White Teachers’ Role in Sustaining the School-to- Prison Pipeline: Recommendations for Teacher Education

Abstract

• Educational scholarship has consistently shown that Black males are disproportionately disciplined in schools, leading to their entry into the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP). This phenomenon has significant implications for their academic and social development.

• Given that the majority of teachers are White, it is crucial to examine their role in this process. Their perceptions and disciplinary actions can significantly influence White children’s perceptions of Black boys, perpetuating negative stereotypes and biases.

• Drawing from Lortie’s (1975/2002) notion of the apprenticeship of observation in teaching, the paper posits that White children learn to dehumanize Black male students by observing their White teachers disproportionately targeting them for minor disciplinary infractions. This observational learning shapes their attitudes and behaviors toward Black males.

• To address this issue, the paper provides comprehensive recommendations for teacher education programs. These recommendations aim to prepare teachers to dismantle disproportionate disciplining practices, which unfairly target Black boys, and to foster a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.

Keywords

• Apprenticeship of observation

• Black males

• Disproportionate disciplining

• School-to-prison pipeline

• Urban education

• White teachers

Introduction

• The author is a Black male clinical assistant professor in a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) in the South, who supervises early childhood education preservice teachers. This personal context informs the author's perspective and commitment to addressing issues of racial equity in education.

• Approximately 85–90% of these preservice teachers are White, middle-class, and female, mirroring the national demographic of the teaching workforce. This homogeneity raises concerns about their preparedness to effectively teach and support diverse student populations, particularly Black boys.

• These interns spend a semester teaching in public elementary schools under the supervision of a PreK-3 teacher and a university supervisor. The internship’s original purpose is to provide practical teaching experience but it often becomes an unintentional profiling practice, where biases and stereotypes can influence teacher-student interactions.

• The author keenly observes how teachers interact with and support Black boys due to his deep interest in Black males' academic and social outcomes and their perceived underperformance in PreK-12 schools. This observation is driven by a commitment to understanding and addressing the systemic factors that contribute to their marginalization.

• Like many scholars, the author has commonly observed mistreatment of Black boys by teachers more than their uplift and celebration. This mistreatment includes disproportionate disciplinary actions, lower academic expectations, and a lack of culturally responsive teaching practices.

• White teachers influence White children’s perception of Black boys through disproportionate targeting and disciplining of Black males for minor infractions. This observational learning can perpetuate negative stereotypes and biases, contributing to a hostile school climate for Black boys.

• This paper explores the intergenerational legacies of negative views about Black males, contributing to the maintenance of disproportionate school discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP).

  • STPP is the funneling of youth of color from classrooms into the criminal justice system, which has devastating consequences for their life chances.

• The paper provides:

  • Context for the paper by describing a student-related incident witnessed during an observation. This real-world example illustrates the challenges and biases that Black boys face in schools.

  • Rationale for the intentional focus on White teachers, given their numerical dominance in the teaching profession and their potential influence on White children’s perceptions of Black boys.

  • Definition of Lortie’s (1975/2002) notion of the apprenticeship of observation, which explains how teachers' practices are shaped by their own experiences as students.

  • Addresses Black boys and the STPP from early childhood to secondary education, including a discussion about White teachers’ socialization in society and preservice teacher education programs. This comprehensive approach highlights the systemic nature of the problem and the need for multifaceted solutions.

  • Focuses on White teachers’ role in sustaining the STPP and White children's place in it, and intergenerational legacies of negative views of Black males. This analysis examines how biases and stereotypes are transmitted across generations, perpetuating cycles of inequity.

  • Recommendations for teacher education, which aim to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create more equitable and inclusive learning environments for Black boys.

Context

• During the fall 2014 semester, the students were assigned to Blaney Elementary (pseudonym), located in a high-performing, suburban school district. This setting provides a stark contrast to the urban schools where many Black students are educated, highlighting issues of racial and socioeconomic segregation.

• The school was 98% White and less than 1% of students received free or reduced lunches, indicating a privileged and homogenous student population.

• Staff mirrored student demographics, with a White female principal, a White male assistant principal, and two White female guidance counselors. This lack of diversity in leadership positions reinforces the dominance of White cultural norms and perspectives.

