Search results

My chapter includes a discussion of various elements throughout my life that were very influential for the attainment of a successful education that I believe can also help other Black male students receive a successful education. The chapter begins with an explanation of why I became a teacher and my passions to enhance the education of Black male students with the use of the same influential elements that enhanced my education. The influential elements I highlighted are opportunity and exposure, discipline and accountability, recognition, and mentorship. I compared and contrasted the effects of these elements on my life with others who lacked these same elements, and provided examples of what I observe today as an educator in reference to these elements. I further speak about how I have implemented these elements in my classroom and in my interactions with young Black males today. Finally, I provide possible solutions to reshape the image and education of Black male students and create a positive impact on future generations. When a Black male student has an exemplar of an educated professional to emulate they can gain motivation to strive for academic greatness that will bring them true greatness rather than fighting and dying in the streets over false opportunities. Ultimately, Black male students will strive for academic greatness, which is truly … an opportunity to die for.

This article shares how providing teacher candidates with experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness in teacher candidates’ clinical courses. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or professional development school (PDS) partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical practice.

Conceptual paper sharing experiences addressing anti-blackness in school-university partnerships.

National Association of Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) recently revised their Nine Essentials to include this revised version of Essential 1: A comprehensive mission which calls for the advancement of equity, antiracism and social justice within and among schools, colleges/universities and their respective community and professional partners. The work that the author presents in this article around preparing teacher candidates to address anti-blackness fits into the call of Essential 1 because when anti-blackness is addressed equity, antiracism and social justice can be part of the educational experiences of black children. This article shares how providing teacher candidates experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness in teacher candidates’ clinical practice. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or PDS partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical courses.

The author believes that this manuscript is appropriate for publication because it addresses a necessary shift that must happen in clinical practice by recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness, as well as making sure teacher candidates are prepared to teach black students. This manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.

This paper aims to center the experiences of three cohorts (n = 40) of Black high school students who participated in a critical race technology course that exposed anti-blackness as the organizing logic and default setting of digital and artificially intelligent technology. This paper centers the voices, experiences and technological innovations of the students, and in doing so, introduces a new type of digital literacy: critical race algorithmic literacy.

Data for this study include student interviews (called “talk backs”), journal reflections and final technology presentations.

Broadly, the data suggests that critical race algorithmic literacies prepare Black students to critically read the algorithmic word (e.g. data, code, machine learning models, etc.) so that they can not only resist and survive, but also rebuild and reimagine the algorithmic world.

While critical race media literacy draws upon critical race theory in education – a theorization of race, and a critique of white supremacy and multiculturalism in schools – critical race algorithmic literacy is rooted in critical race technology theory, which is a theorization of blackness as a technology and a critique of algorithmic anti-blackness as the organizing logic of schools and AI systems.

Given the historical legacy of policing Black bodies, this research focuses on the structures of anti-Blackness within school policing and the strategies students of Color activists use as they work to defund or abolish police departments in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

Specifically, this article looks to Twitter as a counter-storytelling space for students of Color activists to organize and build movements to end anti-Black school policing. Through the frameworks of critical race theory (CRT) and Black critical theory (BlackCrit), this research applies inductive coding to analyze 42 Twitter posts from three students of Color-led organizations based in Los Angeles.

This document analysis presents four themes, which describe four dominant strategies students of Color activists use in their campaigns to defund or abolish school police in the LAUSD: (1) centering Blackness and Black student experiences, (2) making demands for the elimination of funding and support for school police, (3) calling for a shift in funding to support Black students and (4) employing multiple tactics concurrently.

These findings demonstrate the importance of developing and centering a critical understanding of anti-Blackness to achieve racial and educational justice within social movements.

Moreover, the demands of students of Color activists reflect visions of public schools free from anti-Black school policing.

