Is the Future of the Black Race in the hands of White Female Teachers? by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu Can you imagine African Americans may be the only group expecting someone else to educate their children? White female teachers constitute 83 percent of the U.S. elementary teaching force. African American students are 17 percent of public school students nationwide, but represent only 6 percent of the teachers. Unfortunately, African American males constitute only 1 percent of the teaching population. There are schools without one African American male academic teacher. They are employed as custodians, security guards, and P.E. teachers. Often, schools will hire an African American male to be an assistant principal which translates into being in charge of all male behavioral problems. What happened to African American teachers? Since the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka decision to integrate schools, there has been a 66 percent decline in African American teachers. Ironically, African American students benefitted from Jim Crow, because many brilliant African Americans who were denied corporate America, were confined to education or the ministry. Today, African Americans seem to be choosing corporate America and more dollars over their children. Others espouse the major factors are lack of respect to the profession and poor student discipline. When I speak at colleges, many students tell me the children are too bad. Can you imagine a 19year-old African American is reporting the children are too bad? If they are problematic for African Americans, I wonder what White female teachers think of African American youth? Could their answer be greater special education placement? The turnover of White staff in the inner city is 40 percent within five years. As a national educational consultant to school districts, I spend an enormous amount of time working with White female teachers. Is it fair to expect someone who never lived in the Black community, attended a rural college, did their student teaching in that region, took few if any courses on Black history, culture, psychology, family, learning styles, Ebonics, etc. to be effective? I often wonder is the reason White girls are placed in special education the least and African American males the greatest, based on the race and gender of the teacher? Some people continue to equate being different as synonymous with deficient. In my latest book, Black Students: Middle Class Teachers, I report research that African American children’s test scores improve 4 percent when the teacher is of the same race. While this is encouraging, how can this be achieved with the present decline in African American teachers? Black colleges only enroll 16 percent of African American students, but they produce 37 percent of African American teachers which is very encouraging. While I’m an advocate of African American teachers, this does not negate there are African-American teachers who are ineffective with Black youth. They deny choice to low-income families, while sending their children to private schools. They would never send their children to the school where they miseducate children. I would challenge all African American professionals to consider teaching for a year, especially those who retired early. African American children deserve their best Black minds in the classroom. Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu is the author of Black Students: Middle Class Teachers
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 20:21:27 +0000
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