Promoting Comprehensive Racial Learning Through Teaching Practices

• In Event: Interrogating Assimilationist Education and Co-Constructing the Preservice Classroom

Abstract

In cities where children experience trauma and PTSD due to community violence, school can be a place of refuge, where children feel a sense of safety and protection. Schools can also be places where students’ identities and personhoods are affirmed. However, research posits teachers intentionally and unintentionally perpetuate racist practices in schools, affecting students’ engagement, grades, and mental health (Parks,1999; Vaught et al., 20008; Sanders, 1997).
Over time these experiences can hinder the formation of a healthy identity and how students perceive themselves. Traditionally, it is the role of school social workers to promote student wellbeing by providing opportunities to all students to develop academically, socially, and emotionally. However, the author argues that teachers also play a role in the promotion of healthy identity development by leveraging SEL frameworks that integrate culture, identity, and community. According to Winkler (2012) this sort of pedagogy, one that reflects a procultural perspective whereby the inherent value of African and Black American heritage is used to counter negative images and messaging about Blacks in society. Guided by Winkler’s framework, I conducted a case study of an urban elementary private school to examine how the teacher’s practices facilitate the comprehensive racial learning of low-income Black youth; that is, their interpretations and negotiation of race, how they understand it and internalize it.
Three forms of data were collected and analyzed for this case study, including interviews, observations, and school documents. Thematic analysis was used in a systematic manner to describe how teacher’s facilitate student’s comprehensive racial learning. I applied my findings to operationalized Winkler’s framework to provide a lens in which to demonstrate how teachers promote culturally affirming, social and emotional wellness in their students. The findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of how pedogeological and SEL frameworks can integrated into teaching practice to combat the intentional and unintentional racist practices in schools.

Author

• K. Milam Brooks, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author