Black Teachers’ Affirmations on The Social–emotional And Mental Health Needs of Learners: a Transnational Examination

Navigating the Double Bind: A Systematic Literature Review of the Experiences of Novice Teachers of Color in K–12 Schools

“…Novices’ experiences of their socialization into teaching were deeply racialized, through interactions with every aspect of K–12 schools. We posit that, until there is a “pedagogical space” (Navarro et al, 2019, p. 289) in which novices experience affirmation for the full complexity of their own and their students’ identities (Cormier et al, 2021), support for enacting culturally sustaining practices (Paris, 2012), and collective responsibility among all educators for meeting all students’ needs, novice teachers of color will continue to experience double binds. Welcoming novice teachers of color into teaching thus necessitates dismantling oppressive systems that are embedded in and perpetuated by schools—efforts to which novice teachers of color can contribute, but for which they should not bear sole responsibility.…”

“…D. Brown, 2014;Kim & Cooc, 2020). We obtained two articles in press at the time, though professional contacts (Cormier, 2020;Scott, 2020). Two (of four) authors read titles and abstracts of all 18,732 articles generated through the searches, retaining those coded as possibly meeting inclusion criteria for full text review, and obtaining 98.4% intercoder reliability on 50% of articles.…”

“…Many scholars have noted the importance of teachers who affirm students' identities, using critical and culturally sustaining practices to support students in understanding their own histories and the systems of power that shape their lives in the United States (e.g., Gay, 2000;Ladson-Billings, 2014;Paris, 2012), and extant scholarship affirms that these practices yield positive student outcomes (e.g., Aronson & Laughter, 2016;Dee & Penner, 2017). Novice teachers of color expressed strong commitments to providing this kind of instruction (e.g., Borrero et al, 2016;Salinas & Sullivan, 2019), and felt they brought many assets to doing so (e.g., Cormier, 2020). Yet, for many novices, school contexts placed them in a double bind by devaluing their pedagogical and cultural strengths, sanctioning them for trying to enact culturally sustaining pedagogies, and pigeonholing them into essentializing and racialized roles.…”

“…Some communities are currently exerting intense pressure to maintain White hegemony in schools (for discussion of this, see Boveda, 2021;Givens, 2021;Kendi, 2021). In these communities, leaders can actively build stronger support for culturally sustaining practices.…”

Back to ‘things themselves’: breaking the cycle of misrepresentation when serving African Canadian youth

“…As teachers are among the first influencers of young people's behaviours, they also shape whether a student graduates or enters the carceral system. Admittedly, the teacher's role is not necessarily deterministic, but research has shown that it is a significant factor in students' performance and behaviour (Cormier et al, 2021). Do teachers listen to the students and call a social worker before they call the police?…”