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This paper aims to provide a critical examination of the career trajectories of Black male educators through the discussion of key issues relevant to the professional development and advancement of this population.

The authors approach this paper through the examination of literature related to Black male educators. The authors seek to provide insight into the status of Black male educators through a critical focus of scholarship in the three critical areas of Black male educator recruitment, retention and mobility.

This examination supports the need to generate sustainable initiatives to diversify our nation’s classrooms and create additional opportunities for Black male representation in school leadership positions. Effectively dismantling the entrenched hurdles many encounter within their teaching careers requires a concerted commitment by advocates, policymakers and school administrators at all levels. Additionally, there is a continued need for stakeholders to keep the diversification of P-12 schools as a key priority in current education reform strategies.

This paper serves as an impetus to highlight the continued need for further exploration and consequential action to increase the numbers of Black males in the teaching profession.

This paper adds to the literature surrounding Black male educators by providing a holistic view of their career trajectories of Black male educators and shedding light on the need for ongoing efforts to diversify the P-12 teaching workforce.

The purpose of this study is to examine three black African male mathematics teachers’ preparation, teaching experiences, why they chose to become teachers in a diverse school district, the successes and challenges they faced and the impact of a same race and gender peer mentoring program on them.

This study used collective case study methodology to better understand three black African male mathematics teachers’ experiences in a same race and gender peer mentoring program and their professional experiences.

The results illustrated that all of the black African male mathematics teachers had experiences predicated on their race and gender. The same race and gender peer mentoring program helped black African male mathematics teachers to receive proper induction into the school district, navigate their schools and district and help create an environment to support their retention in schools and the district.

This study adds to the growing body of research on black male mathematics teachers and sheds light on how the same race and gender programs help to retain them in the profession and their schools.

Much of the extant research literature on the initiatives to attract, inspire and recruit Black males to the teaching profession has focused on middle and high school students. Black boys’ socialization into dominant narratives regarding who can and cannot become teachers occurs as early as in early childhood classrooms; however, little attention has been given to ways to attract, inspire and recruit them to the professional teaching ranks where a paltry 2 per cent are Black men.

This paper explores the concept of imaginative play experiences with respect to Black boys and unearths possibilities for future Black male teachers through culturally relevant play.

Based on findings from the literature, this conceptual paper makes connections between the early childhood play literature and the Black male teacher recruitment and retention literature to create possibilities to inspire Black boys to enter the teaching profession.

This paper presents a nuanced integration of imaginative play and culturally relevant pedagogy with specific attention to Black males.

There is limited discussion in the teacher education literature about the experiences of pre-service black male teachers generally and the ethnic diversity among black male pre-service teachers specifically. Thus, this paper aims to explore the experiences of Frank, a black male refugee health education major attending an historically black college and university (HBCU).

This research study is theoretically guided by selected tenets of Bush and Bush’s (2013) African American male theory and Goodman et al.’s (2006) transition framework and uses a qualitative approach to explore Frank’s transition experiences when coming to America, attending college and engaging in his student teaching experience.

Frank experienced some difficulty transitioning to America, as a result of not having a strong financial foundation. During his college transition, Frank believed that the HBCU environment was nurturing; however, he encountered numerous ethnocentrically charged hostile confrontations from US-born black students at his university because of his accent. While he had some disagreements with the US education system in terms of discipline, Frank believed that his accent served as an asset during student teaching.

This study adds to the burgeoning research that explores the intersectional identities among pre-service black male teachers. As we argue in this paper, researchers, policymakers and practitioners cannot treat black male teachers as a monolithic group and must contemplate the unique supports needed that can attend to the racial and ethnic needs of black male teachers.

This study aims to highlight the perspectives of one black male middle-school mathematics teacher, Chris Andrews, about developing black students’ positive mathematics identities during his first year of teaching middle-school mathematics in a predominately black school. The author’s and Chris Andrews’ shared experiences as black Americans opened the door to candid conversations regarding the racialized mathematical experiences of “our” children, as he referred to them during the interviews.

The author used case study methodology (Yin, 2009) to illuminate Chris’s salient academic and personal experiences, approaches to teaching mathematics and ways that he attended to mathematics identity in practice. The author used sociopolitical and intersectional theoretical framings to interpret the data.

Chris’s perspective on teaching mathematics and developing mathematics identity aligned with taking a sociopolitical stance for teaching and learning mathematics. He understood how oppression influenced his black students’ opportunities to learn. Chris believed teaching mathematics to black children was his moral and communal responsibility. However, Chris’s case is one of tensions, as he often espoused deficit perspectives about his students’ lack of motivation and mathematical achievement. Chris’s case illustrates that even when black teachers and black students share cultural referents; black teachers are not immune to the pervasive deficit-oriented theories regarding black students’ mathematics achievement.

