Exemplary Black Science Teachers

From 1999 to 2006, I studied the pedagogical strategies, both the affective and cognitive dimensions, of African American science teachers. In 2000, it became clear after attending several science education conferences and studying two bodies of literature for years—African American education and science education—that the voice and perspectives of African American teachers were absent from the science education literature and the literature on African American education did not include specific science teaching strategies (Blackmon, 2003). African American teachers’ perspectives about effective science teaching for African American children were missing from the literature. For the most part, it still is. I learned so much from the 25 teachers I studied for seven years.

I noticed that scholars of color were gaining recognition for their research on the general pedagogical strategies of African American teachers, particularly in their ability to teach students reading and, in a few small cases of mathematics. Science educators have been slow to acknowledge the need to identify teachers’ racial identity in the study of science teaching. Initially, as I began my quest to study the pedagogical strategies of exemplary African American science teachers, it felt like there was a collective need to subordinate a discussion about the relevance of teachers’ ethnicity to the teachers’ science teaching practice. Teachers’ racial identity was not relevant. Many said, “Good teaching is good teaching.”

I learned, after an exhaustive analysis of years of qualitative and ethnographic data, that the belief systems of the African American science teachers were culturally grounded. Their experiences allowed them to teach in ways that other teachers, without a set of prior positive cultural experiences with communities of color, could not teach. Teachers, in my study, shared the following traits consistent with other African American teachers identified in the literature. They held high expectations for their students and perceived African American students as capable of achieving academically but needed supportive relationships with teachers who enabled them to succeed despite adverse circumstances at home and school. Like teachers in Walker’s (1996) study, the pedagogy of teachers in my research often originated from their prior experiences in segregated schools (segregated K12 schools or at historically black colleges and universities).

My study revealed that African American science teachers used their knowledge of African American students’ cultural experiences to teach science. They infused culturally specific analogies, praise, and motivation into their science lessons in ways that extended beyond the science education professional development training they’d received. Exemplary African American teachers in my study used the affective dimension of science teaching in addition to the traditional cognitive domain of science to engage low-income urban African American students in hands-on inquiry-based science instruction.

Furthermore, the exemplary science teachers in my study considered the African American children in their classrooms as their own. They often referred to the children as “my babies” quickly letting me know that they needed to end interviews to get back to ‘their babies’. When asked to describe their experiences teaching African American students, one teacher said:

“I see great scientists, great inventors, great lawyers, and great doctors…I try to preface who they are. By prefacing who they are, I encourage my students. On Monday, they were neurologists, physicians, and scientists. When you help children preface who they are, they don’t see themselves as being what they are right now. It makes a difference, and it has been a part of what I have done over the years, and I have seen it work.”

The teachers in my study had dreams and aspirations for students in their classrooms. One teacher was adamant, saying,

“I tell them, I do not want you hanging around the neighborhood when you finish high school. I want you to go out in the world and do better.”

The perspectives and practices I observed over seven years of research are not widely discussed nor talked about in the general science education literature or science education professional development settings.

Concluding Thoughts

Scholars then and now confirm that successful African American teachers are particularly adept at motivating and engaging minority students because they often bring knowledge about students’ backgrounds to the classroom that enhances students’ education experiences.

The expert knowledge that African American teachers use for the success of all students, particularly students of color, isn’t restricted and available solely based on their racial identity. This knowledge is open to anyone seeking success with children of color. It can be applied and used in classrooms across the nation. However, for the experience to be used, those in education must acknowledge that it exists but isn’t amplified or used widely. Know that expert knowledge exists outside the dominance, purview, perspectives, and theoretical suppositions of those traditionally describing the educational experiences of children of color. Let’s study the intellectual, practical, and experiential knowledge of all successful teachers and know that teachers’ racial identity does inform their practices because it is inextricably linked to their lived experiences. Infuse the expert knowledge of successful teachers of color into the numerous professional development offerings required of teachers.

The evidence of successful African American teachers is available. It has been for years. It is a matter of deciding to use it for the success of all students, especially the 25 million or more children of color sitting in classrooms around the nation. Continued disregard for the voice and perspectives of exemplary African American science teachers will ensure that we, as a nation, will not have given all our students the kind of STEM education needed to compete in a national and global market. This continued practice severely restricts our ability to innovate in STEM education socially.

Citation

Blackmon, A.T. (2003). The influence of science education professional development on African  American science teachers’ conceptual change and practice (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (Accession Order No. 3080303). Emory University.

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