This article shares how providing teacher candidates with experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness in teacher candidates’ clinical courses. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or professional development school (PDS) partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical practice.
Conceptual paper sharing experiences addressing anti-blackness in school-university partnerships.
National Association of Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) recently revised their Nine Essentials to include this revised version of Essential 1: A comprehensive mission which calls for the advancement of equity, antiracism and social justice within and among schools, colleges/universities and their respective community and professional partners. The work that the author presents in this article around preparing teacher candidates to address anti-blackness fits into the call of Essential 1 because when anti-blackness is addressed equity, antiracism and social justice can be part of the educational experiences of black children. This article shares how providing teacher candidates experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness in teacher candidates’ clinical practice. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or PDS partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical courses.
The author believes that this manuscript is appropriate for publication because it addresses a necessary shift that must happen in clinical practice by recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness, as well as making sure teacher candidates are prepared to teach black students. This manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
It was my first year having teacher candidates placed in this particular elementary school. I was excited because this school was located in an urban area and the student demographics were predominantly black. This was important to me because I am a black, female, teacher educator who very seldomly gets to work in predominantly black schools. Also, I know that oftentimes a negative view of black students is held in the field of education. Black students are often perceived as disengaged from school, resistant and oppositional in the classroom and not valuing education and achievement (Tyson, 2002). These perceptions can cause black students' school experiences to be both challenging and harmful. Therefore, I found having teacher candidates enrolled in my clinical course placed at a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical placements as an opportunity for them to explore their perceptions of black students and gain experience working with a group of students that most of them have never worked with.
National Association of Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) recently revised their Nine Essentials to include this revised version of Essential 1: A Comprehensive Mission which calls for the advancement of equity, antiracism and social justice within and among schools, colleges/universities and their respective community and professional partners. The work that I present in this article around preparing teacher candidates to address anti-blackness fits into the call of Essential 1 because when anti-blackness is addressed equity, antiracism and social justice can be part of the educational experiences of black children. This article shares how providing teacher candidates experiences in a predominantly black elementary school for their clinical experiences highlighted a need to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness [1] in teacher candidates’ clinical practice. As well as, a need to emphasize the brilliance and assets of black students. Additionally, this article shares ways in which those involved in the work of school-university or PDS partnerships can incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in clinical courses.
The clinical course set-up
There were 16 teacher candidates enrolled in my Clinical I course and this was their first semester-long clinical experience. This course was offered in one of the largest teacher education programs in the Midwest. The education program was part of a predominantly white institution (PwI) that has a total enrollment of approximately 22,000 students. The teacher candidates were paired by the college placement coordinator and assigned to one cooperating teacher in grades K-5. The clinical course began with the first three weeks of the semester being on-campus and meeting three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) for 3.5 hours. During this time, I was able to prepare teacher candidates for what they may experience during their clinical practice.
I was intentional about getting teacher candidates to gain understanding of the assets and conditions of the schools and community where they would be placed, because I know that many of them have not been in predominantly black schools and communities. Therefore, I arranged a field trip for teacher candidates to visit their schools to meet the administration, get a tour of the school building and physically introduce themselves to their cooperating teacher. Prior to our visit to the school, teacher candidates had already met with their assigned cooperating teachers virtually to discuss expectations and logistics. In addition, teacher candidates got to explore the community, stopping by a few community organizations. During the next class following the field trip, I facilitated a discussion that required teacher candidates to critically reflect and share with the class their overall experience visiting schools and communities, the assets and conditions of urban and black schools and communities.
Before teacher candidates began their clinical practice, I spent a lot of time getting teacher candidates to unpack themselves through the use of identity wheels, Cycle of Socialization activity, Name Stories, Where I am From Poems, and other activities. Teacher candidates focused on their biases and prejudices while participating in these activities and discussed how their biases and prejudices can impact the way they see black students and the way that they could possibly teach black students.
I provided teacher candidates instruction on topics regarding lesson plans, classroom behavior guidance, instruction, assessments, culturally responsive teaching, funds of knowledge, anti-racist teaching, creating equitable teaching environments, self-care, to name a few things. I asked teacher candidates to use a journal to jot down how they see what they are learning incorporated in their clinical classrooms, as well as to process and make sense of their clinical experiences and what they are observing.
