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We Got Next

Urban Education and the Next Generation of Black Teachers

by Lynnette Mawhinney (Author)
©2014 Textbook XIV, 135 Pages

Summary

Developing a more culturally diverse teaching force is one of the most important tasks facing the education system in the United States. Yet, in the midst of this challenge, little is known about who these teachers might be or where they might come from. We Got Next: Urban Education and the Next Generation of Black Teachers illustrates the journeys that Black pre-service teachers travel in their attempts to become educators. By looking at their educational life histories – their schooling experiences, teaching philosophies, and personal motivation – this book discovers what compels them to become teachers and the struggles and successes they encounter along the way. With texture and care, We Got Next helps professionals, policymakers, and teacher educators to understand what draws young African Americans toward the teaching profession and how to help them get there.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • Dedication
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Foreword
  • Chapter 1. Introduction
  • Lives of Preservice Black Teachers
  • Life History as Theoretical Framework
  • Life History as Methodology
  • Organization of the Book
  • A Note on Format
  • Chapter 2. Carver University and Teacher Education
  • Carver University
  • Teacher Education at Carver University
  • My Role at Carver University
  • Chapter 3. Freshman Year: Thinking About Teaching
  • Allen
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Leon
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Basic Skills Certification Exam
  • Tierra
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Basic Skills Certification Exam
  • Tanya
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Chapter 4. Sophomore Year: Entering Teacher Education
  • Dashawn
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Jessica
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Tyrone
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Chapter 5. Junior Year: Practicing Teacher
  • Shironda
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Dana
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Chapter 6. Senior Year: Certified Teacher
  • Claresha
  • Home
  • K–12 Educational Experiences
  • Carver University
  • Teaching Career
  • Chapter 7. We Got Next: Passing the Torch
  • Afterword: An Invitation to Dialogue About the Teaching Profession
  • Appendix: Interview Protocol
  • Interview #1: Life History
  • Interview #2: Teacher Education
  • Notes
  • References
  • Series index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This journey would not be possible without the support of Dr. Emery Petchauer and Dr. Kira Baker-Doyle. To Emery, I am eternally grateful to have you as a wonderful friend who pushes me to accomplish my best. Your support, loyalty, and honest critique have continued to humble me, and I am grateful to God to have you as a part of my life. To Kira, your wisdom and book coaching have been invaluable. You literally held my hand at the beginning of this process, and I appreciate your lovely support of my work and me.

Many thanks go to my homeboy, Dr. Decoteau Irby, and my homegirl, Dr. Laura Porterfield. You have both provided guidance, academically and spiritually, during this process, which was really needed at times. I am blessed to have two great friends like you both. Also, much love to my other writing group members, Dr. Sonia Rosen and Dr. Catriona MacLeod, for showing me the strength and beauty of mother-academics. A big shout-out goes to Dr. Tabitha Dell’Angelo, as I am honored each day to work, learn, and grow from you. I am privileged to have an amazing work partner and friend in a woman of great strength and a beautiful spirit like you. I also give a world of thanks to Dr. Carol Rinke, my writing partner and friend. It has been a great journey collaborating with you over the years, and I look forward to many more years working together. A huge Bahraini hug goes out to Jon Brown who ← ix | x → was my greatest support and “hypeman” during the hardest and longest part of this book journey. I am so appreciative of all your gifts and what you have taught me thus far.

I am appreciative of TCNJ and the support they have provided to me to complete this book. Moreover, I am thankful for my colleagues, Dr. Alan Amtzis, Dr. Brenda Leake, Eileen Heddy, and Dr. Sarah Kern, for their continued support and push to make me a reflective teacher. I would also like to thank Dr. Rich Milner. Back at AERA in 2008, I heard you share valuable information about being a Black scholar, and every year since you have built on that knowledge for me. I am honored to have your support with the publication of this book.

On the home front, I would love to thank my parents, Katharine Mawhinney and Lawrence Mark, for instilling the importance of education in me and showing me the value of family. Thank you to my siblings, Bryan Coage, April Coage, and Nancy Rivera, and all my nieces and nephews. You have all made my life complete, and I love you dearly. Also, much love goes to my spiritual and surrogate sister, Lauren Egan, for all your love and prayers during this process. I could not do this without your continued support and faith in my abilities. Your passion for God, kindness toward others, and trust in people teaches me valuable lessons daily. A huge hug goes out to my best friend, Theresa Lane. Your courage, drive, and endless smiles are a treasure in my life. I am thankful to God that you are a part of my life and family.

