Discourse and Disconnect: Black Teachers and the Quest for National Board Certification Paula J. Leftwich ABSTRACT Black teachers have been under-represented proportionate to their presence in the teaching population in both the application for and achievement of certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. This study sought to explore the possibility of a disconnect between the discourses of Black teachers and the discourses of the National Board Certification process. Further, it was designed to investigate the effectiveness of targeted mentoring strategies to increase the participation rate and achievement rate of Black teachers in this complex and lengthy process. Using procedures for the definition and analysis of discourse outlined by Gee, the author dissected document-based and process-embedded data to define the discourse of accomplished teaching embodied in the National Board and its disseminated philosophy and process for identifying and awarding credentials to National Board Certified Teachers. Participant data was gathered using a qualitative research design and a heuristic phenomenological approach. Discourse information gleaned from participant-produced process documents and interview transcripts were analyzed using Gees methods. Field notes and recordings from direct observations were analyzed using Hycners approach for the interpretation of phenomenological data. Deleuze and Guattaris rhizomatic analysis was applied to the overlaid, separate discourses. Specific areas of both congruence and disconnect were clearly identified. Participant checks and inter-rater reviews of data and confirmed the findings and validated the conclusions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for the findings for the National Board, potential candidates, and advocates for each.

Durante o século XX, o Brasil procurou reduzir ou eliminar a discriminação contra a população negra por meio de legislações punitivas com a finalidade de coibir a discriminação direta. O Estatuto da Igualdade Racial (Lei n.º 12.288/10) inova o ordenamento jurídico trazendo, explicitamente, a modalidade da discriminação indireta, que tem como um dos seus fundamentos a discriminação/racismo institucional. Pretendemos investigar a discriminação contra os negros, no contexto da segurança pública, sob a perspectiva desta modalidade de discriminação (institucional). A linha condutora de nossa pesquisa tem como eixo central a íntima ligação entre Democracia e Direitos Humanos, o que significa dizer que, nos regimes democráticos, é obrigação do Estado garantir a segurança pública com o devido respeito aos direitos humanos e o pleno exercício da cidadania. A partir destas premissas, passaremos a investigar quem são as maiores vítimas de um padrão de violência praticado por agentes responsáveis pela segurança pública e que atinge os cidadãos comuns. Segundo as estatísticas, os negros são vítimas costumeiras de perseguição, tortura e morte, além de mais numerosos na população carcerária. O racismo institucional na segurança pública é discutido, num primeiro momento, levando-se em consideração aspectos jurídicos, históricos e sociológicos relevantes para a compreensão da violência policial incidente sobre a população negra (crime, criminologia, segurança pública, polícia e sua relação com a questão racial no Brasil) e, num segundo momento, a partir de uma perspectiva jurídica, como uma forma de discriminação indireta. / During the twentieth century, Brazil sought to reduce or eliminate discrimination against the black population through punitive legislation in order to inhibit direct discrimination. The statute of Racial Equality (Law n.º 12.288/10) innovates the Law bringing the explicit form of indirect discrimination, which is a foundation of discrimination/ institutional racism. We intend to investigate discrimination against blacks in the context of public safety, from the perspective of this type of discrimination (institutional). The guiding principle of our research is the central axis of the intimate connection between Democracy and Human Rights, which means that, in a democracy regime, is the states obligation to ensure public safety with total respect for human rights and full citizenship. From this premises, we will investigate who is the biggest victims of a pattern are of violence committed by officials responsible for public safety and that affects ordinary citizens. According to statistics, blacks are usual victims of persecution, torture and death, and they are the bigger population in prison. Institutional racism in public safety is discussed at first, acknowledging account legal, historical and sociological studies important to the understanding of police violence incident on the black population (crime, criminology, public safety, police and its relationship to the racism in Brazil), and, second, from a legal perspective, as a form of indirect discrimination.

Durante o século XX, o Brasil procurou reduzir ou eliminar a discriminação contra a população negra por meio de legislações punitivas com a finalidade de coibir a discriminação direta. O Estatuto da Igualdade Racial (Lei n.º 12.288/10) inova o ordenamento jurídico trazendo, explicitamente, a modalidade da discriminação indireta, que tem como um dos seus fundamentos a discriminação/racismo institucional. Pretendemos investigar a discriminação contra os negros, no contexto da segurança pública, sob a perspectiva desta modalidade de discriminação (institucional). A linha condutora de nossa pesquisa tem como eixo central a íntima ligação entre Democracia e Direitos Humanos, o que significa dizer que, nos regimes democráticos, é obrigação do Estado garantir a segurança pública com o devido respeito aos direitos humanos e o pleno exercício da cidadania. A partir destas premissas, passaremos a investigar quem são as maiores vítimas de um padrão de violência praticado por agentes responsáveis pela segurança pública e que atinge os cidadãos comuns. Segundo as estatísticas, os negros são vítimas costumeiras de perseguição, tortura e morte, além de mais numerosos na população carcerária. O racismo institucional na segurança pública é discutido, num primeiro momento, levando-se em consideração aspectos jurídicos, históricos e sociológicos relevantes para a compreensão da violência policial incidente sobre a população negra (crime, criminologia, segurança pública, polícia e sua relação com a questão racial no Brasil) e, num segundo momento, a partir de uma perspectiva jurídica, como uma forma de discriminação indireta. / During the twentieth century, Brazil sought to reduce or eliminate discrimination against the black population through punitive legislation in order to inhibit direct discrimination. The statute of Racial Equality (Law n.º 12.288/10) innovates the Law bringing the explicit form of indirect discrimination, which is a foundation of discrimination/ institutional racism. We intend to investigate discrimination against blacks in the context of public safety, from the perspective of this type of discrimination (institutional). The guiding principle of our research is the central axis of the intimate connection between Democracy and Human Rights, which means that, in a democracy regime, is the states obligation to ensure public safety with total respect for human rights and full citizenship. From this premises, we will investigate who is the biggest victims of a pattern are of violence committed by officials responsible for public safety and that affects ordinary citizens. According to statistics, blacks are usual victims of persecution, torture and death, and they are the bigger population in prison. Institutional racism in public safety is discussed at first, acknowledging account legal, historical and sociological studies important to the understanding of police violence incident on the black population (crime, criminology, public safety, police and its relationship to the racism in Brazil), and, second, from a legal perspective, as a form of indirect discrimination.

Equal Employment Opportunity laws are a relatively new construct within the framework of American legal history. This area of law, however, has experienced significant development within a relatively short span of time. Over the last half-century, the Supreme Court of the United States has handed down several landmark decisions, clarifying the law as to what constitutes sexual harassment, and in which circumstances employers can be held liable for the harassing actions of employees. The purpose of this thesis is to examine this development, and to assess the question of whether the awards given to male victims of workplace sexual harassment are comparable to the awards given to female victims.