Toward a theory of culturally relevant critical teacher care: African American teachers’ definitions and perceptions of care for African American students

Thinking Problems

This study compared academic achievement of African American (n = 29) and European American (n= 145) teachers in research methodology courses. It found that African American teachers obtained lower overall course averages compared to White teachers and scored below Whites on research article evaluations, written research proposals, and midterm and final examinations. Effect sizes ranged from 0.60 to 1.37 standard deviations. This suggests that underachievement in research methodology courses may prevent African American teachers from successfully completing their theses and dissertations, thereby restricting numbers of Blacks who subsequently obtain graduate degrees and/or obtain certification for positions as school administrators. The implications of these findings for efforts aimed at increasing numbers of African American school administrators are discussed. INTRODUCTION Students from ethnic minority backgrounds typically have highest poverty rates and highest school dropout rates in United States (Williams, 1992). As such, Aldair (1984) contends that these students need support of teachers from their own cultures who have an understanding of cultural and family customs and behaviors and who can serve as role models for educational attainment. African American students are similar to European American students inasmuch as their performance is affected by teacher perceptions, expectations, and interactions. Unfortunately, however, researchers have found that teachers of students with backgrounds different from their own tend to hold lower expectations for these students' performance and subsequently tend to deliver less praise and positive reinforcement (Hilliard, 1989). Moreover, Aaron and Powell (1982) report that European American teachers provide negative feedback to African American students two-and-one-half times more frequently than do African American teachers. Given that low expectations and negative feedback adversely affect students' performance (Persell, 1977; Rist, 1970), it is not surprising that students of color are disproportionately represented among low-ability groups (Oakes, 1985). Stewart, Meier, and England (1989) assert that because African American teachers frequently share similar racial experiences with African American students, these teachers are more likely to be supportive of African American students who require emotional or cognitive assistance. According to Stewart et al. (1989), African American teachers are less likely to use inappropriate discipline measures on African American students or to conclude that African American students belong in low-ability tracks. For these reasons, England and Meier (1985) conclude that African American teachers can play an important role in improving quality of education provided to African American students. Indeed, Martinez (1991) contends that a shortage of minority teachers could culminate in the underachievement of minority students, provide little incentive for minority students to advance in school, and negatively affect [minority students'] career and life aspirations (p. 24). Currently, approximately 13 million students, or 30% of school-aged population in United States, are ethnic minorities (i.e., Alaskan, Native American, Latino, African American, or Asian American) (Clarke, Nystrom, & Perez, 1996). Minorities in Mississippi, New Mexico, and California now represent majority of children of school age in those states (Quality Education for Minorities Project, 1990). Persons of color constitute majority of students enrolled in 23 of nation's 25 largest school districts (Gay, 1989; Newby & Dorrah, 1993; Villegas, 1991), with most urban school districts being comprised of more than 50% minority students. Demographers predict that by turn of century, students of color will average 46% of school-aged youth nationwide. In stark contrast, proportion of minority teachers is expected to decline from 10% in 1987 to a mere 5% of all U. …

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. …

Understanding urban teachers’ beliefs about African American students has become important because (a) many teachers are reluctant to teach students from other cultures, and (b) most teachers are European American. To construct a psychometrically sound measure of teacher beliefs, the authors investigate the measurement properties of a teacher beliefs factor. This factor was selected from an inventory of items that purported to measure urban teachers’ cultural awareness and beliefs. Measurement invariance of the teacher beliefs factor across European American, African American, and Hispanic American teachers addressed its construct validity. The authors examine the psychometric properties of these items using graded response multilevel analysis. The final 5-item factor showed highest level of invariance for African American and European American teachers but did not fit Hispanic American teachers well. All the five items had good psychometric properties. Analyses of latent means showed that African American teachers had more positive beliefs about African American students than European American teachers did. However, the latent scores were bimodally distributed for African American teachers showing that one subgroup of African American teachers had similar beliefs as European American teachers while another subgroup had more positive beliefs.