My most important acknowledgment goes to the preservice teachers in this book (who will remain nameless) who have opened up their hearts and lives to me over these last couple of years. As your professor, and now your colleague, I have learned precious lessons from each of you. I thank you for all that you have shared and continue to teach me. Lastly, I would like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray that I continue to do your will in this lifetime.

← x | xi → FOREWORD

Increasingly, I am asked to write forewords, epilogues, and back-cover blurbs for books in education, especially those focused on urban teaching, policy, and reform. In fact, I have had to decline such invitations for a few books for several reasons, including the following: the books were written from a deficit perspective about the communities and people they studied; the authors did not seem to deeply understand or articulate the real issues and challenges in the field; or the books did not make a significantly meaningful contribution to the field. Fortunately, this book, We Got Next: Urban Education and the Next Generation of Black Teachers, is the opposite. This book is written from the point of view of Black preservice teacher candidates and potential candidates. It showcases and speaks to and through their genius and potential while astutely highlighting organizational, structural, institutional, and systemic challenges that teacher candidates encounter on their journeys to become teachers. It is clear Mawhinney truly understands what can be conceptualized, studied, and practiced as two disparate fields—urban education and preservice teacher education, as she sheds light on the intersecting nature of them. Indeed, this is a serious book that will make an important contribution to what we know about the teacher education pipeline, urban education, as well as how to study the lived experiences of Black preservice teachers.

← xi | xii → Drawing from a rich tradition of other Black teacher educators and researchers who have investigated some aspect of Black teachers, their identity, and teaching, such as Michelle Foster, Jackie Irvine, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Vanessa Siddle-Walker, Mawhinney shifts the conversation regarding Black teachers away from what they do in the classroom to their preparation, triumphs and woes. Drawing from a life history framework, she “calls out” some of the under-examined and understated challenges Black prospective teachers face in their laborious journeys to become teachers, especially licensure examinations that attempt to measure candidates’ basic skills. The discussion calls into question many unresolved issues: What is the relationship between teacher success/passage rates on these teacher examinations and their actual performances and practices in schools with students? What do these exams cover and what do they not examine in the grand narrative of what teachers need to know and be able to do in classrooms, especially in urban sociopolitical contexts? Why are these Black students underprepared to succeed on the examinations, and what roles have schools played in this lack of preparation? In what ways do these examinations serve as gatekeepers for potentially successful teachers in the field? And what can we learn from other fields such as social work, medicine, engineering, and nursing about what we as a field of teaching should and should not be doing given the particularistic nature of the profession of teaching?

Compellingly, this book updates the literature on Black teachers and their teaching by raising additional insights. For instance, what is covered in teacher education programs and why? Are Black teachers’ experiences honored and addressed in these programs or are the programs tailored to meet the needs of White teachers mostly—given the current racial demography of teachers? What role can and should Historically Black Colleges and Universities play in the preparation of teachers, especially Black teachers at this time in history? And, perhaps most importantly, just where did the Black teaching force go (and why) after Brown v. Board of Education? In short, there is much to be learned from the stories of the 10 Black teachers represented in this volume.

There are perhaps no questions in education more important than those related to the racial demography of teachers in public schools—particularly for urban schools. Although the ethnic-matching research findings are scattered and inconclusive regarding the effects of Black teachers on Black student test scores, Black teachers bring into a classroom a set of expertise, insight, and experience that can never be fully measured. That is, Black teachers bring their lives and lived experiences into the classroom, and they become texts for ← xii | xiii → their students: Their texts are filled with lessons from which Black (and other) students are able to learn and develop. Black teachers serve as role models for Black students. More times than not, they understand their Black students because they live similar experiences of racism and other forms of discrimination on a daily basis. Moreover, Black teachers often develop a form of fictive kinship with their Black students that bring out the best in their Black students.

Details

Pages
XIV, 135
Publication Year
2014
ISBN (PDF)
9781453912812
ISBN (MOBI)
9781454197898
ISBN (ePUB)
9781454197904
ISBN (Hardcover)
9781433123689
ISBN (Softcover)
9781433123672
DOI
10.3726/978-1-4539-1281-2
Language
English
Publication date
2014 (October)
Keywords
educational life personal motivation profession
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2014. 135 pp.

Biographical notes

Lynnette Mawhinney (Author)

Lynnette Mawhinney is Associate Professor of Urban Education at The College of New Jersey and a Fulbright Scholar. Her research focuses on the professional and educational lives of current and aspiring urban teachers. Her work has been published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Education and Urban Society, and other venues. A former secondary English language arts teacher in Philadelphia, Dr. Mawhinney holds a PhD in urban education from Temple University

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