“The Foundation of Teaching”: Exploring Teachers’ Understandings of Their Relationships With Black Students

• In Event: Operationalizing Cultural Responsiveness to See, Center, Support, and Improve the Conditions for and Experiences With Black Education

Abstract

This study utilizes critical bifocality and BlackCrit to explore suburban public school teachers’ approaches to developing caring relationships with Black students and adopting culturally relevant pedagogies. Interview data revealed findings related to three themes: (1) teacher and student identity plays a role in teachers’ approaches to culturally relevant teaching and developing relationships with Black students, (2) training for culturally relevant teaching is severely lacking, and (3) teachers see connections between teacher-student relationships and their culturally relevant practices, despite a lack of connection between these concepts in their training. These findings offer insight into the support and changes that are needed to shift the field toward a standard of caring for Black students and implementing culturally relevant pedagogy.

Author

• Siettah Parks, Research for Action