Prior to Brown v. Board of Education 1954, Black female educators played a significant and vital role in segregated schools. Despite Black female teachers’ historic presence in the field of education, presently Black female teachers are disproportionately under-represented in the US teacher workforce. Acknowledging the shortage of Black female teachers in K-12 classrooms, the purpose of this qualitative study is to explore why Black female educators teach in under-resourced, urban schools. By examining Black female educators’ initial draw to urban schools in what we conceptualized as the urban factor, we hope to reframe the implicit biases surrounding under-resourced, urban schools as less desirable workplaces and unearth reasons why those Black female teachers who enter teaching gravitate more toward urban schools. Three themes emerged about Black female teachers’ thoughts on and preference for urban schools with an unexpected finding about Black female teachers’ perceptions of student behavior. Concluding, recommendations are offered for policy and practice.

The hiring of women of colour faculty is not without unwritten presuppositions. The authors are expected to tolerate racism and to draw from cultural experience in catering to students of colour or when it fulfils institutional needs such as bringing ‘colour’ to all-white committees. Yet, the normative profile of university teachers demands detachment with a focus on high output in terms of students and publications. In the light of this, commitment to social justice seems to be in (certain) disagreements with mainstream interpretations of the academic profession. Women of colour professors are redefining educational leadership. This chapter addresses its effect on emotional wellbeing together with techniques and strategies to strengthen emotional resilience.

The nature of rural living is often characterized as remote, limited in social and academic experiences and opportunities, and predominantly White and low income. For Black gifted students, these characterizations define daily isolation and alienation, accompanied by racially oppressive conditions that cause stress and give constant reminders of their oppressed group status, despite their high intellectual, academic, affective, and creative potential. These conditions, coupled with the misnomer that being a rural student means that one must be from the dominant culture, render them invisible on many social and demographic variables. Most scholarly research related to rural education focuses on one demographic – poor White students from Appalachian, Midwest, or Southern communities. While most of the literature focuses on this demographic, the majority of Black gifted students living in rural areas are located in the southern region of the United States. The Black rural community, including Black gifted students, is almost invisible in literature explicating the conditions of rural education in America. This chapter takes an updated look at Black gifted students in rural America based on our previous work on this population. We explore where these students reside, the traits that make them unique, which includes attention to culture, and make recommendations for future research and programming to meet their intellectual, academic, creative, and psychosocial needs with attention to access, equity, and excellence.

This chapter explores the concept of identity-conscious advising and coaching to support the development of First-Generation Black Male College Students during their undergraduate experience. Advising and coaching represent foundational practices colleges and universities use to support student success. Much like other aspects of education, institutions implement advising and coaching practices without consideration for how the identity of the student or the professional delivering the service influences student outcomes. First-Generation Black Male College Students' interactions within the college context are often framed by their visible, racial, and gender identities as opposed to their first-generation experience. First-Generation Black Male College Students experience microaggressions, discrimination, deficit perspectives, or negative stereotypes. By exploring an identity-conscious approach to relevant advising theories and coaching approaches, the chapter highlights the importance of building trusting, affirming relationships that lean into the lived experiences of First-Generation Black Male College Students without subjecting them to false, harmful stereotypes. This approach requires self-awareness on the part of educators and an understanding of the racialized dynamics that are inherent in the experience. Without addressing anti-Blackness, the impact of advising and coaching on First-Generation Black Male College Students is likely to have diminished or limited effects for this vital student population.

In 2003, Howard surveyed African Americans with emphasis on academic identities and college aspirations. This investigator interviewed African-American students at two urban high schools to gain insight relative to their college ambitions, educational capabilities, and academic identities. According to the students interviewed one specific area that affected their academic identity and college aspirations was perceived racism and discrimination, including counselors’ and teachers’ perception of their intelligence, unfair placement in special needs courses, and teachers’ attitude and behavior toward students (Howard, 2003).

Prior to the 1970s, the enrollment of black students in U.S. medical schools was less than 3%. One-third of these students attended the three historically black medical schools that existed at that time. In 1970, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), representing the nation's medical schools, made a commitment for reaching parity of black medical student enrollment to that of the proportion of blacks in the U.S. population. The goal was that the enrollment of black students should reach 12% of total medical school enrollment. Within four years the enrollment of black students more than doubled to 7.5% by 1974. This greater than 100% enrollment increase was attributed to medical schools’ change in their commitment to affirmative action (Petersdorf, Turner, Nickens, & Ready, 1990; Cohen, Gabriel, & Terrell, 2002).