The Schooling Of African American Students In Junior High: Exploring The Preparation And Pedagogy Of Effective Teachers

Abstract

Today, ethnically diverse learners represent the majority student population enrolled in the U.S. public school system. However, the teacher workforce remains predominately middle-class, female, and White. As ethnically diverse learners, particularly African American students continue to endure gaps in academic achievement, the gaze has shifted to teacher education's abilities to produce effective teachers of this population. While the achievement gap is widely known, the literature concurrently documents a racial discipline gap, as African American students are suspended and expelled more than any other racial ethnicity. Though disparities in achievement and discipline significantly converge in the middle grades (6th-8th), gaps in the literature remain on teacher preparation for African American students, and even more restricted when addressing the junior high grades (7th- 8th). Thus, this collective case study examines the preparation and pedagogies of five effective teachers of their African American junior high students using the theoretical lends of CRT. Data collected through (2) semi-structured interviews and (2) classroom observations reveal that 1) cultural factors were mainly attributed as preparation for effective teaching and 2) teacher orientations towards the culture of their African American students decidedly influenced instructional and management practices.