The Cambridge history of Irish literature

No description supplie

A Struggle to Bridge the Gap: Promoting African American Males in Teacher Education

After serving 22 years in public education as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent, I am in awe over the small number of African American males as public school teachers. My classroom teacher experience was ephemeral as I was promoted to educational administration after five and one-half years. As the only African American male teacher in a high school with over 3,600 students, hundreds of whom were African American male, I was an anomaly in that environment. African American male role models were drastically needed and sought after mainly because campus data reported African American males ranked first in number of discipline referrals, number of suspensions, expulsions and academic failures. Few African American males are classroom teachers in this country. One can find those who are teaching in urban school districts (Lynn, 2002). Sports and entertainment fans inspect the performance of many of the “brothers” on the college and professional levels. But, in the context of classroom teaching, “brothers” are difficult to locate. Unfortunately, some African American men, although they are certified, are choosing not to teach in public schools