Black Male Teachers as Role Models: Resisting the Homogenizing Impulse of Gender and Racial Affiliation

Abstract

This article reports on research with one Black male elementary school teacher in Toronto and draws on feminist, queer, and antiracist analytic perspectives to raise important questions about the discourse of teachers as role models. The voice of this teacher is used to challenge discourses about role modeling in their capacity to address adequately the limits imposed by both cultural and structural problems experienced by minority boys in urban school communities. Important questions about the role of teachers as transformative or organic intellectuals are also raised. A case study approach is employed to draw attention to both important pedagogical issues and the limits of role modeling as a conceptual framework that continues to be used to support generalizable claims about the influence of male teachers on the basis of their gender and racial affiliation with boys in schools. What is required, the authors conclude, is a disarticulation and, hence, a separating out of role modeling from a discussion about the need for a greater representation of minority teachers in urban schools. . He has a background in research that deals with issues of masculinity, sexuality, and schooling. His interest in feminist and postcolonial theoretical perspectives on schooling continues to inform his critique of mainstream approaches to boys' education and the influence that is accorded to male teachers within the context of debates about addressing boys' underachievement.

Teachers and educational policies: Negotiating discourses of male role modelling

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Examining the Preparation of School Human Resource Officers on Developing a Racially Diverse Educator Workforce Post Brown

“…There is now nuanced data that speak to the value of a diverse educational workforce. For example, student exposure to ethnically and racially diverse educators has positive academic outcomes (Gershenson, Hart, Hyman, Lindsay, & Papageorge, 2018); increases attendance rates of SOCs (Achinstein, Ogawa, Sexton, & Freitas, 2010); enables the advancement of SOCs in mathematics (Eddy & Easton-Brooks, 2011); yields positive effects in reading when students are paired with race-congruent teachers (Egalite, Kisida, & Winters, 2015); increases referrals to gifted programs for Black and Latinx students (Grissom & Redding, 2015); and leads to decreased discipline gaps between Black and White students (Monroe, 2009;Rezai-Rashti & Martino, 2010).…”

Male teachers of color: charting a new landscape for educational research

“…Male teachers of color are underrepresented in nearly every PK-12 subject area (Singh 2018;Vilson 2015;Waite, Mentor, and Bristol 2018). While it is possible that males of color are less interested in entering the teaching profession when compared to other demographic groups, research has suggested that the underrepresentation of males of color in the teacher workforce is a reflection of ethnoracial and gendered messages about teaching and learning that male students of color encounter in schools (Fergus 2009;Howard 2008); inadequate recruitment and retention efforts in teacher education programs (Woodson and Pabon 2016); and poor professional support and limited mentoring for this population (Bristol and Goings 2019;Rezai-Rashti and Martino 2010). This special issue provides an in-depth analysis of how male teachers of color are positioned, socialized, and supported in diverse contexts.…”