To Lift as We Climb: A Textbook Analysis of the Segregated School Experience

Abstract

In this paper we share findings of a textbook analysis in which we explored the treatment of segregated education in eight, widely-used secondary United States history and government textbooks. We positioned our findings within the historiography related to the African American school experience which challenges the notion that the lack of resources allocated to Black schools in many areas of the country necessarily equated to a substandard educational experience for Black children. In our analysis we found textbook coverage to be episodically robust, but generally lacking in sufficient context to promote students’ recognition of the complexity and nuance of the development and disintegration of African American education. Using the theoretical lens of critical race theory, we suggest that failure of teachers and teacher educators to include recognition of the African American education experience serves to enshrine an approach to learning about America’s segregated education history that may contribute to excessively abstract generalizations and perpetuation of historical racial stereotypes.