Using Social Networking to Successfully Navigate Student Leadership as Preservice Teachers at a Historically Black College/University

• In Event: Creating Community: Student Support Networks for Black Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

Our paper explores how two Black pre-service teachers' use of their social networks within and beyond the university influenced their approaches to handling academic challenges and seeking support in completing a traditional teacher education program at a HBCU. Social network theory is employed to examine the ways collaboration and accessibility of resources influenced two Black former pre-service teachers' experiences. This theory examines a person’s interactions, the context of their relationships with individuals or network structures, process of gathering information for advancement, and impact on their personal and professional livelihood (Bjorklund, Daly, Ambrose, & Van Es., 2020).
Our research questions were as follows:
1. What is the role of a campus-based teacher professional organization in building and maintaining relationships between Black pre-service teachers and faculty at a HBCU?
2. What physical and virtual spaces support the academic and social advancement of Black pre-service teachers’ who engage in a campus-based teacher professional organization at a HBCU?
3. How do the pre-service teachers’ experiences extend beyond the HBCU and into the teaching profession?
Collaborative autoethnography (Coia & Taylor, 2009) also informs this paper, and helps contextualize our experiences and pushes us to critically reflect on our relationships with other students and professors. The sources of the data include two Zoom meetings. All interviews were transcribed, and reviewed by each author for credibility and member-checking. Email correspondences and photos of events hosted by Urban Educators of the Future (UEF) were also used to confirm initial findings from our interviews.
The themes center on restoring relationships between faculty and students, the importance of spaces for students to congregate, UEF meetings, and advocacy work beyond the university.
This paper also examines how Black pre-service teachers use their social networks to cultivate a sense of belonging, and strengthen faculty’s engagement with students. Thus the scholarly significance is that improving teacher education programs must consider the experiential knowledge of Black teacher educators,and Black pre-service teachers who are marginalized because of their identities instead of only national and regional accreditation organizations or state regulations (Carter Andrews, Richmond, Warren, Petchauer & Floden, 2018).

Authors

• Leta Hooper, Bowie State University
  Presenting Author

• Wyletta S. Gamble-Lomax, Coppin State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Juanita Ashby-Bey, Coppin State University
  Presenting Author

• Eric Nelson, Alief Independent School District
  Presenting Author