• When students of Color attend predominantly White schools, they are often misjudged and misunderstood, becoming victims of racial microaggressions because they do not fit within mainstream White middle-class schooling expectations. This creates a sense of alienation and marginalization for students of color.

• Youth of color have been historically marginalized in and beyond schools, sharing connections with indigenous people in terms of displacement and marginalization. This historical context underscores the ongoing struggles for equity and justice faced by communities of color.

• Black males and other minoritized students are referred to as ‘‘neoindigenous’’—borrowing from Emdin’s (2016) use of the term to describe youth of color. This term highlights the parallels between the experiences of indigenous populations and students of color in terms of marginalization and cultural erasure.

• The author observed an intern and overheard Mrs. Kay, a White third-grade teacher, talking about Joshua, a Black male student who transferred from a neighboring ‘low-performing’ urban school district due to his mother’s history of drug abuse. This anecdote illustrates the ways in which societal biases and stereotypes can influence teachers' perceptions of Black students.

• Mrs. Kay stated that Joshua was academically behind and unable to keep up with the rigor at Blaney. This deficit-based thinking can lead to lower academic expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies.

• Mrs. Kay perceived Joshua from a deficit perspective, describing him as ‘‘failing miserably’’ and ‘‘a behavioral problem.’’ This negative framing ignores the systemic factors that may contribute to Joshua's academic struggles and behavioral issues.

• She and Chelsea, the intern, felt Joshua seemed ‘‘different’’ and ‘‘uncomfortable’’ compared to other students. This sense of otherness can lead to social isolation and marginalization for Black students.

• During an observation, Mrs. Kay asked Chelsea to take the students to the media center.

• While walking to the media center, students stepped out of line, and Chelsea reminded them to get back in line.

• When Joshua briefly stepped out of line, Chelsea yelled at him, embarrassing and scaring him. This disproportionate disciplinary response reinforces the idea that Black students are more likely to be punished for minor infractions.

• This rebuke represents how minor infractions lead to Black boys being sent to the principal’s office, making the classroom unsafe for them. This creates a hostile and unwelcoming learning environment for Black boys.

• After Chelsea chastised Joshua, Emma Kay, a White female student, yelled at him to get back in line as well. This illustrates how negative attitudes and behaviors toward Black boys can be transmitted from teachers to students.

• Teachers are role models, so the intergenerational lineage and socialization about Black boys that White children are inheriting in schools must be considered. These intergenerational legacies of negative views can perpetuate cycles of inequity and injustice.

  • Intergenerational lineage and socialization: deficit messages, biases, and stereotypes about Black boys passed down from one generation to the next.

• It is important to have an intentional focus on White teachers and their preparation in preservice teacher education programs to interrupt such intergenerational lineages of negative views of Black boys. This preparation should include opportunities for self-reflection, cultural awareness training, and the development of culturally responsive teaching practices.

A Brief Rationale for the Intentional Focus on White Teachers and Teacher Preparation

• There is an overwhelming White, middle-class, and female population in the teaching profession, which is perpetuated because most teacher education programs continue to produce an overwhelmingly White pipeline to K-12 classrooms. This homogeneity limits the diversity of perspectives and experiences in the teaching workforce, which can negatively impact students of color.

• Most preservice teacher programs have not made intentional efforts to attract a more diverse preservice teacher education population, despite research studies and recommendations to diversify teacher education. This lack of diversity in teacher education programs perpetuates the cycle of a predominantly White teaching force.

• Neither are public K-12 schools making special efforts to recruit, hire, and retain a more diverse teaching population. Systemic barriers and biases in hiring practices limit the opportunities for teachers of color to enter and advance in the profession.

• Sleeter and Milner (2011) note the lack of effort to create ‘grown-your-own initiatives’ to recruit and retain teachers of Color and suggest instructional support staff could diversify the teaching force. These initiatives aim to identify and support aspiring teachers from within communities of color.

• Barriers including PRAXIS I and II, culturally biased exams, serve as gatekeepers to the teaching profession. These exams often rely on White mainstream experiences and knowledge, which can disadvantage students of color.

  • Culturally biased: exams rely on White mainstream experiences to assess student knowledge.

