Anthony L. Brown

On Human Kinds and Role Models: A Critical Discussion about the African American Male Teacher

This article explores the theoretical implications around positioning the Black male teacher as the central agent of social change for Black male students. In addressing such concerns, my intention is not to discourage efforts to recruit and retain more African American men as teachers, but to trouble the commonsense assumptions embedded in such efforts. To achieve these goals, I draw from philosopher Ian Hackings (1995) notion of “human kinds” to historicize the context in which Black male teachers emerged as possible role models for Black male students. To further illustrate this point, I draw data from interviews I conducted in a qualitative study. The Black male teachers cited in the interview section of this article provide a revised theorization of the dominant discourse about their practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of this work for ongoing concerns about the recruitment and retention of Black male teachers.

Toward a new narrative on Black males, education, and public policy

This article examines the Black male crisis thesis promulgated by the social science literature, public policy, and mainstream discourse, respectively. The authors contend that the stock‐story that the majority of African American males are ‘at‐risk’ for engaging in self‐destructive behavior or on the verge of extinction perpetuates a discourse of Black male pathology, which leads to over‐emphasis of behavior modification as a strategy for their collective improvement. Subsequently, de‐emphasis on the historical and structural role of race as a life opportunity‐shaping variable occurs, which renders an incomplete understanding of the social and educational status of Black males in the United States. As a result, public policies and social programs guided by this deficit discourse are unlikely to create meaningful change for this population, because society’s existing political economic structures are left unchallenged. The article concludes with the assertion that a ‘new narrative’ is needed in order to rethink the complex and systematic ways the social and educational status of Black males in the United States are constructed.

Silenced memories: An examination of the sociocultural knowledge on race and racial violence in official school curriculum

Drawing from the theoretical lenses of cultural memory and critical race theory, we examined how elementary level and middle school level social studies textbooks represent the history of racial violence directed toward African Americans and resistance to this violence in the U.S. Using a literary analysis method, we found that textbooks often presented vivid accounts; however, these narratives often presented these acts as detached from the larger structural and institutional ties that supported and subsequently benefited from these actions. We contend that this limited representation of racial violence has an adverse effect on the larger sociocultural memory and sociocultural knowledge available to students, thus limiting the extent to which students can fully understand the legacy of racism and racial inequity in the U.S.

‘O brotha where art thou?’ Examining the ideological discourses of African American male teachers working with African American male students

Since the early 1990s, several researchers have found that African American teachers who are successful with African American students hold deep philosophical commitments to the concept of ‘social justice’. While these scholars have convincingly articulated how ‘social justice’ is a central feature of African American teachers’ success with African American students, little attention has been given to whether African American teachers draw from diverse and/or competing ideological discourses to address the collective goal of achieving ‘social justice’. Employing the theoretical framework of nation language, the findings from this study illustrate how seven African American male teachers who worked with African American male students within a local educational context drew from multiple and sometimes contested conceptions of ‘social justice’. The findings from this study demonstrate that while the teachers held a ‘shared concern’ to radically alter the educational and social conditions of African American males, they each employed different and competing discourses of ‘social justice’. Thus, in the context of this study, the idea of ‘social justice’ was individually rendered, historically contingent and multifaceted.

Historical Perspectives on African American Males as Subjects of Education Policy

The intent of this article is to frame the contemporary policy prescriptions concerning the plight and prospects of African American males in historical perspective. The authors argue that the emergence of African American males as a special subject of educational policy represents a more explicit rendering of a deeply rooted social and educational policy discourse in which African American males figured prominently but seldom as a targeted subject. Selected historical literature in African American education, sociology, and educational policy are reviewed, noting relevant trends over time.

Economies of Racism: Grounding Education Policy Research in the Complex Dialectic of Race, Class, and Capital.

The intent of this paper is to interrogate the current theoretical discourse in education concerning issues of race and class. The authors maintain that in recent years educational theory and critical policy discourse have unintentionally become splintered in such a way that race and class theories are employed separately, without much analysis of the concomitant ways race and racism are both embedded in and productive of the material processes of production and exploitation that characterize capitalism. The authors propose the framework of economies of racism to make sense of the complex unity that brings white supremacy and capitalist accumulation together in a single dialectic. Drawing from recent work on race and class in critical social theory, the authors first make their case for the theory and formulation of economies of racism in society and education, and follow this with an analysis of current educational policy research via the theoretical lenses posited through this dialectical framework.

Pedagogies of Experience: A Case of the African American Male Teacher.

Numerous scholars have illustrated how African American teachers’ past experiences provide them a philosophical vision committed to teaching for social and educational change for African American students. This article draws from this body of work by looking at the diverse ways five African American male teachers used their past experiences to shape their vision for working with African American male students. However, this article also extends this body of work by illustrating that while the teachers in this study had similar commitments to working with African American males, their varied life experiences and social locations provided them different sources of practical and philosophical knowledge. These findings illustrate the diversity of experiences these teachers drew from, thus troubling the common sense discourses that essentialize African American male teachers as one-dimensional monolithic role models.

Black Civitas: An Examination of Carter Woodson's Contributions to Teaching about Race, Citizenship, and the Black Soldier.

In this article the authors interrogate the historical meaning of the African American soldier in order to widen the discussion of race and citizenship in the field of social studies education. The article has two overarching purposes. First, the authors attend to the recent call in the field of social studies for a more rigorous analysis of issues of race and racism. The authors focus attention on the history of the Black soldier in order to document the nuanced and paradoxical ways in which race and citizenship have intersected in the lives and military service of these men. Second, the authors situate the work of Carter G. Woodson as foundational to discussions about race and citizenship. They give specific attention to Woodsons textbook writings in order to highlight how he employed the genre of curriculum writing to challenge the historical narratives found in K-12 texts and in the academic literature about the Black soldier.

The Forgotten Legacy of Carter G. Woodson: Contributions to Multicultural Social Studies and African American History

The intent of this article is to examine the significance of Carter G. Woodson to the historical development of the fields of curriculum and social studies, particularly as they relate to the evolution of the modern multicultural movement. The authors focus on Woodsons contributions through his curriculum and his pedagogical efforts in establishing a more rigorous and historically accurate social studies framework through his community education initiatives, the Negro History Bulletin, and his textbooks. They conclude the article with a discussion of how Woodsons efforts can have direct implications for social studies educators.

Beyond post-racial narratives: Barack Obama and the (re)shaping of racial memory in US schools and society

Drawing from the work of cultural memory and racial formation theory (Omi and Winant 1994) we explore the ascension of Barack Obama as an illustration of how ‘race’ is understood and remembered. This article focuses on the public media discourse of the 2012 Obama re-election to illustrate how the narrative morphed racially from 2008 to 2012. Our findings suggest that the public discourse about ascension and re-election of Barack Obama drew from racial and post-racial narratives to describe his re-election. We contend that attention given to the public construction of Barack Obama in the present is vitally important to how the narrative arc of ‘race’ in the US will be understood in schools and society.