After the initial three weeks of the course, teacher candidates spent two full days each week for 11 weeks in clinical placements, with the exception of one on campus meeting during Week 7 and Week 11. During Weeks 7 and 11, teacher candidates would meet on campus for a three hour course to debrief (more details will be shared later in the article). Throughout the time when teacher candidates were in their clinical placement, I observed them at least once a week and we would debrief immediately after their observation. During the final week of the course, we met back on campus for a three hour course debrief to discuss not only their clinical experiences, but the course in general.
Situating the clinical course
The teacher candidates enrolled in my course were white, monolingual females with little to no experience working with black students prior to my course. Like most white teacher candidates, they felt unprepared to teach black students (Porcher, 2020; Bazemore-Bertrand, 2019; Milner & Laughter, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 1994). Most teachers develop fear and inaccurate preconceptions about black students because of the overabundance of negative imagery contributed by the media (Ramsay-Jordan, 2020; Childs, 2014). This contributes to teacher biases towards black students. The pairing of teachers’ unconscious biases and institutional racism is often what determines the kind of experience black children will have in school (Ani, 2013). Moreover, it determines how successful students will be in school (Ani, 2013).
Initially, I believed that placing teacher candidates in a predominantly black urban elementary school was going to be such a positive learning experience for them and one where they would gain knowledge. I felt this would be a positive experience because of what I remember as a teacher in a predominantly black elementary school. When I was teaching elementary school, I got to experience the brilliance of black children every day and they brought so much joy to the classroom with their swag [2] and perspectives. After two weeks of observing the teacher candidates in their clinical placements, I realized that some of the teacher candidates enrolled in my clinical course were not getting the positive learning experience that I experienced as a teacher. Some were placed with cooperating teachers that unfortunately did not see the brilliance and swag that their black students brought into the classroom like I once did. Unfortunately, I witnessed many incidents of anti-blackness through the ways in which students were instructed and discussed by some of the cooperating teachers. [3] While there were cooperating teachers who did not exhibit anti-black behavior and created positive classroom environments where black students thrived, I believe it is important to address the anti-blackness that was observed during teacher candidates’ clinical experiences because this is not often a topic of discussion during clinical placement.
Recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness in clinical practice
During my observation, there was an incident when a cooperating teacher shared with me how several of the black students would do better in her class if they had parents/caregivers that were around and showed that they cared. The cooperating teacher perceived students’ families as unconcerned about students and not being resourceful. This was an outlandish assumption that was made about the students who all happened to be black. During another observation, I witnessed a different cooperating teacher heavily monitoring the black students in their classroom and always assuming that they were off task during instructional time when this was not the case.
Another example of anti-blackness with this same cooperating teacher occurred during an observation of a social emotional lesson that focused on bullying. The teacher candidate asked students to share some of the characteristics of a bully. Several students responded using terms such as mean, tough, angry and selfish. The cooperating teacher responded, “Many of you have those traits and are learning to be nice and we are working on getting rid of aggressive behavior.” This comment was unsettling because the cooperating teacher was speaking to a class of black students and oftentimes black people have been stereotyped as aggressive, tough and angry. This cooperating teacher did not seem to take into consideration the possible impact of her comment. Throughout the semester, there were several discussions where some of the cooperating teachers would share deficit thoughts about their black students with teacher candidates.
In most cases, teacher candidates would share the discussions with me for feedback, expressing how they were uncomfortable with what they were witnessing in their classrooms. I would encourage teacher candidates to explore ways to acknowledge and address anti-blackness in elementary classrooms. I explained to teacher candidates how anti-blackness often shows up in elementary classrooms through mistreatment or inequitable treatment, over policing, low expectations and not believing black students. In addition, I informed them of a few ways to address anti-blackness in these classrooms by checking their biases daily, taking time to get to know black students as human beings, making sure that the black students in their classrooms see themselves in daily lessons in a non-stereotypical way, encouraging black students and providing opportunities for them to thrive.
The observations, comments from some of the cooperating teachers and discussions with teacher candidates caused me to realize that placing them in a predominantly black elementary school does not automatically provide teacher candidates with the skills, knowledge and ability to effectively teach black students. I failed to think about anti-blackness, anti-black racism, microaggressions and other factors that often show up in clinical placements. What I witnessed the first couple of weeks observing in the teacher candidates’ clinical placement caused me to think about the importance of preparing teacher candidates to recognize, acknowledge and address anti-blackness.