• Less than 10% of teachers are of Color, warranting a focus on White teachers in this paper. This statistic underscores the urgent need to address issues of racial representation and equity in the teaching profession.

• Black and other teachers of Color play a significant role in the achievement and social outcomes of students of Color. They often serve as role models, mentors, and advocates for students of color, providing culturally relevant support and guidance.

• Black teachers perceive disciplinary problems differently among Black children, particularly boys, in comparison to White teachers. They are more likely to understand the cultural context of students' behavior and to respond in a more culturally sensitive and appropriate manner.

• Thus, the focus on White teachers does not serve to blame them but underscores that they are least likely to have meaningful cross-cultural interactions with Black boys. This lack of cross-cultural understanding can lead to misinterpretations and biases in their interactions with Black boys.

• White teachers are more likely to teach Black boys and other children of Color, serve as role models for White children, and influence their perceptions of Black boys. This highlights the critical role that White teachers play in shaping the attitudes and behaviors of both White students and students of color.

• They should be aware of practices in K-12 schools which may dehumanize Black boys and encourage White children to do the same, considering how White teachers already perceive disciplinary problems among Black children. This awareness should include an understanding of implicit bias, microaggressions, and the impact of systemic racism.

• White children, especially females, are more likely to become teachers who will one day teach Black boys and other children of Color. This underscores the importance of preparing White female teachers to be culturally responsive and equitable educators.

• In light of the changing student demographic where Black and Brown children are to become the new ‘‘majority minority’’ in K-12 schools, preservice teachers should be prepared to acknowledge, value, and embrace the cultural ways of knowing and being of children of color. This preparation should include opportunities to learn about the history, culture, and experiences of diverse communities.

• Teacher education programs must provide preservice teachers opportunities to examine themselves and their teaching and disciplinary practices. This self-reflection is essential for identifying and addressing personal biases and assumptions.

• Matias (2013) suggests that White preservice teachers must be prepared to ‘check themselves before they wreck themselves and our children,’ unless they continue to sustain not only systemic failure and academic underachievement of Black children, but also the STPP. This quote highlights the moral imperative for teachers to engage in critical self-reflection and to challenge systems of oppression.

• White teachers need to understand the apprenticeship of observation and its role in the disproportionate disciplining of Black boys and how it influences White children’s perception of them. This understanding should inform their teaching practices and their interactions with students.

Defining the Apprenticeship of Observation

• Lortie (1975/2002) noted that children in public schools are socialized into a system, which prepares them to work. This socialization includes the development of skills, routines, and attitudes that are valued in the workplace.

  • They develop skills and routines in schools, which prepare them to become a part of a workforce out of school.

• Lortie describes such occupational effect as the apprenticeship of observation, which is particularly true for the teaching profession.

  • Teaching has a ‘‘special occupational effect’’ (p. 61) on those who are students in public school classrooms.

• Westrick and Morris (2016) describe the apprenticeship of observation as the ‘‘years of watching their [public school children] elementary and secondary school teachers in close proximity, which lead them to think they can teach before beginning a teacher education program’’ (p. 156). This observational learning shapes their beliefs and attitudes about teaching.

• Lortie (1975/2002) contends that the apprenticeship of observation also has an impenetrable impact on preservice teachers, which causes them to enter teaching with deeply rooted conceptions of teaching based on such years of watching their teachers. These deeply rooted conceptions can be difficult to change, even with formal teacher education.

• Darling-Hammond (2006) argues that breaking the effects of the apprenticeship of observation is one of the major challenges in teacher education in that such effects have the potential to hinder both preservice and inservice teachers from learning how to teach in new ways. This highlights the need for teacher education programs to explicitly address and challenge these ingrained beliefs and attitudes.

• Although scholars have not specifically investigated how the apprenticeship of observation impacts equity-based teaching, it provides a clearer understanding why most preservice and inservice teachers find difficulty embracing newer pedagogical conceptions including culturally relevant/responsive/sustaining pedagogies. This suggests that the apprenticeship of observation may reinforce traditional, Eurocentric teaching practices that are not effective for students of color.

