Investigating Preservice Black Male Teachers’ Identity as Men, Teachers, and Researchers Through Undergraduate Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT Research of preservice Black male teachers’ experiences in teacher education programs is limited in general and specifically at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Moreover, there is little research about the initiatives established to support Black men in teacher education programs, such as undergraduate research experiences. Thus, this participatory action research project uses African American male theory and the scholar identity model to examine how an undergraduate research experience about Black male teachers helped to enhance preservice teachers’ unique identities as Black men, teachers, and researchers. The data corpus for this study consists of individual and focus group interviews, video and audio recorded research sessions, pictures, artifacts, and documents. The findings illustrate how the three participants’ self-proclaimed identities were enhanced and further developed through the research project. This study offers recommendations on how to support preservice Black male teachers in teacher education programs and undergraduate research experiences.