were established. As these codes emerged they were compared with a Liberatory BHM Framework shaped by content, consciousness, and cultural objectives for teaching Black History.

Theoretical Framework:

Following scholars’ calls for Black Historical research assessed through a Black epistemic lens (King, 2018; Dagbovie, 2018; Emdin, 2016). The Liberatory BHM framework included measures of “effective Black History instruction” King & Brown (2014), descriptors of “practiced communicators of Black History,” (Oberg & Flanagan, 2017), and components of culturally relevant pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1995).


Findings:

K-5 teachers Black History instruction was overwhelmingly found to center tropes that replicated “feel good” stories, promoted saviors and messiahs (King, 2018) and neglected Black agency and joy. Multiple barriers including instructional time, lack of materials, fear, and the impact of “whiteness” and discomfort lead to three of four teachers’ marginalization of Black History in K-5 classrooms. The final participant, a fifth grade teacher, was found to produce inclusive, liberatory Black History lessons that drew in the larger Black community, centered students’ funds of knowledge, and engaged students in the co-construction of Black Historical knowledge through a survey of music. This teachers’ liberatory instruction provides a model of practice.

Significance:

As one of the few studies that focuses on elementary teachers’ Black History instruction, it asserts the need to move beyond district-provided content, towards a Black Historical Consciousness (King, 2018) for all practitioners teaching Black History. Students’ BHM experiences in grades K-5 set the tone for their Black Historical knowledge, and further exploration of teachers’ practices will be necessary.

Author

• Brianne Rose Pitts, Western Michigan University