Waiting for Black Superman

Abstract

Black male teachers make up less than 2% of the U.S. public school labor force. A prevalent discourse among educational stakeholders has suggested that Black male teachers are the key to helping students in urban schools develop skills to succeed in school by acting as role models. This assertion presents Black male teachers as a panacea to improving urban schools while ignoring the historical and contemporary contexts that complicate their roles in schools. This study uses life history methods to access the narratives of a group of Black male teachers to shed light on their experiences working in urban classrooms. The purpose of this study is to broaden our understandings about teacher education, teaching, and teacher retention of Black male teachers.

“I’m None of the Above”: Exploring Themes of Heteropatriarchy in the Life Histories of Black Male Educators

“…Increasingly, teacher education and urban education researchers have critiqued heteropatriarchal assumptions within literature on Black male teachers, including reductive myths of the Black male teacher as a superhero (Gunn-Morris & Morris, 2013;Jackson, Boutte, & Wilson, 2013;Pabon, 2014) or surrogate father (Brockenbrough, 2012c). The studies included in this review probe problematic presumptions about Black male teachers based on racial and gender designations.…”

“…She examined and critiqued pervasive discourses on the need to recruit Black male teachers to serve as role models for Black male youth. Pabon argued that, cast as "Black Supermen" (Pabon, 2014) and as a panacea to solving the so-called Black male educational crisis (Jackson et al, 2013), Black male teachers are the objects of a troubling discourse that assumes monolithic racial and gendered identities. She explained the problematic nature of their positioning in stating: Downloaded by [Ryerson University Library] at 05:31 05 June 2016…”

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

“…A large body of scholarship on male teachers of color has focused on Black male teachers, namely this sub-group's professional trajectories, social identities, and pedagogies of Black male teachers (Bridges 2011;Bristol and Mentor 2018;Brown 2009Brown , 2012Brockenbrough 2014;Pabon, 2016). For the past 20 years, Black male teachers constituted less than 2% of the U.S. public school labor force (Lewis and Toldson 2013; U.S. Census Bureau 2010).…”

Exploring the Boundary-Heightening Experiences of Black Male Teachers: Lessons for Teacher Education Programs

“…Moreover, researchers have theorized about how Black male teachers see their teaching as a political act (Bridges, 2011; Thomas & Warren, 2017); that is, they are not only teaching their students content but recognize the importance of assisting their Black students navigate a racially hostile world (Simmons et al, 2013). Despite their commitment to the profession and Black children, as Pabon (2016) argued, there is a presumption that Black male teachers want or have the capacity to serve as surrogate fathers. As a result of this prevailing narrative about representing parental figures and disciplinarians, some Black male teachers work in organizational environments where they have to prove their worth as educators (Bristol & Mentor, 2018).…”