Teaching (Cooperative) Business: The “Bluefield Experiment” and the Future of Black Business Schools

ABSTRACTPublic schools have increasing numbers of its teachers fitting into one demographic, white and female, while the numbers of Black/African American teachers decrease. This trend has not changed since the publication of Black on Black Education: Personally Engaged Pedagogy for/by African American Pre-Service Teachers. Furthermore, African American collegiate students who decide to enter teaching may face a chilly climate because of their cultural and educational experiences as they encounter devaluation in the classroom. This work provides a critical race reflective examination into the teaching and learning experiences and dilemmasI using personally engaged pedagogy as a means of enhancing the quality of the learning experiences for African American pre-service teachers. Critical race theory (CRT) and Critical Race Feminism (CRF) will be used as the theoretical framework for understanding the role of race and gender in teacher education. Critical autoethnography is the methodological approach used to examine the subject phenomenon. Field notes, research journaling, and student memoirs provide data for this critical autoethnography. This work highlights the significance of CRT/CRF’s unique voice of color and CRF’s multidimensionality to engaged pedagogy, creating a personally engaged pedagogy.

In 1954, the year of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, approximately 82,000 African American teachers were responsible for the education of the nation's two million African American public school students (Hawkins, 1994). A decade later, over 38,000 Black teachers and administrators had lost their positions in 17 southern and border states (Ethridge, 1979; Holmes, 1990). Between 1975 and 1985, the number of Black students majoring in education declined by 66%; and another 21,515 Black teachers lost their jobs between 1984 and 1989 (Smith, 1987). As of 1991, approximately 232,000 African American teachers constituted 8% of the teaching force, while African American students constituted 16.4% of the national K-12 student population (Hawkins, 1994; National Center for Education Statistics, 1991). If current trends continue, projections are that by the year 2000, 35% of all public school students in the United States will be of minority background; however, only 5% of teachers will be members of minority groups (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1987; Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., 1992) (see Table I).TABLE ITHE LOSS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN TEACHERS FOLLOWING BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION: A SNAPSHOTPre-1954--Approximately 82,000 African American teachers were responsible for the education of 2 million African American children.1954--The Brown v. Board of Education decision was handed down.1954-1965--More than 38,000 African American teachers and administrators in 17 southern and border states lost their jobs.1975-1985--The number of African American students majoring in education declined by 66%.1984-1989--An estimated 37,717 minority candidates and teachers--including 21,515 African Americans--were eliminated as a result of newly installed teacher certification and teacher education program admissions requirements.By 2000--Only 5% of the teaching force will be of minority background, while 35% of the student population will be people of color.Forty years after Brown, most U.S. students go through 12 years of schooling without ever having met a minority teacher, and approximately 70% of all minority students continue to attend predominantly or exclusively minority schools (Hawkins, 1994). Through no fault that can be attributed to the positive aspects of the 1954 decision itself, it is clear that African Americans have failed to get the results they envisioned. This is especially true with regard to the African American teaching force. Concurring with Mercer and Mercer (1986), who claim that [operating] a public school system without Black teachers is [like teaching] White supremacy without saying a word (p. 105), this article argues that the loss of African American teachers in public school settings has had a lasting negative impact on all students, particularly African American students and the communities in which they reside. It further maintains that although the shrinking African American teacher pool has been attributed to several factors, it is partly a fall-out of how Brown was implemented by White American policy makers.THE ALMOST-LOST PROFESSIONThe message transmitted by the Brown decision, and by the desegregation strategies implemented to carry out its mandates, implied that the White education system was intrinsically better than the Black education system. The latter was deemed expendable in the interest of the cause of public school desegregation. White school systems did have better facilities and greater operational resources--the primary areas in which segregated, separate-but-equal school systems were decidedly not equal--however, high-quality facilities do not necessarily translate into a better academic system. The quality of teaching and the degree of concern for students' welfare shown by African American teachers within those facilities are crucial factors that cannot be overlooked. …