Dumas (2016) suggests that:
It is important for educators to acknowledge that anti-blackness infects educators’ work in schools, and serves as a form of (everyday) violence against black children and their families. This acknowledgement is different from a broad stance against intolerance or racism, or an admission of the existence of white privilege. Teachers, administrators and district leaders should create opportunities to engage in honest and very specific conversations about black bodies, blackness and black historical memories in and of the school and local community (p. 17).
All those involved with school-university partnerships or professional development schools (PDSs), specifically college/university faculty, cooperating teachers, clinical supervisors and administrators must address not only instructional practices, lesson planning, classroom behavior guidance, classroom set-up and assessments during clinical courses, but they must address anti-blackness, microaggressions, overt and covert racism, and ways to create equitable teaching and learning environments for black students. There should be intentionality regarding preparing teacher candidates to see black students as assets. If black students are to feel seen, free, connected and perform at their highest potential in schools, it is imperative for all those involved in school-university partnerships or PDSs to be intentional about recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness in clinical practice. Preparing teacher candidates through clinical practice to address anti-blackness cannot be an “add on”, but must be part of ongoing practices. This may be complicated for those involved in school-university partnerships or PDSs, because many of us that are involved in this particular work do not know how to recognize and address antiblackness ourselves. American public schools were created first and foremost for the advancement of white children, making anti-blackness part of its foundation. As those involved with school-university partnerships or PDSs, we must first start by educating ourselves and making sure that we are in tune with what is happening with black children in schools and work towards using our positions to create equitable and “safer” learning environments for black children which is connected to how we prepare teacher candidates to effectively teach black students.
Using the clinical course as an opportunity to address antiblackness and see the assets of black students
Once teacher candidates entered into their clinical placements, I noticed areas where they were being challenged and would meet with them after their observation to debrief. I took notes during the observations and recorded behaviors that appeared anti-black, as a microaggression, or showed prejudice. In addition, I would record behaviors that recognized students' brilliance, encouraged students and showed supportive and effective instruction. During the observation debrief, I would first ask teacher candidates to share what they found as positive in the classroom and for any instructional practices they believe will be useful in their future teaching. Secondly, I would ask teacher candidates to share if anti-blackness, prejudice, or inequitable practices were present during their clinical experience. This was my way of getting teacher candidates to critically reflect on their clinical experience. I wanted teacher candidates to not just focus on the ways and perceptions of their cooperating teacher, but to begin considering their own ways and perceptions. After teacher candidates shared, I would share what I witnessed during my observation and we would unpack my observation.
During the on campus course meetings on Weeks 7 and 11, I would always provide teacher candidates with writing time to share their experiences and “free their minds.” All who felt comfortable sharing aloud would participate in a group discussion. Based on my observations I would create scenarios and have teacher candidates discuss the scenarios in small groups and brainstorm possible solutions each class. My experiences in regards to how I was seeing black students being treated in some of the classrooms caused me to be intentional about helping teacher candidates define terms such as racism, anti-blackness, prejudice, microaggressions and provide examples of what this looks like in elementary classrooms. These discussions about anti-blackness were new to teacher candidates and caused some of them discomfort initially. However, this was necessary for making sure that teacher candidates were gaining preparation that would help them to effectively teach black students. In addition to these discussions around anti-blackness, I would also have teacher candidates discuss the positive experiences they are having in the classroom. This led us to discussions around how to incorporate practices that address anti-blackness in the classroom.
Incorporating practices that address antiblackness throughout clinical practice
The work that I began doing with teacher candidates regarding recognizing, acknowledging addressing anti-blackness, as well as seeing black students as assets came from my experience observing students in their clinical placements and the critical discussions I held with teacher candidates during our course meetings. My experience teaching this clinical course confirmed for me that addressing anti-blackness in clinical practice is necessary not only as an effort to create equitable and “safer” learning environments for black students, but also to make sure that teacher candidates are fully prepared to be effective teachers of black students. We cannot take for granted that cooperating teachers will operate in ways that promote inclusion, diversity, equity and antiracism (Husband, 2021). College/university faculty, school administrators, school-university partnerships and PDS stakeholders must work collaboratively to develop systemic and sustainable ways to combat racial injustice in their respective programs and educational contexts (Husband, 2021). With this in mind, in order to prioritize recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness in clinical practice, I offer the following suggestions:
All those involved in school-university partnerships or PDSs should begin or continue to address their own personal biases. I am reminded of flight attendants on commercial airplanes asking for passengers in the case of an emergency to apply their oxygen masks to their faces first before helping others apply their masks. This same concept applies when addressing anti-blackness in clinical practice. Before teacher educators, clinical faculty, clinical supervisors and others involved in school-university partnerships or PDSs can begin working with teacher candidates and addressing anti-blackness, they must start with themselves. All who are working with teacher candidates should be doing self-work (Porcher, 2020). This work on self should include reading books and listening to podcasts (Table 1), journaling as a means of critical reflection, attending professional development that involves learning anti-racist practices that challenge biases and stereotypes.
