Teacher education scholars have long used the literary device of metaphor to describe the work of teachers. Metaphors offer colorful descriptions about the teacher and the profession of teaching. What also undergirds the use of metaphors about teaching is the underlying philosophies about the purpose of the teacher and teaching. We argue however,…

In this critical reflective analysis, we explore the nature of schooling for Black children and youth before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and envision its transformative possibilities. We draw from Black intellectual thought around antiblackness, Black joy, and Brown's humanizing critical sociocultural knowledge to interrogate our own pandemic…

Drawing from the framework of "populational reasoning," this paper explores the implicit and explicit discourses within recruitment calls for Black male teachers. "Populational reasoning" helps to construct meaning about how students learn and the socio-psychological attributes that inform school achievement. In this sense, we…

This article explores the theoretical implications around positioning the Black male teacher as the central agent of social change for Black male students. In addressing such concerns, my intention is not to discourage efforts to recruit and retain more African American men as teachers, but to trouble the commonsense assumptions embedded in such…

Numerous scholars have illustrated how African American teachers' past experiences provide them a philosophical vision committed to teaching for social and educational change for African American students. This article draws from this body of work by looking at the diverse ways five African American male teachers used their past experiences to…

Since the early 1990s, several researchers have found that African American teachers who are successful with African American students hold deep philosophical commitments to the concept of "social justice". While these scholars have convincingly articulated how "social justice" is a central feature of African American teachers' success with…

Drawing from ethnographic data, this paper explores how African American male teachers working with African American male students performed their pedagogy. This paper highlights how teachers' understanding of African American males social and educational needs shaped their pedagogical performance. Interestingly however, teachers' performance was…