Solidarity Isn't Enough: Race, Gender, and Teacher Professional Development

• In Event: A Nuanced Portrait of the Demographic Divide: Resisting Monolithic Representations of Teachers of Color

Abstract

This paper explores the National Education Association’s implementation of a weekly professional development series for early career Black male in-service teachers in Mississippi. NEA’s PD series in Mississippi is a part of the organization’s larger initiative, Early Career Learning Labs (ECLL), which is an effort aimed at deepening the content and pedagogical expertise of NEA-affiliated teachers. This iteration of the series, which took place over a five-month period, consisted of two face-to-face meetings in Mississippi (one at the beginning and one at the end of the PD series), as well as weekly virtual coaching sessions using Zoom, a video conferencing platform. This paper is guided by the following research questions:

1. How does the National Education Association organize professional development to mentor and coach Black men in a Black male teacher affinity group in Mississippi?
2. What practices does the National Education Association facilitator use to coach and mentor Black men in a Black male teacher affinity group in Mississippi?
3. To what degree do Black male teachers describe changes to their practice after participating in in the National Education Association affinity group?

To answer each of the aforementioned research questions, the authors conduced semi-structured interviews with each of the ECLL participants and the group’s facilitators. We also reviewed video of the virtual coaching sessions. We found NEA designed this iteration of the ECLL to be more attentive to Black male teachers’ social and emotional needs. NEA facilitators organized the ECLL to provide Black male teachers with a space to emote and validated the emotions that participants shared. By intentionally designing this iteration of the ECLL to function as an enclave for Black male educators, NEA has created a space where their voices, perspectives, and experiences were prioritized.
As a result of participating in the ECLL, Black male teachers described several changes to their practice. For example, the participants said they learned how to develop deeper and more intimate relationships with their students. This included taking a greater interest in their students’ lives at home. The Black male teacher ECLL participants believed that the supports they received from the facilitators deepened their capacity to develop intimate relationships with their students.
The facilitators drew on several practices to mentor the Black male teacher ECLL participants. Most notably, the facilitators mentored through love by communicating directly to the participants that they were emotionally invested in their participants’ success as educators. The second practice the facilitators developed was modeling, specifically modeling how to enact specific practices, particularly those related to being attentive to their own social and emotional needs—such as developing a self-care plan. This paper also considers how the series benefited from NEA having an expansive view of who has the capacity to mentor Black male teachers, challenging the seemingly common-sense notion that interventions aimed at Black men should be facilitated by Black men.

Authors

• Travis J. Bristol, University of California - Berkeley

• Patrick Johnson, Sonoma State University