Blackeducatorsmatter The Experiences Of Black Teachers In An Anti Black World

A stirring testament to the realities of Black teaching and learning in the United States and to Black educators' visions for the future

Drawing on the authors’ experiences as Black parents, researchers, teachers, and teacher educators, this timely book presents a multipronged approach to affirming Black lives and literacies. The authors believe change is needed—not within Black children—but in the way they are perceived and educated, particularly in reading, writing, and critical thinking across grade levels. To inform literacy teachers and school leaders, the authors provide a conceptual framework for reimagining literacy instruction based on Black philosophical and theoretical foundations, historical background, literacy research, and authentic experiences of Black students. This important book includes counternarratives about the lives of Black learners, research conducted by Black scholars among Black students, examples of approaches to literacy with Black children that are making a difference, conversations among literacy researchers that move beyond academia; and a model for engaging all students in literacy. Affirming Black Students’ Lives and Literacies advocates for adopting a standard of care that will improve and support literacy achievement among today’s Black students by rejecting deficit presumptions and embracing the fullness of these students’ strengths. Book Features: A counternarrative of Black literacy history, lives, and learners. Narrative examples of Black literacy scholarship, by Black scholars who embrace their faith-walk as an integral part of their holistic approach to literacy teaching and learning.Discussion questions to spur conversations among school administrators, parents/caregivers, politicians, reading researchers, teacher educators, and classroom teachers. An array of extant Black scholarship that should inform literacy praxis and research. A conceptual framework, CARE, that is applicable for all learners with a focus on Black literacy learners.

The “ideal” 21st century public school teacher has a keen understanding of the racialized history of education and has already taken a critical stance regarding that history. This teacher is a changemaker and able to create classroom conditions that enable all children and youth to be changemakers as well. In order to assist teachers to become this ideal educator, antiracist professional development must be undertaken. Antiracist professional development has as its goal the transformation of teachers for the eventual transformation of classroom environments, instruction, and curricula to provide for equitable and inclusive educational experiences, particularly for students of color. Unfortunately, such transformative teacher professional development has been in short supply in the age of high-stakes standardized testing and the deprofessionalization of the teaching profession. Antiracist Professional Development for In-Service Teachers: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a crucial reference book that addresses the historical, sociological, and pedagogical background concerning racial issues in education. It proposes an antiracist model for professional development as a tool for transforming schools and teachers to be critically sensitive changemakers. Drawing upon more than 20 years of developing a transformative teaching master’s program, the book includes data from the authors’ national survey of teacher professional development, assignment examples, teacher work products, and the authors’ self-critique/reflections on their efforts to support teachers in transforming their practice. The book also presents the voices of P-12 teachers, including those who thought that they already “knew it all,” the new teacher at a punitive public charter school with high turnover, teachers who took leadership within the school and in the larger community, and teachers who significantly changed their classroom practice for the long-term. Moreover, the authors offer policy recommendations for teacher professional development experiences that meet the needs of all teachers; experiences that provide support for teachers’ professional growth, that have an immediate impact on student learning, and that create the conditions for school communities to work together as changemakers. It includes an epilogue that considers the urgency of these issues as were revealed by the 2020 global pandemic. As such, this book is ideal for teachers, teacher educators, educational leaders, administrators, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students.

This inspiring collection of accounts from educators and students is “an essential resource for all those seeking to build an antiracist school system” (Ibram X. Kendi). Since 2016, the Black Lives Matter at School movement has carved a new path for racial justice in education. A growing coalition of educators, students, parents and others have established an annual week of action during the first week of February. This anthology shares vital lessons that have been learned through this important work. In this volume, Bettina Love makes a powerful case for abolitionist teaching, Brian Jones looks at the historical context of the ongoing struggle for racial justice in education, and prominent teacher union leaders discuss the importance of anti-racism in their unions. Black Lives Matter at School includes essays, interviews, poems, resolutions, and more from participants across the country who have been building the movement on the ground.

In post-World War II Canada, black women's positions within the teaching profession served as sites of struggle and conflict as the nation worked to address the needs of its diversifying population. From their entry into teachers' college through their careers in the classroom and administration, black women educators encountered systemic racism and gender barriers at every step - and so they worked to change the system. Using oral narratives to tell the story of black access and education in Ontario between the 1940s and the 1980s, Schooling the System provides textured insight into how issues of race, gender, class, geographic origin, and training shaped women's distinct experiences within the profession. By valuing women's voices and lived experiences, Funké Aladejebi illustrates that black women, as a diverse group, made vital contributions to the creation and development of anti-racist education in Canada. As cultural mediators within Ontario school systems, these women circumvented subtle and overt forms of racial and social exclusion to create resistive teaching methods that centred black knowledges and traditions. Within their wider communities and activist circles, they fought to change entrenched ideas about what Canadian citizenship should look like. As schools continue to grapple with creating diverse educational programs for all Canadians, Schooling the System is a timely excavation of the meaningful contributions of black women educators who helped create equitable policies and practices in schools and communities.

This paper examines the lived experiences of six Black anti-racist educators as they engage in dialogues on race in classrooms within a public school district where the students and teachers are predominately white. The Black teacher is often in the position of being an anti-racist text simply by their bodily presence within the school. Their existence in the space of whiteness at once extends the definition of 'teacher' to include Black bodies, while it opens possibilities of who can have knowledge, and who can have authority. Using an anti-colonial lens and drawing on principles of Black feminist epistemology, this project aims to let the lived experience of Black educators serve as the source of knowledge. It examines some of the challenges and supports which Black educators encounter in their practice of anti-racist pedagogy, and concludes by offering suggestions for Black educators, school districts and teacher education programs.

Black students' bodies and minds are under attack. We're fighting back. From the north to the south, corporate curriculum lies to our students, conceals pain and injustice, masks racism, and demeans our Black students. But it¿s not only the curriculum that is traumatizing students.

"Poku's book powerfully refutes the lie that racism is a thing of the past and that the education system provides a model success story for Black children and teachers alike. Based on in-depth research with Black trainee teachers, the study exposes the daily violence of racist assumptions, humiliations and exclusions that make up the everyday racism of contemporary schooling". -David Gillborn, Emeritus Professor of Critical Race Studies, University of Birmingham, UK. "In 1967 'To Sir with Love' exploded on our screens exposing the unbelievable racism of black teachers in British schools. 65 years on Poku's brilliant, witty and eloquent book reveals the job of tackling racism in the classroom is still far from done. A book that packs a powerful punch for a profession under-fire". -Professor Heidi Safia Mirza UCL University of London, Author Race, Gender and Educational Desire This book investigates the racism experienced by Black teacher trainee Post-graduate students whilst on teaching placements in South London primary schools. Using critical race theory as an epistemological lens, the book goes on to explore their experiences in school via testimonies around the gaslighting they were subjected to. Chapters delve into how these students work to fit themselves into the school's white space at an emotional and psychological cost and addresses the questions these experiences raise for those in charge of PGCE courses and Initial Teacher Education. Veronica Poku is Head of MA Education: Culture, Language and Identity as well as a lecturer and researcher in the field of educational studies at Goldsmiths University of London, UK. With a particular interest in race, education, gender, culture and social justice, Veronica's research makes use of critical race theory and narrative inquiry when working with student teachers. .