The findings of this work warrant the need to take intersectional approaches to understanding the ways of knowing that black male teachers bring to their practice, as Chris’s identity as a black person was an interplay between his black identity and other salient identities related to ability and social class.

Chris, even while navigating deficit-oriented perceptions of his students, provides an example of bringing a sociopolitical consciousness to teaching mathematics and to support novice black male teachers in their content, pedagogical, and dispositional development.

This work adds to the limited body of literature that highlights the experiences of black teachers in a subject-specific context, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subject areas that have historically marginalized the participation of black people.

In spite of ongoing and recent initiatives aimed at broadening participation in engineering, the representation of diverse groups of learners in engineering graduate programs in the USA remains a challenge. Foregrounding the voices of 26 Black male engineering faculty, this study aims to investigate how institutions might recruit and retain more Black men in engineering graduate programs.

For this study, inductive thematic analysis was used.

The authors show that three themes, namely, representation as an asset, invested mentors and faculty, and supportive peer networks described as the “Vibe” manifest as crucial elements for successful recruitment and retention of Black men in engineering graduate programs.

These findings are meant to augment the conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion in engineering graduate programs and to address a dearth of published research on the Black male engineering population. This work is also meant to help institutions conceptualize ways to create a “Vibe” that might be transferable to their institution’s sociocultural context.

This paper aims to understand the preparation that a group of black male pre-service students received during their course and its impact on their willingness to commit to entering the teaching profession.

The paper draws on findings from a small-scale qualitative study of black and minority ethnic student teachers’ experiences in one initial teacher education institution.

The paper raises questions as to whether black pre-service teachers’ experiences of a lack of acceptance in schools during their pre-service training contribute to the under-representation of black male teachers in English schools.

There is limited research on the experiences of black male student teachers. The paper brings new insights and offers reasons for black male student teachers not entering the teaching profession.

By 2026, students of color will make up 54 percent of the school-age population. Literature on recruiting and retaining teachers of color reveal that teachers of color are underrepresented in US schools (Castro et al., 2018). Cultural differences between teachers and students result in higher number of students of color being expelled or suspended, low graduation rates and lower numbers of students of color in advanced math, science and gifted courses. With an emphasis on retaining teachers of color the purpose of this paper is to examine how traditional school contexts play a role in teacher retention.

This was a qualitative case study that examined white teachers’ perceptions about their interactions with African American teachers (Merriam, 1998). A case study was useful in describing the boundaries of the school and how this type of context allowed the researchers to explore intergroup differences between both groups of teachers (Hays and Singh, 2011). Nine white teachers from predominantly white schools in the USA were interviewed (Seidman, 1998). The data were analyzed using what Glaser and Strauss (1967) call a constant comparative method. This process compared the intergroup theory with teachers’ responses.

Findings indicated that white teachers had little or no experience interacting with people who were racially and culturally different from them. Because of their curiosity about race, African American teachers were categorized as the “black expert.” White teachers asked them to speak with African American parents, give expertise on areas of discipline and chair multicultural events. Group boundaries developed rapidly as white teachers overwhelmed teachers of color with only their racial problems. African American teachers were forced into roles, which prevented them from contributing in other areas. Thus, African American teachers grew tired of only playing one aspect of their teaching.

Upon entering their schools, teachers bring with them a broad array of experiences, knowledge, skills and abilities. This results in a form of assimilation where they become like-minded to their schools’ norms and values. As incoming teachers of color enter with different norms and culture, they mediate boundaries having both groups of teachers adjust to cultural differences (Madsen and Mabokela, 2013). Intergroup differences often occur due to changing demographics in schools. If teachers cannot work through these normative conflicts, it will be reflected in teacher turnover, absences, workplace disagreements and teachers of color leaving.

If the focus is to recruit teachers of color, there needs to be an emphasis on preparing leaders on how to identify and address intergroup differences. As in Bell’s (2002) study and Achinstein’s (2002) research, when teachers have differences it will have influence how teachers will collaborate. Thus, teachers of color are prevented from sharing their philosophy about teaching students of color. These individuals also share the burden of being the only person who can advocate for students of color, but also serve as cultural translators for other students as well.

Future educators not only need to understand how to teach demographically diverse students, but it is important for them to understand how multicultural capital plays an inclusive role in getting all students to do academically well. The question becomes of how one teaches the importance of “humanistic” commitments for all children.

Booysen (2014) believes that identity and workplace identity research only allows for integration of divergent perspectives. More study is needed to understand how do workers navigate their identity through the workplace. Workplace identity among group members results in power discrepancies and assimilation verses the preservation of micro cultural identity. Thus, both groups often have competing goals and there is a struggle for resources. Cox (1994) believes that these tensions cause group members to center on preserving of their own culture. Hence, groups are more aware of their need to protect their cultural identity which ultimately affects retention of workers.