Teachers, leadership, and Black boys’ racialized funds of knowledge

Abstract

While an abundant literature has theorized the complex and layered reasons why many young Black men choose not to teach and/or leave the K-12 classroom, comparatively less has been written about the professional journeys of those few who stay and slowly make their way through teaching and into teacher leadership. In this article, we story a young Black male educator’s professional trajectory across K-12 spaces as a teacher, an instructional coach, and a K-12 public policy research associate. Our findings emphasize how the racialized funds of knowledge that Ryan Holmes (a pseudonym) accumulated as a Black boy in a highly segregated rural South Carolina town were the social catechism that later guided his professional interactions with (White female) K-12 teachers and administrators. We conclude with the argument for hearing and receiving Black male teacher-leaders’ lived experiences in hyper-segregated K-12 spaces.