Abstract
This paper explores the educational journeys of three tenured, Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) professors who serve at public research-intensive universities as professors of education. We discuss how our journeys in and through Adventist education impact our pedagogy and offer insights that can be helpful to other Christian educators, students, and parents who would like to learn how to navigate a path to a career in higher education. The three of us could be described as somewhat of an anomaly in terms of our identities and positionalities as Black male Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) professors in public universities—yet we know that there are many other people from the neighborhoods and churches where we grew up who could be doing similar work but for various reasons did not get access to this opportunity. The goal of this critical trio-ethnographic paper is to offer a counter-narrative on Black male SDA education and possibilities, through our personal reflections and analyses of our educational experiences in SDA education that inform the way we engage our students now as SDA and culturally relevant teachers in public universities.
Highlights
The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates a robust and comprehensive educational system that provides instruction from birth to the highest levels of tertiary education
While most of the aforementioned studies reveal key variables in how Black males form identities primarily, the purpose of this paper is to explore how three Black males who are professors have been able to flourish in their journeys, with an emphasis on understanding how their experiences in Adventist education have impacted their journeys
While Dr Douglas and Dr Denham knew each other from attending Oakwood at the same time and serving in Dynamic Praise choir together, their friendship and collegial relationship only developed after Oakwood
Summary
The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates a robust and comprehensive educational system that provides instruction from birth to the highest levels of tertiary education. As with any institution and organization, one’s experiences within structures and systems are impacted by and filtered through the complexity of our multi-dimensional identities, and that of those who operate and control the systems. While navigating the path from adolescence to adulthood is without a doubt challenging for most people, growing up as a Black male in most geographical and geopolitical spaces is arduous. Growing up in or around the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church adds additional layers of consideration (translated: opportunity for some and complexity for others) to the identities and ideologies that youth develop. As members of a Christian denomination that believes in the observance of Saturday as the Sabbath and promotes a health message that includes the avoidance of alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, pork, and shell fish, life can be tough for a young Adventist boy or girl trying to explain to his non-Adventist teammates why he or she cannot eat certain things or participate in particular social activities (i.e., play in competitive soccer or basketball games held on Friday night or on Saturday).
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