Understanding Black Teachers' Racialized Experiences on Suburban Public High School Campuses in Northern California

70 leavesThe goal of this study was to explore Black teachers’ experiences navigating racialized experiences on the suburban public high school campuses where they work. Five Black teachers from three different school districts in Northern California were selected through purposive sampling to participate in the study. Methodologically, the study consisted of semi-structured interviews and surveys. Data were analyzed using In Vivo Coding and Emotion Coding. This study explored racialized experiences, like microaggressions, the impact of enduring racialized experiences, and responses to racialized experiences. The findings of this study were that all five participants had varied experiences with microaggressions, direct and indirect racism, and overt racism on their suburban public high school campuses which yielding a numerically varied impact, as well. This finding supports the fact that Black people are not a monolith. However, two of the study’s participants who happen to work in the same school district shared similar stories and experiences with more overt forms of racism. The data support the claim that although Black people are not a monolith, they did have similar experiences working in the same suburban public high school district, each naming the impact of their racialized experiences leaving them “feeling broken” and acting with hypervigilance. Both hypervigilance and feeling broken were addressed across the literature (Kohli, 2008; Kohli et al., 2018; Lisle-Johnson & Kohli, 2020; Smith, Yosso, & Solórzano, 2011). Some of the participants’ experiences mirrored each other, while others contradicted. Recommendations for understanding Black teachers’ racialized experiences are: engage Black teachers, and all teachers of color in dialogue, listen, and seek to understand their experiences working on suburban public high school campuses, interrogate and reflect on held beliefs and how they may contribute to maintaining the status quo, or perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes, and directly address the absence of candidates of color