Stories from the Trenches: Exploring Strategies Used by a Group of African American Female Teachers to Enhance the Learning Experiences of Black Students
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Authors
Reeves, Lawonda
Issue Date
2021-12
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
African American students , African American women teachers , Critical race theory , Dissertations, Academic--United States , Learning strategies
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Abstract
In an effort to learn how to best educate Black students from low socioeconomic schools who were struggling academically and performing significantly lower than their White counterparts, this study unpacked the educational and professional experiences of the researcher and five like participants and reflected upon those experiences as a critical race theorist researcher. To further understand effective strategies used by other teachers, the theoretical framework of critical race theory (CRT) was used to explore the experiences of five African American female teachers who had success educating underachieving Black students. Interviews were conducted with each of the five women and group discussions were held with the same interviewees to gather additional data. Subsequent narrative data were used to construct three prominent themes. The themes were centered on building relationships with students and their families, creating high expectations for students to meet or exceed, and implementing cultural connections in the classroom to enhance academic success. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on addressing the opportunity gap to combat the educational disparities in education for students of color. The results suggest teachers can help resolve the opportunity gap conundrum if they are willing to meet students where they are. Results also suggest the need for researchers to do more qualitative research on teachers’ strategies to help educate academically low achieving Black students through the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy.
Keywords: African American Female Teachers, Enhance the Learning Experiences of Black Students, Exploring Strategies
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This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.