“Why Seek the Living Among the Dead?” African American Pedagogical Excellence: Exemplar Practice for Teacher Education

Abstract

Although teacher diversity, teacher preparation, and student achievement are contemporary and overlapping issues, they have suffered from the absence of African American educational principles and traditions. African Americans cultivated a sophisticated system of developing and supporting numbers of African American teachers; however, U.S. sociopolitical tactics have suppressed this method, which presently, has obscured the potential of this approach to effectively respond to contemporary issues in teacher education. The authors of this article seek to address current dilemmas in recruiting and preparing a diverse teaching force by reorienting teacher education toward an underutilized resource—African American pedagogical excellence. This article outlines the core attributes of African American pedagogical excellence, including its historical genesis, and reveals ways public school desegregation has jeopardized the transcendence of African American pedagogical excellence within teacher education. The article concludes with possibilities and recommendations for moving African American pedagogical excellence from margin to center in teacher education.