The problem of not enough African American males enrolling in masters level teaching programs was addressed in this study. This phenomenological study examined the experiences of African American males in master of arts teaching (MAT) programs to understand why they enrolled and what factors led to persistence throughout their program enrollment. Six African American males currently enrolled in MAT programs in the southern, southwestern, and western regions of the United States participated. Data gathered for each participant included an individual, semi-structured interview and a demographic survey. Audio-recordings were used to capture the fullness of the interviews, and transcription software was used to code, analyze, and sort the data to help identify themes. This study looked through the lens of Strayhorn’s graduate student persistence and Albert Bandura’s self-efficacy theories. Factors that influenced African American males to enroll into a program were (a) education as a necessary credential, (b) desire to give back to society, (c) minority scholarship support, (d) making a connection to passion, and (e) desire to enhance teaching skills. External and internal factors were identified as assisting the males to persist within their programs. Academic institutions and policy makers may find the results useful for understanding the unseen educational barriers likely to limit African American males from enrolling in MAT programs, the issues likely to occur during the process of obtaining the degree, and the factors likely to be assistive to them for achieving program completion.

Black men make up roughly 2% of the national teaching corps, and as Brockenbrough (2012) reminds us, there are recurring themes within Black Masculinity Studies that are central to bear in mind when looking at the lived and teaching experiences of these Black male teachers. The major one is to recognize and acknowledge the unique psychological, emotional, and spiritual toll of Black male marginality on Black men. “Oft-cited statistics on incarceration, homicide, unemployment, high school dropout, and HIV infection rates, among other chronic blights (Dyson, 1993; Noguera, 2003), illustrate not only the systemic marginality of Black men in American society, but also their distance from patriarchal definitions of manhood that rely on White supremacist and capitalist power to reinforce male domination” (p.5). The intention of this study was to engage with these Black male teachers’ narratives, stories, and commentaries and learn from their life and teaching experiences as Black men. The aim was to gain insight into how they were recruited, how they were supported, and also what their understandings and thoughts are around retaining Black male teachers in the classrooms. This is a small qualitative study is a sample of four Black Male teachers within the 2013 Teach for America Corps in NYC. As Lewis (2006) suggests, many of these Black male teachers consider their role bound to some form of social justice. This inquiry aimed to talk across the struggles and challenges of Black men in the NYC corps of the TFA program and to reach an understanding of their lived and teaching experience, and of the ways ideologies and narratives are negotiated and navigated in schools and classrooms. The questions of inquiry were aimed to provide insight into the recruitment, retention, and professional support of the Black male teacher, both in TFA and outside this program. Participation in this study was limited to Black male educators with one year of elementary or middle school teaching experience, in order to draw on and speak to the greater presence of male teachers at those levels to help teacher preparation programs navigate toward better recruitment processes, and supporting and sustaining more Black males in the classroom.

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Embodied pedagogy is a way of facilitating lessons which use the body as a locos of learning. Through a practice of storytelling, reflection, and imagination, embodied pedagogy evokes enactment and a release of emotions. This qualitative narrative study created multimodal portraits of embodied educators in the Newark Board of Education using the lens of Native Science and Ubuntu as epistemological frameworks. Using portraiture methodology, the lives of embodied educators were documented and reported in multimodal ways. The study is divided into three phases representing Ubuntu’s ontotriadic structure. The African philosophy of Ubuntu (“I am because you are”) centers community and recognizes the harmonious flow of life through three stages of existence (living dead—ancestors, living, yet to be born) and sees life as continuous motion. The three primary participants mirrored these three phases. The living dead was an ancestor, a deceased educator, and a dancer. The living is a current Newark teacher, and the yet-to-be-born is a preservice teacher (to be licensed). Their portraits were supported by interviews with secondary participants (colleagues, administrators, former students, cooperating teachers, family, and friends). Data were collected through interviews and observations. Portraiture methodology combines art and science to blend empiricism and aestheticism; the audience responds by being pulled into the narrative to experience the story as it unfolds. The portraits in this study function as art by exploring the physical context of the setting and illuminating the relationship between the researcher and participants. Each portrait is a beautiful, evocative, deep, compelling story of what is good and shines light on those aspects rather than on what is wrong and trying to right those wrongs. To actualize a full embodied experience, data analysis, and reporting included letter writing, poetry, visual art, movement phrases, song composition, and spoken word. The findings revealed the power of these collective stories, revealed through six themes and lessons learned that inform urban teacher preparation programs. The narratives demonstrate the importance of supporting students in their journey of becoming and recognizing the humanity in teachers and students.

