Raising the Critical Consciousness of African American Students in Baldwin Hills: A Portrait of an Exemplary African American Male Teacher

Abstract

This collaborative, participatory study examines the pedagogical practices and beliefs of an African American teacher at a private middle school located in an affluent African American community. The study's focus is twofold: (a) to explicate the principles guiding this teacher's efforts to enhance his African American students' moral, intellectual, and spiritual development; and (b) to discuss the ways in which his emancipatory pedagogies provide a fertile learning ground for those students. The authors maintain that this case study typifies what happens when a school's mission is positively aligned with its teachers' beliefs and practices. The innovative school setting is described, and a literature review focusing on the beliefs and practices of exemplary, culturally relevant African American teachers contextualizes the study. Much of the existing research literature on the education of African American students has sounded the alarm about the failure of public schools throughout the land, and especially those located in urban areas, to effectively educate Black pupils (Shujaa, 1994; Woodson, 1933/1993; Wright, 1984). A variety of schooling options have been explored and debated in an effort to meet the needs of the ever-growing population of school-age African American children. These options include state-run schools (Anderson, 1988; Butchart, 1976), desegregated schools (Wells & Crain, 1997), Black independent schools (Lee, 1992), and White independent schools (Borland, 1996). A critical issue that has emerged from this debate is the important role that African American educators play in the academic achievement of Black youth. Foster (1991,1993, 1994, 1995) argues that African American educators, because they typically are able to express cultural solidarity and communicate with African American students in styles that are familiar, are better equipped to recognize the historical, political, and economic realities that shape the educational opportunities and resources available to Black students. She further contends that quality Black teachers exhibit a strong sense of commitment to Black youth that is fueled by a keen understanding of the context in which these students are being educated. This results in a sense of urgency that compels these educators to view education as a tool for transforming not only the minds but also the lives of their African American students. The present article describes an exploratory investigation of the beliefs and practices of one African American teacher who exemplifies such a commitment. This study was drawn from a larger, ongoing ethnographic study of African American teachers in the greater Los Angeles, California, metropolitan area. Utilizing qualitative research methodology, primarily classroom observations and interviews, the smaller study examined data collected over a nine-month period in 1998 and 1999 at the La Cienaga campus of the New Roads School, located in Los Angeles's predominantly Black Baldwin Hills neighborhood. In response to recent literature from the field of critical race theory in education that highlights the significance and benefits of participatory research methodologies for investigations of populations of color (Matsuda, 1987; Matsuda, Lawrence, Delgado, & Crenshaw, 1993; Parker, 1998; Pizarro, 1998; Stanfield & Dennis, 1993), this study was designed as a collaborative effort between a researcher and two practitioners. It also draws upon the tradition of storytelling within critical race theory, as described by Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, and Thomas (1995), Delgado (1995), and Matsuda et al. (1993), as a means of illuminating the ways in which the stories of people of color enter into a dialogical relationship with extant sociological and legal analyses of racial inequality. As Matsuda maintains, stories that are told from this perspective incorporate more fully the voices of those about whom the story is being told. …