Successful Black Teachers

The work of numerous scholars from 1987 to 2003 focused on including the effective and successful pedagogical strategies of African American teachers in the teacher education literature. These scholars conducted rigorous empirical research studies and exhaustive literature reviews on effective teaching strategies of African American teachers (e.g., Foster, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997; Irvine, 2002; Irvine & Fraser, 1998; Ladson Billings & Henry, 1990; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Mitchell, 1998; Siddle Walker, 1996, 2000, 2001; Stanford, 1998; Ware, 2006).

Now, this robust body of literature counters what was then an excessively negative portrayal of African American teachers. According to Michele Foster (1994), despite more than 4500 entries and 7000 entries, respectively, in the 1983-1991 ERIC database, as well as 5887 on African American teachers, there were no records in the database during those times that included both the descriptors effective or success and African American or Black teachers.

Although the literature on effective teachers is quite large, most studies before the early 90s, for the most part, did not explicitly consider the racial identity of teachers on their belief systems even though the previous life experiences of teachers, their backgrounds, identities, culture, and critical incidents in their lives are known to shape their view of teaching and inform essential elements of their practice.

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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