• Some scholars (Smagorinsky and Barnes 2014) have attempted to ‘‘revisit and revise’’ the apprenticeship of observation by investigating ‘‘what areas of schooling (Pre-K/elementary/Secondary) attributed to [children’s] positive and negative experiences with teachers and what conceptions of teaching preservice teachers claim to aspire toward based on their apprenticeships of observation (p. 30).’’ This research aims to understand how students' experiences with teachers shape their own aspirations and beliefs about teaching.

• Missing from this investigation are the areas of schooling, which attribute to children’s experiences with teacher that may contribute to the disproportionate disciplining of Black male students. This highlights a critical gap in the research on the apprenticeship of observation and its impact on equity in education.

Black Boys and The Problematic Nature of the STPP from Early Childhood to High School

• Despite policies, research, and organizations working to dismantle the STPP, it persists and adversely impacts the schooling experiences of Black males and other children of color in many PreK- schools. This persistence underscores the systemic nature of the problem and the need for more effective interventions.

• For these students, particularly Black males, the typical trajectory of the STPP begins with disproportionate school suspensions, expulsions, assignments to special education classrooms, and the pushing and/or dropping out of school. This trajectory has devastating consequences for their academic and social development.

• In many PreK-12 classrooms, some facts include:

  • Black males experience increased surveillance of their bodies due to teachers’ fear of losing classroom control. This surveillance can create a sense of anxiety and distrust for Black boys.

  • They are disproportionately removed from classrooms for minor disciplinary infractions, such as arriving late, hat wearing, and/or wearing sagging pants. These disciplinary actions are often based on subjective judgments and cultural biases.

  • These incidents lead to their disproportional assignments to high incidents areas of special education and/or lower level/remedial courses (e.g., Emotional Disability), where they become listed among 60% of enrolled students who are most likely to drop out of school. This tracking system limits their academic opportunities and potential.

  • Dropping out of school increases their likelihood of becoming a part of the criminal justice system where they become a part of the mass incarceration of Black (and Brown) men who are disproportionately arrested for minor criminal offenses in comparison to their White counterparts. This highlights the devastating consequences of the STPP for individuals and communities.

• Scholars undertheorize young Black boys entrance in the STPP in early childhood education, even though it starts before and/or during early childhood years and White teachers have an inherent fear of Black boys which leads to biases and stereotypes of them. This underscores the need for more research on the early childhood antecedents of the STPP.

• The paper explores:

  • Academic literature which highlights how Black boys enter the STPP as early as early childhood education. This literature review provides a comprehensive overview of the research on the STPP and its impact on Black boys.

  • Black boys and the STPP pipeline in secondary schools. This analysis examines the ways in which the STPP manifests in middle and high schools, and the consequences for Black boys.

Black Males and the STPP in Early Childhood Education

• Hopkins (1997) contends that educational stakeholders need to be proactive in supporting Black boys in schools and communities. This support should include culturally relevant teaching practices, mentoring programs, and advocacy for equitable policies.

• Black boys, like most Black children, experience too much schooling and too little education as early as early childhood education. This highlights the need for a more holistic and culturally responsive approach to education.

• Shujaa (1994) explains schooling vs education:

  • Schooling: a process designed to marginalize African-centered educational practices in order to discipline and control Black bodies and subject them to the lower rungs of societal totem pole. This critique challenges the traditional, Eurocentric model of schooling and its impact on Black students.

  • Education: ‘‘is the process of transmitting from one generation to the next knowledge of the values, aesthetics, spiritual beliefs, and all things that give a particular cultural orientation its uniqueness’’ (p. 15). This definition emphasizes the importance of cultural transmission and the preservation of cultural identity.

• Joshua was being schooled because his compliance to classroom and school rules seemingly outweighed the importance of his self-knowledge and worth. This illustrates how the focus on discipline and compliance can undermine students' sense of self-worth and cultural identity.

• For Joshua and other young Black boys in early childhood classrooms, schooling means being targets for disproportionate school disciplining, leading to their entry into the STPP. This highlights the need for early intervention strategies to prevent Black boys from entering the STPP.

• The Office of Civil Rights (2014) reports that although Black boys represent 9% of the current kindergarten population, they represent between 48–50% of all suspensions and expulsions at this level. This statistic underscores the stark disparities in school discipline and the disproportionate targeting of Black boys.

