RESEARCH
Featured Research
Our featured research section showcases prominent studies by scholars and #BlackTeachers, that highlight cutting-edge findings, thought-provoking perspectives and action-provoking insights in education and beyond.
Cycles of Fugitivity: How Black Teacher Fugitive Space Shapes Black Teacher Pedagogies
Author: Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall
As conservatives ban the teaching of Black history and critical understandings of race across the country, Black teachers are turning again to fugitive pedagogies, or subversive ways of teaching, to counter anti-blackness and imagine the world anew. This study drew on data from interviews, classroom observations, and student focus groups to demonstrate how a Black teacher fugitive professional learning space helped to motivate and inform the pedagogies of a Black secondary school teacher. The research provides insight into how Black teachers learn to use fugitive pedagogies to create Black-affirming collective learning spaces for their students.
Black Teachers’ Use of Liberatory Design to Promote Literacies of Healing
Author(s): Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall, Lamar Timmons-Long, Thomas J. Rodney, and Taylor Hall
When Black teachers step into BTP’s virtual Design Lab, they leave with a deeper understanding of how Liberatory Design’s merging of mindsets and modes supports joy in the classroom and equity across America’s educational system. The experience was no different for educators Jessica Lee Stovall, Lamar Timmons-Long, Thomas J. Rodney, and Taylor Hall, who collaborated in our Design Lab and tapped into the design thinking process to reimagine learning for their students. This article illustrates how Liberatory Design served as a catalyst for this team to find ways to confront and heal from anti-Blackness, while centering their students’ brilliance and humanity.
AN INSIGHT EXCHANGE
Explore this curated collection of groundbreaking discoveries and perspectives showcased and championed by the Black Teacher Project across our social media channels.
“We Just Do Us”: How Black Teachers Co-construct Black Teacher Fugitive Space in The Face of Anti-Blackness
Author(s): Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall and Dr. Micia Mosely
This article uncovers how Black teachers formed a collective sanctuary in response to antiblackness at their schools. Through interviews and observations, the research reveals these spaces as reminiscent of a home, where teachers freely express their Black identity. It challenges the notion of "affinity spaces," proposing the term "pro-Black fugitive space" from Black Studies to better capture its essence. The study suggests these spaces are vital for rehumanizing and supporting Black teachers, highlighting implications for their retention and well-being.
“We will not be afraid to share who we are”; Black Teachers’ Experiences with
Antiblackness during a Global Pandemic
Author(s): Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall
This study delves into the experiences of Black Bay Area teachers during the 2021–2022 school year, focusing on their return to in-person teaching. Dr. Stovall analyzes semi-structured interviews with 30 teachers, applying Critical Race Theory and BlackCrit to explore their encounters with antiblackness amidst the pandemic. Findings indicate exacerbated challenges in student access and job sustainability, alongside persistent concerns regarding antiblackness and workload disparities compared to non-Black colleagues, all crucial factors impacting teacher retention.
“Integrity Despite Moral Nonrecognition: Why Black Teachers Are Called to Teach
Author(s): Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall
"I am a Black woman and former high school English teacher who struggled to maintain what bell hooks called an “integrity of being,”—or being truthful to my sense of self in a system designed to silence and assimilate that self. I write this response in the California sunshine at Stanford University, instead of my old cozy classroom of high school juniors huddled together to read between the lines of Native Son. I haven’t left teaching per se, but I’ve instead shifted from one intervention—directly battling antiblackness through educating high school students—to another... "
‘Grant us the sun’: What Black teachers need
Author(s): Jessica Lee Stovall and Tara R. Sullivan
Amidst increasing teacher shortages, Black educators are exiting the profession at alarming rates. Jessica Lee Stovall and Tara R. Sullivan offer insights from interviews with 30 Black teachers in the California Bay Area, revealing the challenges they confront and their aspirations for the future. These interviews shed light on the anti-Blackness prevalent in education and the vision for healing-centered spaces where Black teachers can authentically shape a world centered on and affirming of Blackness.
‘Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers
Editor(s): Conra D. Gist and Travis J. Bristol
This groundbreaking handbook addresses key challenges to ethnoracial diversity throughout teachers' careers, covering recruitment, retention, professional development, and the role of minority-serving institutions. It serves as a vital resource, fostering collaboration among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, igniting discussions and catalyzing change in this pivotal era. BTP Founder, Dr. Micia Mosely, and BTP Cohort 1 Fellow, Belinda Bellinger, co-authored a chapter titled "How Black Teachers Utilize Professional Development for Resistance and Liberation."
A Space to Be Whole: A Landscape Analysis of Educator-Based Racial Affinity Groups in the U.S.
Written and Researched by Dr. April Warren-Grice
This report offers a comprehensive national analysis of racial affinity groups supporting educators of color. It documents organizations at both national and state levels, compares group approaches, explores collaboration potential, and outlines policy and activism implications. By delving into the motivations and experiences of Black teachers and educators of color in these spaces, it aims to inform a policy-advocacy platform promoting educator development and sustainability. Watch our introductory webinar for insights: bit.ly/landscape-analysis-april-2021
Through Our Eyes: Perspectives and Reflections From Black Teachers
Author(s): Ashley Griffin and Hilary Tackie (The Education Trust)
“Through Our Eyes: Perspectives and Reflections From Black Teachers” represents the qualitative data Ed Trust collected from focus group sessions of 150 Black teachers from across the country. With African Americans making up only 7 percent of the teaching workforce, “Through Our Eyes” adds some of the much-needed substance that has been absent from the teacher diversity conversation. It uncovers the challenges Black teachers face in classrooms and schools, surfacing issues that contribute to low retention rates among teachers of color.
The Black Teacher Project: How Racial Affnity Professional Development Sustains Black Teachers
Author(s): Micia Mosely
In our pilot year, BTP provided racial affinity-based professional development for Black teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, aiming to assess its impact. This article outlines the results, encompassing a yearlong book study, inquiry groups, and 'Rejuvenation Spaces.' A significant finding from this pilot study is that such professional development reduces isolation and enhances retention among Black educators.
research-based articles
- Aina, Mayova, NPR.org: To get to college, it helps Black students to have a Black teacher early on
- Barnum, Matt, Chalkbeat.org: Black teachers leave schools at higher rates — but why?
- Bowling, Nate, Educationpost.org: Students of Color Need to See More People of Color. That Shouldn’t Be Controversial.
- Brown, Emma, Washington Post: White Teachers and Black Teachers Have Different Expectations of Black Students
- Durey, Emily, The Atlantic: The Burden of Being A Black Teacher
- Hines, Ericka & Hines, Michael, Time.com: Want to Support Black Students? Invest in Black Teachers
- John Hopkins University: Race Biases Expectations of Students
- Kamenetz, Anya, NPR.org: Study Finds Students Of All Races Prefer Teachers Of Color
- Rizga, Kristina, MotherJones.com: Black Teachers Matter: America’s schools desperately need educators like Darlene Lomax. So why are we driving them away?
- Swisher, Abigail, National Council on Teacher Quality: How Black Teachers Make a Difference
- Williams, Goyland, Racebiatr.com: Teaching While Black, Or How I Came to Hate Warnings
research-based BOOKS
- A Class of They Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South by Adam Fairclough
- Beyond The Big House: African American Educators On Teacher Education by Gloria Ladson-Billings
- Black Teachers On Teaching by Michelle Foster
- Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching by Dr. Jarvis Givens
- In Search of Wholeness: African American Teachers and Their Culturally Specific Pedagogy by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine
- The Spirit of Our Work by Dr. Cynthia B. Dillard