Race and Social Policy, edited by Sandra Edmonds Crewe, views current-day racism toward Black Americans in the United States through the lens of critical race theory, the concept that systemic racism permeates laws, policies, and institutions. With its legal origins, critical race theory can also provide a framework for understanding social policy because it relates to racism. In the medical field, this theory may be a less well-known concept which readers can be introduced to integrate into their practice and understanding of the impact of policy decisions. This book includes 12 articles from a special edition of the journal Social Work in Public Health first published in 2019 (volume 34, issue 1). These articles were mostly written by social workers with a focus that would be most beneficial to social workers. Other disciplines involved in developmental and behavioral pediatric care may find them useful in understanding the social context around racial issues through the lens of critical race theory. These chapters investigate the bidirectional effects of social policy and racism in the United States beginning with the slave trade, emphasizing the importance of taking a historical perspective. Topics examined include poverty, the workplace, media, housing, elections, education, welfare, fatherhood, disability, justice, the elderly, and the Christian church. The first chapter provides an overview which most readers could find helpful in deciding which additional chapters may be most interesting and relevant to their practice. For example, as a pediatric clinician, the chapter on Black fathers was enlightening. Specifically, it connected current family structures with historical context, emphasizing the ways slavery devalued the family unit and led to mothers taking on the sole caregiving role. The book calls its readers to action and provides some suggested policy changes. For example, the welfare chapter recommends collecting racial demographic data, and the chapter on education highlights the importance of recruiting Black and Latinx teachers. However, some readers may expect and hope for more recommendations in all chapters. By including only, the original journal articles published in 2019, the authors have missed many opportunities for editing these articles to fit the audience of 2023 and beyond. Noting, for example, the racial disparities highlighted by COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a multitude of events since 2019 have made prominent the impact of systemic racism in the United States. Acknowledgement and analysis of these major incidents using a critical race theory frame would strengthen the text for readers in the present day. Furthermore, since the journal's publication in 2019, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of using equitable and inclusive language. In the past few years, many professional clinical organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have embraced and distributed guidelines for more equitable and inclusive language. However, this text does not acknowledge these language changes over time. Notably, chapter 9 “Inequities in Family Quality of Life for African American Families Raising Children with Disabilities” includes the use of the outdated term, “mental retardation,” which is now perceived as pejorative. While the data presented in the chapter were collected in 2011 before the publication of the DSM-5, it was unsettling to read the term in a book published in 2023 with no explicit acknowledgement of the way language has progressed over the past decade. A book emphasizing critical race theory and the marginalization of Black Americans should also be sensitive to the experiences of other marginalized groups. For health care professionals, critical race theory provides a framework for understanding the systemic racial inequities their patients continue to face. This book examines current social policy and provides some useful suggestions for improvements in policy to create a more equitable and racially sensitive society, but it could benefit from being updated to provide readers with more current information. Furthermore, for those affiliated with a university, these articles may be available in databases to which their universities subscribe. With limited modifications made since 2019, the book and journal articles are nearly the same.

Purpose: This study aimed to determine if African American students were disproportionately represented between the years of 2004 and 2014 in the primary disability category of Speech or Language Impairment (S/LI) under the 2004 reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.Method: S/LI enrollment data from the Office of Special Education Programs and general enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics were analyzed to compare the risk of primary S/LI category enrollment of African American students to that of all other students. Risk ratios with 99% confidence intervals were calculated for each state across the 10 years studied.Results: An average of 75% of states disproportionately represented African American students in the S/LI category each year; on average, 62% underrepresented African American students, and 14% overrepresented them. A post hoc analysis of the relationship between African American student representation and population densities revealed that states with high African American population densities almost exclusively underrepresented African American students and states with low densities tended toward a proportionate representation.Conclusions: African American students were largely underrepresented in the category of S/LI in the years studied. These findings, alongside historic and chronic overrepresentation in other categories of special education, are discussed in the context of the fragmented harm theory (Payne, 1984; Voulgarides, 2018; Voulgarides, Zwerger, & Noguera, 2013) and the disability rights and critical race theory (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013).Supplemental Material S1. Numbers of African American (AA) students and Non-African American (NAA) students categorized under S/LI and attending public schools for each state across the years studied. Robinson, G. C., & Norton, P. C. (2019). A decade of disproportionality: A state-level analysis of African American students enrolled in the primary disability category of speech or language impairment. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50, 267–282. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_LSHSS-17-0149

The frequent police killings during the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning among Americans from all backgrounds and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into a global force. This manuscript addresses major issues to aid practitioners in the effective treatment of African Americans via the lens of Critical Race Theory and the Bioecological Model. We place the impacts of racism on Black families in historical context and outline the sources of Black family resilience. We critique structural racism embedded in all aspects of psychology and allied fields. We provide an overview of racial socialization and related issues affecting the parenting decisions in Black families, as well as a detailed overview of impacts of structural racism on couple dynamics. Recommendations are made for engaging racial issues in therapy, providing emotional support and validation to couples and families experiencing discrimination and racial trauma, and using Black cultural strengths as therapeutic resources.