Colleges/universities and schools should establish a third space, a less hierarchical space to prioritize addressing anti-blackness within classrooms. Teacher educators, school faculty/staff and teacher candidates can work together to offer professional development and other opportunities that provide ways to combat anti-blackness and teach anti-racist practices.
Placement coordinators for school-university partnerships or PDSs should be intentional about building relationships with schools who are open to anti-racist practices and willing to address anti-black policies and practices. Logistics is not as important as being purposeful in choosing cooperating teachers that are willing to do the work to address anti-black practices and work on becoming anti-racist teachers. Placement coordinators should end partnerships that are unwilling to prioritize anti-racist practices and address anti-black practices that are observed in their schools.
District and school administrators need to be looking at disciplinary data, AP/Honors courses data, special education data, and overall students’ performance data to gain insight on the percentages of black students. This will give a glimpse of the educational experiences of black students in that particular district. Based on the findings district and school administrators should create an action plan that includes how they will address disproportionate data. This plan should include focus groups that ask black students what they need to feel seen and supported in school, professional development for all educators and staff that focuses on addressing anti-blackness and anti-racist teaching, and a review of curriculum to make sure that students are learning about the history and excellence of black people. There should be a goal to make sure educators and staff have the knowledge, skills, awareness and dispositions to talk about anti-blackness and address it.
Work around addressing anti-blackness in clinical practice should start immediately. There is no time to wait for the opportune time to address anti-blackness in clinical practice. Therefore, all involved in school-university partnerships or PDSs should begin self-work now as they move into having critical discussions around addressing anti-blackness.
Book and podcast recommendations
| Book recommendations | Podcast recommendations |
|---|---|
| This Book is Antiracist by Tiffany Jewell | Black Gaze Podcast |
| Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book by Kate Schatz & Kamau Bell | Race Through Education |
| Revolutionary Love: Creating a Culturally Inclusive Classroom by Kamania Wynter-Hoyte, Eliza Braden, Michele Myers, Sanjuana Rodriguez and Natasha Thornton | 8 Black Hands |
| Book recommendations | Podcast recommendations |
|---|---|
| This Book is Antiracist by Tiffany Jewell | Black Gaze Podcast |
| Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book by Kate Schatz & Kamau Bell | Race Through Education |
| Revolutionary Love: Creating a Culturally Inclusive Classroom by Kamania Wynter-Hoyte, Eliza Braden, Michele Myers, Sanjuana Rodriguez and Natasha Thornton | 8 Black Hands |
Thoughts for the future
Recognizing, acknowledging and addressing anti-blackness in schools is not comfortable nor is it an easy task. However, if all those involved in school-university partnerships or PDSs begin holding space for this critical and necessary work we can change the ways in which some black students have been experiencing school and make sure that teacher candidates are prepared to effectively teach black students. Some of us may be in colleges, universities, or districts that do not have black students. This does not excuse you from addressing anti-blackness and conversations around seeing black students as assets. Our unified effort will make a change not only in clinical practice, but also in the field of education.
This article was accepted under the previous editorial team.
The following Nine Essentials are highlighted in this article:
Essential 1: A Comprehensive Mission
Essential 2: Clinical Preparation
Notes
According to Jenkins (2021), anti-blackness is “a socially constructed notion that black people are non-human, inherently problematic and disposable” (p. 5).
Swag is slang for stylish confidence.
There were eight cooperating teachers at the school, seven of the cooperating teachers identified as white and one identified as black. While the black teacher did not exhibit anti-black practices, anti-blackness can be carried out by anyone regardless of race/ethnicity.
