Huey P. Newton Oakland Community School Interview [A Black Panther Commu...

How Teacher Education universities reset the premeditated Cultural Malfeasance of not having Black Male Teachers?

By Don Allen, M.A. Ed. (Candidate Ed. S/Ed.D) #ProjectBlackTeach

While barely surviving one of the most racist graduate programs in Minnesota, this reflection will deconstruct my area of focus to show the intersectionality between graduate students in Master's programs for teaching and the organizational design of classes predetermined by administrators that lack in facilitating the training of new teachers. In the article “Back to School or back to hell? Why America's education system continues failing Black students,” the author Starla Muhammad (2012) explains that structural racism is a major contributing factor to why the public education system is failing Black children. The fact that there are not enough Black male teachers is a huge problem and the number one institutional issue that is breeding the crime, dropout, suspensions and enormous referral rates to special education (Muhammad, 2012). If Masters of Teaching (MAT) programs cannot develop teachers dejected of historical assumptions when teaching children of color, the only alternative is to address the systemic crisis – or opportunities within the program curriculum of a university education department. With the ghettoization of cultural competency and lack of clairvoyance in the teaching of diversity, racism, class and social justice by university administrators, how do teaching and research universities reset educational and cultural malfeasance in the training of new teachers?

Identifying Area of Focus

This topic became of interest when I participated in the requirements of the MAT program (up to December 2015), and how in most cases, credit(s) for experiential learning could not be acquired because system designs were not in place to denote positive urban community teaching experiences; having over 300 hours teaching K-6 meant nothing to the systems in place, nor was the fact I was a teacher of color. Secondly, as a non-traditional learner, I constantly found myself in MAT classes as the only male of color with no one, including a handful of instructors that could relate to the content of positive expectations for black boys in public schools. Conversations about black boys became surreptitious, mostly at break, in a one-on-one conversation that would have been beneficial for all, but threatening to some.

With the absence of cultural and linguistic cohesion inside some schools of education, if I were to argue what is one of the main challenge in educating black bodies (especially black boys) - in the K-12 public school system, the answer might have to do with the perceptions of those black bodies by the educators training teachers at undergraduate and graduate schools of education. In some cases, most data driven, we see that black learners plummet well below 70 percent in their proficiencies in math, reading, science and social studies (Camera, 2015). But while most college graduate school's Master of Teaching programs overwhelm their adult graduate students with politically correct outer-rim courses in social justice, race and multiculturalism, the fact is most future teachers look at teaching students more aligned with their own cultures and backgrounds; this is where the disconnect of the reality a first teaching job starts to manifest. Some students in education programs thrive in the areas inquiring about race, class and socioeconomic systems within poor minority communities that systematically obstruct progress, while others perform for the grade with no intention of working with people, students or colleagues outside their culture-race comfortability level. For many the retention of learning about multiculturalism, race/gender and equity is rejected in favor of their own cultural beliefs. Expectations of a well-rounded diverse graduate student teacher fade quickly after the final grade is posted; and rightly so – the school of education missed the mark in teacher training. In most cases, it makes the new student teacher ill-equipped to teach other people’s children (Terrill, September). The mainstream in society can still see that the black body in public education K-12 has the widest non-functioning educational gaps-in-topics in reading, writing and arithmetic; not to forget the lowest graduation rates, highest dropout statistics and the fact that in some cases, black boys and girls might not make it to graduation day due to becoming victims of their environment meaning black-on-black crime, killed by law enforcement or inducted into the juvenile justice system (Fremon & Hamilton, 1997).

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Welcome to the Hitchhiker's Guide to Hamline University

A special thanks to Professor David Hudson for guiding us in the best Journalism Class on Earth!

Saint Paul, Minn. - Four Hamline University journalism students developed the Hitchhikers Guide to Hamline University in December 2013. The goal of this publication is to provide timely and relevant information about Hamline, its majors, professors and classes that all incoming students should know about. 

Hamline offers students many choices. There are over 50 areas of study to choose from including: Art, English, History, Music, Biology, Religion, and Psychology. In addition, there are many opportunities for growth in opportunities like writing for the Oracle or collaborate research studies with a professor.

Student organizations are an important lifeline at HU. There are many to student organization to choose from and to find out more information, check out Ms. Wendy Burns the director of student activates on the third floor of the Anderson Center.

We hope to capture the options offered to students with every issue of the Hitchiker's Guide to Hamline University.