Equitable for Whom? Insights From a Black Male Teacher Educator's Student Evaluations

• In Event: Valuing Blackmale-nificence: Black Male Educators on Equitable 21st Century Educational Systems

Abstract

Educational systems and related policies are often constructed in students' interests, primarily to protect those who may be (made) most vulnerable. Rarely, however, is consideration given to the ways Black male instructors are specifically harmed by educational systems. Therefore, firstly, this presentation will identify some of the ways that one Black male instructor experienced and perceived inequities meted out against him while he taught in two HWIs. Secondly, it will highlight contrasting perspectives of how students celebrated and affirmed his courses. Thirdly, these juxtapositions will be used to offer critique and recommendations for some of the ways higher education must be transformed for continuous critical cultivation of equitable educational systems today and in the 21st century. Notably, this transformation is paramount for Black male instructors’ well-being.
The theoretical framework of this presentation is a fusion of critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012) and hegemonic whiteness (Cabrera, 2018), with the specificity of a BlackCrit (Dumas & ross, 2016) analytic. Together they axiomatize the importance of experiential knowledge from individuals who have been made vulnerable by systems, and facilitate a specific analysis of Black male teaching in classrooms at HWIs.
Informed by a critical race methodology (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), this presentation shares details from the practitioner research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) of one instructor who taught five courses across two HWIs in the northeastern region of the US.
The presentation will draw on anonymous qualitative data collected from 112 student evaluations across two HWIs. An analysis of those data provides details that inform the insights detailed in this presentation.
This presentation will highlight three key insights. Firstly, commentary on the instructor’s courses evidenced tension between stories of deficits versus stories of strengths. Secondly, comments about the instructor revealed tension between stories about a problem, versus stories about a professional. Finally, the data collectively illustrated multiple ways that current systems of student evaluations of teaching perpetuate anti-Blackness and misandry (for this practitioner). By extension, the presentation will call upon higher education institutions to transform their institutional cultures, specifically for student evaluations of teaching, so that they may contribute to the critical work of cultivating equitable educational systems for the 21st century. This is important not only for students but also for Black male instructors (and other minoritized constituents).
The increased visibility of violence against Black males in the wider society has renewed calls for higher education institutions to consider their contexts and roles in contributing to Black suffering (Dumas, 2014). This presentation is of great scholarly significance because it centralizes the instructional presence of Black males in higher education, and highlights some of the ways they are made (more) vulnerable to the vicissitudes of whiteness and the endemicity of anti-Blackness in higher education--not just in the wider society. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature on Black males in the academy and on teaching and higher education policy-making. Therefore, this presentation advances important recommendations for cultivating equitable educational systems for the current climate as well as the twenty-first century.

Author

• Shawn S. Savage, University of North Carolina - Wilmington