Teaching in Dehumanizing Times

Abstract

Earlier this year, teachers in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district in Michigan engaged in rolling teacher sick-outs to protest their deplorable working conditions. On January 11, 2016, more than 60 schools were closed due to teachers not showing up for work. On January 20, a sick-out forced the district to close 88 of its 97 schools due to more than 865 teachers being absent from classrooms (Lewis, 2016). For years, DPS teachers have voiced their concerns about poor pay, lack of supplies, overcrowding in classrooms, and unsafe building conditions. These are not new phenomena; Jonathan Kozol (2005) has been documenting such "shame of the nation," particularly with respect to traditionally marginalized populations (e.g., schools with majority students of color, schools with students in poverty) for decades. Former Detroit teachers' union president Steve Conn stated, "the young people in this city deserve the same quality education provided in predominantly white suburbs" (Lewis, 2016).

The Added Value of Latinx and Black Teachers for Latinx and Black Students: Implications for Policy

“…In reauthorizing HEA, Congress should bolster provisions aimed at recruiting teachers of color given the growing demands to increase the ethnoracial diversity of the teacher workforce (Bristol & Shirrell, 2019; Brockenbrough, 2012; Carter-Andrews, Bartell, & Richmond, 2016) by local (Waite, Mentor, & Bristol, 2018) and state policymakers (Dilworth, 1990; Murray & Jenkins-Scott, 2014), as well as teacher preparation programs (Bristol & Goings, 2019; Gist, 2016; Haddix, 2010). Consequently, the primary purpose here is to synthesize the long-standing research that points to the added value , or benefits to social and emotional development, as well as learning outcomes for students of color when taught by teachers of color.…”

Intermediary Organizations, Technocratic Discourses, and the Rise of Accountability Regimes in Teacher Education

“…Nominalization "turnover" was used to describe the problem, omitting teachers as agents who leave the profession. This nominalization obscured dehumanizing conditions in chronically underfunded and de facto segregated schools that serve many minoritized students (Carter Andrews et al, 2016); the growing stress of working with over-tested children (Bybee, 2020); and the general burnout among teachers due to the growing accountability regimes in K-12 settings (Ryan et al, 2017). The discursive void created by the nominalization and silence over other contributing factors allowed the authors to place the responsibility for teacher turnover on teacher preparation programs.…”

Fostering expansive and connective sensemaking with preservice secondary science teachers

“…While connecting to teachers' later pedagogical practice is important, here we seek to position teachers' own relationships to science as imperative for science teacher education, particularly to support teachers of color and others marginalized in science by gender, disability, and/or class. Caring for teachers' relationships to science pushes back against the dehumanization and deprofessionalization of teachers (Carter Andrews et al, 2016). In redesigning the content‐focused science education course, we center care for preservice teachers' humanity in science, not just so they can enact particular practices later in their classrooms, but as part of efforts to foster more life‐affirming and ethical science for all learners, including preservice teachers.…”