Tyrone C. Howard

Powerful Pedagogy for African American Students: A Case of Four Teachers.

The disproportionate underachievement of African American students may suggest that teacher effectiveness with this student population has been limited. However, amidst these widespread academic failures, characterizations of effective teachers of African American students have emerged in an attempt to reverse these disturbing trends. This article examines the findings from a qualitative case study of four elementary school teachers in urban settings. The findings reveal teaching practices consistent with various norms espoused by African American students in a manner that could be termed “culturally relevant.” In this article, three of the major pedagogical themes are discussed: holistic instructional strategies, culturally consistent communicative competencies, and skill-building strategies to promote academic success.

How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Black Male Students, Schools, and Learning in Enhancing the Knowledge Base to Disrupt Deficit Frameworks

Despite a multitude of school reform efforts, increased standardization in schools, the influx of charter schools nationwide, the promulgation of high-stakes testing, the supposed promise of educational policies such as No Child Left Behind, the surge of districts being taken over by states, and the growing corporate presence to oversee schools, there still remains a large segment of students attending U.S. schools who fail to gain access to a high-quality education (Darling-Hammond, 2006, 2010; Howard, 2010). These trends are most disturbing at a time when increasing globalization and the need for highly skilled individuals may lead to countless numbers of students who find themselves on the academic margins today and will most certainly be on the economic and social fringes in the near future. Although this academic and social exclusion will undoubtedly affect students across all racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups, there are persistent data that show that certain student groups are more severely and disproportionately affected by school failures than others. One of those groups, African American1 males, is the focus of this work. African American males will be the focus because they continue to be one of the more academically and socially marginalized students in U.S. schools (Anderson, 2008; Noguera, 2008). The outcomes in school in many ways mirror their condition in the larger society (Polite & Davis, 1999). This work seeks to shed some light on some of the challenges that exist for Black males in their pursuit for academic success. A close examination of a number of political, social, and economic indicators reveals the ongoing challenges of what it means to be Black and male in the United States.

Critical Race Theory 20 Years Later: Where Do We Go From Here?

As the nation’s schools become increasingly diverse along ethnic and racial lines, examining and understanding the racial complexities in the United States is more germane now than ever in the nation’s history. To that end, critical race theory (CRT) has been a transformative conceptual, methodological, and theoretical construct that has assisted researchers in problematizing race in education. As we reflect on 20 years of CRT, it is essential to examine in what ways, if any, CRT is influencing school practice and policy. Given the disparate educational outcomes for students of color, researchers have to inquire about the influence of CRT on the lived experiences of students in schools. In this article, the authors lay out the historical trajectory of CRT, discuss its influence on educational research, and then evaluate to what extent, if any CRT has had on school policy and practice. The article will conclude with research, practice, and policy implications that may influence CRT’s development over the next 20-year period.

Research concerns, cautions and considerations on Black males in a ‘post‐racial’ society

Black males continue to be one of the most academically marginalized groups of students in US schools, and undoubtedly the role of race and racism has largely influenced these experiences. The paradox of the underperformance of Black males has been the election of President Obama in 2008. The Obama election has led some to question whether or not race and racism continue to be pertinent factors in how racially diverse groups experience life in the United States. This article takes an examination of research on Black males in what some are attempting to label the United States’ first ‘post‐racial’ era. In this article, the authors take exception to the term ‘post‐racial’ and any suggestion that the United States is beyond race, and that race no longer matters in US life, law, policy, and life experiences. The article calls for researchers to be mindful of important cautions, concerns, and considerations as they engage in scholarly inquiry on Black males.

Counter-narrative as method: race, policy and research for teacher education

The authors argue for a research and conceptual agenda that complicates and disrupts common narratives in teacher education that have serious implications for race. Building on the pivotal work of legal scholar Derrick Bell and through a critical race theory (CRT) lens, this article challenges researchers to broaden and complexify traditional ideologies related to: (1) characteristics of ideal teachers recruited into the field; (2) the amount of time teachers should be expected to remain in the field through alternative programs such as Teach for America; (3)weight placed on teacher entrance examinations; (4)racial diversity of P-12 teachers; (5)racial and ethnic makeup of teacher educators; and (6)over-reliance on subject matter knowledge in teacher preparation to the exclusion of other aspects of learning to teach. The authors argue given the present racial divide in schools between teachers and students it is imperative for teacher education programs to complicate and intensify the utility of race in their recruitment, retention, and support of teacher education practices and policies. The authors offer a counter narrative framework and agenda to advance policy and research through a CRT lens.