This article examines the benefits and tradeoffs for African American professional educators and students that resulted from the profound Brown v. Board of Education decision. It addresses the impact of the Brown decision immediately after it was rendered for African American educators and students and the legacy of Brown for both of these groups during the previous 50th years. The article also presents the findings from a study of 36 current and recently retired African American high school principals in North Carolina and Alabama to determine their perceptions of the legacy of the Brown decision for both African American educators and high school students. Additionally, the article presents the views of a small sample of these principals who were interviewed regarding the degree to which African American high school students are currently involved in student leadership roles and school activities. Results of the study indicated that the vast majority of the respondents believed that Brown had benefited both African American educators and students; however, they indicated that it had some unintended consequences such as a precipitous drop in the number of African American teachers to serve as role models, competent professionals, and authority figures for students-both Black and White. Furthermore, they perceive that, particularly in integrated high schools where White students are in the majority, the curriculum usually does not adequately address the history, contributions, culture, and experiences of African Americans. Moreover, the principals perceive that African American students in fully integrated schools, with few exceptions, are underrepresented in school leadership roles and are often reluctant to run for elective leadership positions because they usually do not believe they can win. INTRODUCTION On May 17, 1954, at 12:52 p.m., the United States Supreme Court rendered its momentous decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954). The fundamental public policy that the court unanimously ruled upon was straightforward: segregated schools (established and maintained by state action) were inherently unequal. The court clearly said, through its ruling, that but was, in fact, a contradiction in terms-official state sanctioned segregation was a violation of the protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which forbids any state from making or enforcing any laws which deny any person within its jurisdiction the protection of the laws. Prior to the Supreme Court's ruling, dual and segregated school systems had been established and maintained for African American and White students. These schools systems were primarily in the southern states where Jim Crow laws had prevailed after reconstruction. Ironically, the rationale for establishing and maintaining de jure segregated schools had been also formalized by the United States Supreme Court in another momentous decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, in 1896, which legitimized the principle of separate but equal (1896). The case evolved from a suit filed by Homer Plessy, a Black man who had filed suit after he had initially been fined for sitting in the White section of a railroad car in Louisiana. His case questioned the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, passed in 1890, providing for railway carriages for the White and colored races. Plessy contested the decision all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the state's but doctrine. In the Plessy decision, the Supreme Court gave racial inequality and segregation an air of legitimacy for over a half century. Moreover, it served to institutionalize racial segregation and social norms, particularly in me South, in both public and private arenas. Not only did the decision condone and maintain racially railroad cars and other modes of public transportation, it virtually assured segregation in schools and school activities, courthouses, waiting rooms, public beaches, swimming pools, restaurants, bathrooms and drinking fountains. …

Understanding systemic racism through a lens of critical race theory can help music educators to critically examine their own practices as teachers and consider how equitable teaching practices might look. This chapter describes the experience of four music educators who learn about CRT and how an understanding of systemic racism can expand the opportunity to emphasize care in the classroom. Critical race theory is a lens through which to understand how race and racism operates in our society. With an understanding of systemic racism through critical race theory, music education practitioners can gain a deeper awareness of power, oppression, and racism in order to transform our profession toward a more caring centered profession. Critical race theory critiques color-neutral ideology where different races and identity points are acknowledged and not ignored. Educators can expand their ability to see, celebrate, and care for students and their differences while simultaneously dismantling oppressive structures.

