Teaching While Black: Inequity Within the Process

• In Event: Teacher Education, the Tenure Track, and Racial Justice: Insights From Three Black Males in Historically and Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

As we challenge students on the issues of equity and accountability in society, the very same dynamics are often being endorsed on the college/university campus. The present issues of race and racism in society exist in Predominantly White institutions across America (Henry, 1993). More importantly, faculty of color continue to remain underrepresented on university campuses (Wolfe & Freeman, 2013). This presentation stems from a paper on the experience of a Black instructor at Predominantly White institution. Jones (2021) described the constant intersections of racism and microaggressions that impacted his daily experiences as a graduate instructor at a Historically and Predominantly White institution (HWI). There are no easy approaches that challenge deep-rooted systems that preserve gender and racial inequities within educational institutions, but discourse on creating pathways for Black men assistant professors are a start with the aim of broadening and deepening our understanding of our present reality. Also, conversations work toward dismantling systems of oppression within teacher education programs. The purpose of this inquiry was to explore the racial experiences of a Black faculty member navigating the teacher education program and tenure process at an HWI and understand the successes and challenges throughout this expedition.
To better understand how Black faculty manage racial conflict in the higher education context, it is critical their stories are amplified to substantiate their experiences. For this scholarship, critical race theory is used as a tool to analyze the lived experiences of Black faculty in the academy (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). I apply CRT as a way to contextualize the stories of a Black faculty member in higher education to better understand the consequences of race and racism in my experiences.
This autoethnographic presentation re-stories my teaching experiences as an assistant professor who teaches in a teacher education program. Additionally, it describes my experience traversing the tenure process as the only Black person in my department. This research depicts my own perspective as a professor in a teacher education program, considering my personal challenges, journeys, and multiple realities to form my own experience. In generating this research perspective, my hope was to emphasize distinguishing moments within the broader context of higher education as a gesture towards creating questions for researchers, as well as Black male professors and those who are associated with them.
The author concluded that there is much to learn about understanding the culture at a predominantly and historically White university. As I continue to succeed and encounter racism in higher education, I have determined to stay the course and strive for positive interactions with my students who are teachable. I assert that while I attempted to utilize different instructional approaches, none of those approaches reflected challenging belief systems. More specifically, it addresses how Black male assistant professors are exposed in the classroom when challenging belief systems and challenges learning institutions to develop racially just work environments. Therefore, I challenge learning institutions to develop work environments committed to racial justice.

Author

• Kevin L. Jones, Stephen F. Austin State University