• Wright and Ford (2016) contend that this early school disciplinary percentage is disturbingly the highest among all racial and ethnic groups. This highlights the urgent need to address issues of racial bias and inequity in school discipline.

• Rashid (2009) explains that for Black boys, the preschool and elementary school years are transitional periods.

  • They transition from being viewed as ‘‘brilliant babies’’ to ‘‘children at risk’’ (p. 347) or constructed as what Dancy (2014) refers to as ‘‘men in little bodies’’, who are ‘‘scripted out of their childhood’’ (p. 478). This highlights the ways in which societal perceptions of Black boys can shift from positive to negative over time.

• Ladson-Billings (2011) argues that because of such designations, Black boys often experience ‘men-like’ consequences in school discipline.

  • Men-like consequences: suspended and expelled from schools, and disproportionately assigned to special education classrooms as early as early childhood education. This illustrates the ways in which Black boys are often held to different standards and subjected to harsher punishments than their White peers.

• Wright and Ford (2016) make explicit the notion that Black boys in early childhood education are often assigned to high incidence categories of special education including the area of Emotional and Behavioral Disability, which is far more than often based on subjective and culturally biased tests. This raises concerns about the validity and fairness of special education assessments for Black boys.

• Wright and Ford (2016) and other scholars acknowledge the academic and social repercussions including disproportionate disciplinary consequences and special education assignments can produce for Black boys during their latter years of schooling. This highlights the long-term consequences of early experiences in the STPP.

• Most Black boys leave early childhood education, kindergarten specifically, at reading levels, which are 2–3 standard deviations lower than their White counterparts due to institutional racism and classism (\text{Aratani et al. 2011}). This achievement gap underscores the systemic barriers that Black boys face in education.

• Third and fourth grade reading test score data is used to determine future prison spatial needs, heightening the systemic failure of Black males as early as early childhood education and their chances of filling those spaces in prison. This highlights the direct link between education and the criminal justice system.

• Low skills in reading and other academic areas including mathematics also create ‘academic problems on top of academic problems’ for Black boys (Howard 2014).

  • Academic problems on top of academic problems: Black boys are more likely to be assigned to lower level courses instead of gifted education courses throughout their schooling experience, which lessens their chances, in most cases, for upward mobility in schools and society. This tracking system limits their academic opportunities and potential.

• Such low level academic placements contribute to ways Black boys experience what Kunjufu (2013) refers to as the ‘fourth grade syndrome’ or the ways Black boys are pushed out of schools (at very early ages) before they are actually pushed out of schools (at older ages). This syndrome describes the cumulative effect of negative experiences in school that lead to disengagement and eventual dropout.

• Some scholars have contested the idea of the ‘fourth grade syndrome’ because such concept continues to construct Black boys as ‘the problem,’ ‘lazy,’ and uneducable, which have become monikers to maintain the intergenerational negative views of Black male students throughout their formative and educational years. This critique challenges deficit-based framings of Black boys and emphasizes the need to address systemic factors.

• These terms also shift the focus away from institutional and structural factors including ineffective early childhood teachers, culturally unresponsive curricula, and other schooling practices, which all adversely affect the academic and social performance of Black male students in early childhood education. This highlights the importance of focusing on systemic solutions rather than individual blame.

• Need to know how White teachers’ intergenerational legacies of negative views of Black male students, the disproportionate disciplining of Black boys and the apprenticeship of observation sustain the STPP in early childhood education. This underscores the need for more research on the role of White teachers in perpetuating the STPP.

• If not, such inequitable conditions will persist beyond early education. This highlights the urgency of addressing these issues in early childhood education to prevent long-term negative consequences.

Black Males and the STPP in Secondary Schools

• Middle and high school years are no different than their early years schooling experiences for Black males, with similar school disciplinary challenges, inequitable special education assignments, and disproportionate school ‘pushout’ or ‘dropout rates’. This highlights the cumulative effect of negative experiences in school over time.

• These issues are often exacerbated by strict zero tolerance policies which criminalizes minor behavioral infractions that have little to no impact on school safety. These policies disproportionately impact Black males and contribute to their entry into the STPP.

