Hidden Lessons in the Creation of a Future Black Educator (FBE) Ecosystem

• In Event: Cultivating Teachers of Color: Culturally and Linguistically Affirming Programs and Spaces, Research, and Racial Justice

Abstract

Purpose
The California State University (CSU) system has documented challenges in attracting and retaining Black students and, consequently, future Black educators (CSU, 2023). This study examined a CSU, community-engaged, and Afrocentric ecosystem to attract and prepare Black teacher candidates as a model for attracting and retaining Black educators. The Future Black Educators (FBE) ecosystem is designed to support Black students and teachers at multiple levels through Afrocentric, culturally relevant mentorship and teacher development. This paper outlines the FBE ecosystem and identifies institutional considerations and barriers encountered in the pilot semester of implementation.

The Future Black Educator (FBE) ecosystem comprises a network of Black educators—including teacher candidates, teachers, families, K-12 students, and Black professors—collaborating with education and community-based organizations. It is designed to encourage Black youth to explore possible careers in education and to support Black teacher candidates through Afrocentric, culturally-engaged mentorship and teacher development. In the creation of Black affinity spaces, Black students and teacher candidates alike receive emotional support from peers and interact with Black teachers and professors as mentors. This paper describes the FBE ecosystem and considerations at both the programmatic and institutional levels.

Theoretical Framework
The future Black educator support is framed by sociological theories of ecosystems as interconnected layers and elements (Bronfenbrenner, 1981; Eccles & Roeser, 2010; Neimi, 2021). Principles of Afrocentricity (Asante, 2017; King, 2005), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), community-engaged teacher preparation (Zygmunt & Clark, 2021), and the power of intergenerational mentoring (Satterly et al., 2018) and role modeling weave through every aspect of the ecosystem.

Methods & Data Sources
Three key elements comprise the FBE ecosystem (see Figure 1): FBE clubs, Black teacher candidates, and the FBE Community of Practice (CoP). Afterschool clubs met weekly for one hour under the direction of Black teacher candidates. Candidates received weekly feedback, lesson plan support, and mentoring from university faculty and a community-based teacher educator at each school site. The monthly CoP provided additional avenues of support as members networked and generated solutions collectively. Data consisted of written agendas, candidate lesson plans, meeting minutes, written communications, contracts, journal notes, and culminating student teaching demonstrations about Black history.

Results
The findings revealed that candidates struggled to apply the CoP books (i.e., Asante, 2017; Boutte et al., 2021) to lessons and activities, limiting their ability to engage the youth in culturally responsive and Afrocentric ways. Candidates also required support in afterschool contexts to implement universal design learning (UDL) strategies with Black youth that were experiencing learning difficulties. Lastly, navigating gatekeepers and fiscal bureaucracies and building internal and community-based relationships among disparate groups and activities required intentionality in leveraging positional power and racial positionality.

Scholarly Significance
We are called to dismantle systems of racial injustice and construct new possibilities. The FBE ecosystem highlights the possibilities of creating culturally affirming and sustaining spaces for both proximal (i.e., teacher candidate) and distal outcomes (i.e., secondary students) in Black teacher development. However, constructing this possibility requires the simultaneous dismantling of institutional barriers.

Authors

• Jolan Smith, California State University - Long Beach

• Rebecca M. Bustamante, California State University - Long Beach