Black Education Is Black Liberation: Using Principles of Sankofa With the Black Teacher Archive
Disciplines
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
Abstract (300 words maximum)
As America's classrooms become more diverse, the teaching population remains essentially unchanged. Data from a 2021 study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that over 80% of public school teachers are white. This is in stark contrast to the K-12 student population, where over 50% of students identify as Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, or bi-racial. This mismatch in the teacher and student population has persisted for several decades, and research indicates the need for change to ensure that students from historically marginalized groups experience academic and social success. The Black Teacher Archive is a digital archive dedicated to documenting black teachers' experiences, activism, and impact in the US during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. It focuses on preserving historical records and the role of black educators in shaping education. We used quantitative research methods in the Black Teacher Archive to a) explore the concept of fugitive pedagogy, b) understand the definition of diversity, c) examine and unpack stereotypes, and d) search for instances of the word equity. Findings revealed that a diverse definition of the word "teacher" was present during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. Classroom teachers relied heavily on churches and community organizations to also take on the work of being a teacher. We also found that African Americans were frequently victimized by stereotypes, leading to unfair treatment by society, including lower pay for Black teachers. Finally, our search for the word equity directed us to the word equality. It became clear that Black educators fought for equality in the workplace, socially, and economically, likely due to false narratives of “separate but equal.” This research provides critical implications for teaching in today's society, which seeks to rewrite history, ban justice-oriented curricula, and erase students' opportunities to study history.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
BCOE - Elementary & Early Childhood Education
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Marrielle Myers
Black Education Is Black Liberation: Using Principles of Sankofa With the Black Teacher Archive
As America's classrooms become more diverse, the teaching population remains essentially unchanged. Data from a 2021 study by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that over 80% of public school teachers are white. This is in stark contrast to the K-12 student population, where over 50% of students identify as Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, or bi-racial. This mismatch in the teacher and student population has persisted for several decades, and research indicates the need for change to ensure that students from historically marginalized groups experience academic and social success. The Black Teacher Archive is a digital archive dedicated to documenting black teachers' experiences, activism, and impact in the US during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. It focuses on preserving historical records and the role of black educators in shaping education. We used quantitative research methods in the Black Teacher Archive to a) explore the concept of fugitive pedagogy, b) understand the definition of diversity, c) examine and unpack stereotypes, and d) search for instances of the word equity. Findings revealed that a diverse definition of the word "teacher" was present during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. Classroom teachers relied heavily on churches and community organizations to also take on the work of being a teacher. We also found that African Americans were frequently victimized by stereotypes, leading to unfair treatment by society, including lower pay for Black teachers. Finally, our search for the word equity directed us to the word equality. It became clear that Black educators fought for equality in the workplace, socially, and economically, likely due to false narratives of “separate but equal.” This research provides critical implications for teaching in today's society, which seeks to rewrite history, ban justice-oriented curricula, and erase students' opportunities to study history.