The research on the recruitment and retention of African American students into vocational teacher education indicated that there was a need for institutions of higher education to take a more serious look at these efforts. This admonition was due to the continuous decline of African Americans in the teaching force, as well as a decline in minority student enrollments in vocational teacher education (Pratzner, 1987). Statistics also indicated that by the year 2000, the number of minority students in public schools will make up approximately 40% of school enrollments, while the number of minority teachers is expected to decline to less than 5% of the teaching force (Graham, 1987; Holmes, 1989). This lack of representation of minorities in the teaching force will have a negative impact on the success of all children in the nation'S public schools (Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, 1986). / Ed. D.

In the wake of increasing community disasters such as hurricanes, neighborhood violence, and terrorist attacks, schools are usually deemed places where youth can find safety and stability. Research about community trauma related to the role of teachers and schools has predominantly focused on younger populations, concerned about disturbances in their developmental processes. School teachers' responsibilities related to these community disasters have also increased and now include supporting their traumatized students. However, there has been limited attention on the direct effect of community traumas on the teachers who work and live in affected districts. The construct of shared trauma describes this duality of roles. For African American teachers, racial trauma plays a role in their everyday lives and might affect their behaviors and responses to tragic events. Critical race theory and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory formed the framework for this phenomenological study, which explored the experiences of 6 female African American teachers who had experienced community disasters. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed using an enhanced version of the Colaizzi 7-step analysis method. Key findings were that race played only a limited role for the teachers when significant traumas occurred in their communities. Also, the experiences they described were indicative of vicarious trauma, which is inconsistent with the construct of shared trauma. This study contributes to social change by informing educational, political, and social institutions about the needs of teachers in the wake of community disasters and how those needs could be conceptualized as vicarious trauma for purposes of planning preventive and concurrent interventions for teachers.

The student perspective is a largely ignored element of educational research. This study used the college student viewpoint to assess the influence Black high school educators have on their pupils. Given today's reality of racism in this society, the existing literature addressing this topic is inadequate. Using an open-ended questionnaire, the responses of 272 students enrolled in speech communication and education courses at a Northwestern land grant institution were analyzed using a descriptive methodology. Students having no experience with a Black educator answered the questionnaire from an imagined standpoint. Results indicated a large majority of the predominately White subject pool found their Black high school educator(s) to be credible. Aspects of institutionalized racism emerged when students deemed their Black educator(s) credible by measuring them against an assumed "White standard of credibility." Findings from this study provide additional evidence of the racism, albeit covert, in our public school classrooms. / Graduation date: 1998

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009. / Additional advisors: Aaron Kuntz, Aaron Moyana, Andrew McKnight, William Boyd Rogan. Description based on contents viewed June 5, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-228).

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This dissertation recounts the years of struggle, frustration, failure and success that blacks in Henrico county, Virginia, confronted in acquiring an education. Before the establishment of free universal public schooling in Virginia in 1870, there was strong public opinion against the schooling of blacks. After the outbreak of the Civil War, various missionaries and philanthropic agencies strove to aid blacks; and the creation of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 brought an overall renewal of education for blacks. The Freedmen's Bureau aided in the construction of school buildings, and the philanthropic agencies supported teachers for the established schoolhouses. The Freedmen's Bureau ceased operation in Virginia in 1871; but by then, Virginia's public school system had been put into operation. / Ed. D.