Teaching Black: Common Eyes All See the Same

Abstract

AbstractSupporting Black urban educators in ways that are affirming and inclusive acknowledges the complexities of being both Black in America and an agent of the school system. For equity-minded Black educators who work to disrupt systemic racism in schools, the relationship between their racial and professional identities are often in conflict. That is, Black educators often have to reconcile that they were recipients of anti-Black education and are current actors in schools’ assimilationist practices. This co/autoethnographic self-study privileges the voices of five Black teachers working in the same school and the actualization of their critical consciousness. The authors explored how they came to consistently bring their whole Black selves to the classroom and school setting. Drawing from the tenets of critical race theory of education and racial identity development in teaching, the authors operationalized what they call teaching Black. Through this lens, they interrogated their racialized navigation through the urban workplace to reveal the ways they created supportive and validating third-spaces to confront issues of anti-Blackness, abuses of power, and structural inequities for themselves, their colleagues, and most importantly their students. The chapter provides recommendations for creating and sustaining school practices that support pre-service teachers in urban teacher education and in-service Black teachers to more fully appreciate the cultural and racial community wealth they bring to their schools.KeywordsBlack teacher identity developmentSelf-care