This article examines the role of racial identity development in the academic achievement of African American adolescent males. Through the lens of critical race theory (CRT), we highlight how K–12 school counselors may support and enhance the schooling experiences of African American males by understanding and acknowledging how racial identity development may impact academic achievement. A focus on CRT in education emphasizes the continual persistence of racism ingrained in K–12 education located within the educational opportunities, curriculum, representation, and teacher perception of African American males. We offer insight into how school counselors may work to decrease barriers to achievement by analyzing the effect race and gender have on the identification, retention, and underachievement of their African American male students.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term coalition comes from the Latin coalescere or ‘coalesce’, meaning “come or bring together to form one mass or whole”. Coalesce refers to the unity affirmed as something grows: co – “together”, alesce – “to grow up”. While coalition is commonly associated with formalised alliances and political strategy in the name of self-interest and common goals, this paper will draw as well on the broader etymological understanding of coalition as “growing together” in order to discuss the Australian government’s recent changes to land rights legislation, the 2007 Emergency Intervention into the Northern Territory, and its decision to use Indigenous land in the Northern Territory as a dumping ground for nuclear waste.

Midwestern Studies Meets Critical Race TheoryNotes on Imagining the Heartland Jon K. Lauck Britt E. Halvorson and Joshua O. Reno, Imagining the Heartland: White Supremacy and the American Midwest. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. 218 pp. $85.00 (hardcover), $29.95 (paper). As readers of this journal know better than anyone, the last decade has witnessed a concerted effort to promote and revive Midwestern studies. As consumers of the news in recent years know, the ideas underpinning Critical Race Theory have increasingly been debated in the public square after years of mostly percolating underground in the academy and adjacent institutions. Now comes a direct meeting of the worlds of Midwestern studies and Critical Race Theory in the form of a book published by the University of California Press, which is based in Oakland, California. It is titled Imagining the Heartland: White Supremacy and the American Midwest and was authored by two anthropologists, one at Colby College in Maine and the other at Binghamton University in New York. In a bit of stage-setting, the University of California Press announces in the book that it "publishes bold progressive books … with a focus on social justice issues—that inspire thought and action among readers worldwide."1 Imagining the Heartland affords an opportunity to consider whether Critical Theory generally, and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in particular, can help us understand the Midwest more completely and accurately or if the reverse is true. At this stage of the discussion, the CRT approach to the study of the Midwest, if this book is a reliable guide, suffers from weaknesses that will cloud our ability to see the region in its fullness and complexity. It serves as a broader warning about the problems associated with Critical Theory more generally and should be a reminder of the importance of relying on more [End Page 126] fruitful ways of examining the history of the Midwest. These include, most importantly, a dedication to collecting and examining the particular facts on the ground when interpreting the Midwestern past and placing them in historical and comparative context with limited use of theories which can predetermine conclusions. At a minimum, before it is widely adopted, CRT and its application in Midwestern studies should be the subject of a robust discussion which can begin in this journal. This discussion will continue in future issues. It should be explained up front that Imagining the Heartland does not rely on original research nor the kind of ethnographic study once-common to anthropology. The book relies on secondary publications, from academic studies to media reports to aspects of popular culture, and analyzes them through the lens of Critical Theory and seeks to explain and critique how other writers and artists have imagined or talked about the Midwest. Critical Theory is not the same as thinking critically about evidence when interpreting the past, an exercise we should all embrace.2 Critical Theory, for the uninitiated, was primarily developed by the Marxists who organized the Frankfurt School of social analysis in Germany in the early twentieth-century and who later, to escape the Nazis, moved its operations to the United States.3 During the last third of the twentieth century, Critical Theory in its various forms became highly influential in humanities and social science departments at American universities. From the general debates and ideas within Critical Theory emerged the more focused CRT, which was made prominent by Derrick Bell at Harvard Law School, in addition to other law professors. Bell and his allies promoted activism and, for them, CRT recognized that "revolutionizing a culture begins with a radical assessment of it" and predicted that "scholarly resistance will lay the groundwork for wide-scale resistance."4 A deep background in the adoption and development of Critical Theory in the academy and an understanding of these goals are helpful when reading this book because that is the source of its ideas and language. This grounding in Critical Theory is important to understand when delving into Imagining the Heartland because the book is quite distinct from some of the research that takes place in Midwestern studies. A good deal of the work in Midwestern history is grounded in studying...