Pathologizing the Poor: Implications for Preparing Teachers to Work in High-Poverty Schools

The recent economic downturn highlights that poverty continues to be a significant social problem. Mindful of this demographic reality, it is imperative for teacher educators to pay close attention to the manner in which teachers are prepared to educate students from impoverished backgrounds. Given the number of frameworks that offer reductive recommendations for teaching students from impoverished backgrounds, we seek to accomplish two goals with this work: (a) to summarize mythologies about poverty that impact student–teacher relationships and (b) to offer new perspectives on educating students from impoverished backgrounds by providing anchor questions teacher educators can explore with pre-service teachers.

Civic Multicultural Competence: Searching for Common Ground in Democratic Education

Abstract During the past several decades, multicultural education has become an integral part of the social studies as a means to authentically prepare students for living in an inclusive and democratic society. Topics traditionally omitted, such as race, ethnicity, culture, social class, and gender, are now included. Yet, while multicultural education has helped to bring such topics into the social studies discourse, social studies has generally fallen short of taking a more critical approach to the preparation of citizens. In this work we review the professional literature in multicultural education and social studies education to clarify the distinctions between the fields. Then, we investigate the nexus between the two where we find reason for hope in a time when national political discussion is often polarized. We propose the notion of civic multicultural competence as a concept that challenges scholars and educators to move forward towards better preparing students for life in a multicultural, global society.

Culturally responsive pedagogy for African American students: promising programs and practices for enhanced academic performance

The academic outcomes for African American students continue to lag behind their White, Latino, and Asian American counterparts. Culturally responsive pedagogy has been purported to be an intervention that may help to reverse the persistent under performance for African American students. This article highlights findings from a three-year study of an intervention program designed to increase college going rates for African American students. The authors document the manner in which overall student outcomes, graduation rates, and college going rates increased when culturally responsive pedagogical practices were used. Finally, this work calls for academic rigor to be a more germane characteristic of the culturally responsive pedagogical framework.

Is this what educators really want? Transforming the discourse on Black fathers and their participation in schools

Parent involvement within schools has garnered attention since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandated that parent participation be a condition for federal funding. This particular caveat has been significant because issues of race and class come to the forefront when examining schools that receive federal funding. A close examination of parent involvement becomes increasingly salient, in particular for students of color who are more likely than their White peers to attend schools receiving federal funding. In this qualitative study of 16 participants, we seek to narrow the focus of parents, and pay particular attention to Black fathers. The role of Black fathers has been largely absent from the educational discourse on parent involvement at both the local and federal levels, and within the literature, the roles, practices, and strategies of involvement for Black fathers has been scant compared to their White peers. This absence from the literature is noteworthy given the important role that involvement plays in educational success coupled with Black students’ perennial underperformance in US schools. The purpose of this work is to highlight findings from a study that examined the voices, perspectives, and involvement practices that Black fathers used to build relationships with school personnel in an effort to advocate on behalf of their sons and daughters and improve their overall schooling experiences.

Does the "Negro" "Still" Need Separate Schools? Single-Sex Educational Settings as Critical Race Counterspaces.

This article explores whether contemporary educators should consider single-sex educational settings as viable interventions in educating African American males. Using qualitative data from a 2-year study of single-sex educational spaces in two Los Angeles County high schools, the authors argue that when all-male spaces effectively function as Critical Race Theory counterspaces, the educational experiences of high school–aged Black males are positively transformed. These cocurricular, single-sex counterspaces can effectively shield Black males from the marginalizing effects of urban schooling while serving as platforms for productive reengagement in positive school trajectories. Research-based principles for designing effective single-sex educational settings are discussed.