• School disciplinary consequences were once decided by school administrators and are now placed into the hands of law enforcement. This shift has led to harsher punishments and increased involvement of the criminal justice system in schools.

• Historically, zero tolerance policies were designed to decrease the number of school shootings mostly committed by White males. However, these policies have had unintended consequences for Black males and other students of color.

• However, in addition to teacher biases and stereotypes, zero tolerance policies have adversely impacted Black males (and other students of color), who disproportionately become a part of the STPP. This highlights the need to reform zero tolerance policies and to address issues of racial bias in school discipline.

• Although some scholars contend that the heighten attention regarding the suspension and expulsion rates of Black males is strictly designed to reinforce and sustain the ‘Black male in crisis’ narrative, under zero tolerance policies, Black males are more likely to be suspended and expelled from secondary schools for minor disciplinary infractions in comparison to their White male counterparts. This underscores the need to challenge deficit-based narratives and to focus on systemic solutions.

• Howard (2014) notes Black males represent 17% of students who are suspended at least once; whereas, White males only represent 7.4% of said population. This statistic illustrates the stark disparities in suspension rates between Black and White males.

• Scholars undertheorize how Black males are repeatedly suspended from schools and how such repeated suspensions and expulsion impact their overall academic and social outcomes. This highlights the need for more research on the long-term consequences of suspension and expulsion for Black males.

• Such suspension and expulsions have even greater consequences for Black males: more likely to fall behind academically and be assigned to special education classrooms, like their Black male counterparts in early childhood education.

  • Black males represent 16.4% of the special education population.

• All of these in-school experiences adversely impact the number of Black male high school graduates and subsequently college attendees. This highlights the need to improve high school graduation and college attendance rates for Black males.

• Over the past few decades, dropout rates among Black males have reached roughly three times the rate in comparison to their White male counterparts.

  • Roughly 50% of Black males who graduate high school.

• High school dropout rates are also used to determine prison spatial needs; thus making Black males increasingly susceptible to encounters with law enforcement and the prison system. This highlights the direct link between education and the criminal justice system.

• College attendance rates are equally dismal for Black males, with institutional racism and classism being major causes.

  • In 2013, 48% of Black males attended college.

• Low high school graduation and college attendance rates become factors that adversely impact the number of Black males who can potentially become teachers to support Black male students. This highlights the need to increase the number of Black male teachers in schools.

• This is not to suggest that all Black male teachers can or want to support Black male students.

  • Black male teachers enter K-12 classrooms with a multiplicity of social identities that may intentionally or unintentionally limit their disciplinary and other forms of advocacy and/or support for Black boys (and other children of color) in K-12 schools.

• Rarely addressed in the extant academic literature is White teachers’ socialization and role in sustaining the STPP. This underscores the need for more research on the role of White teachers in perpetuating the STPP.

• Similarly, we do not know how such socialization extends intergenerational legacies of negative view of Black boys, which contribute to the STPP. This highlights the need for more research on the intergenerational transmission of biases and stereotypes about Black boys.

White Teachers’ Socialization and Role in Sustaining the STPP

• White teachers receive stereotypical messages about Black boys in society and K-12 schools from a young age. These messages are often reinforced by media, popular culture, and even school curricula.

• These stereotypes and biases are often reinforced in preservice teacher education programs. This highlights the need for teacher education programs to explicitly address issues of bias and stereotype.

• These stereotypes determine how they interact with Black boys when they become teachers, thus explaining the disproportionate disciplining of Black boys and underscoring their role in sustaining such disproportionality in school discipline by extending an intergenerational legacies of negative view of Black boys by socializing White children into such deficit thinking about them. This underscores the need for teachers to be aware of their own biases and to challenge deficit-based thinking.

White Teachers’ Socialization in Society and K-12 Schools

• White teachers are naturally socialized into systemic oppression from birth and unintentionally play a role in the systemic oppression of people of Color. This socialization occurs through exposure to biased media, unequal access to resources, and discriminatory practices in various institutions.

• From early childhood to adulthood, institutions including family, church, and schools teach and reinforce oppression and shape people’s thinking about those who are perceived as inferior (i.e. Black people) and those who are superior (White people) in this oppressive system. This highlights the pervasive nature of systemic oppression and the need to challenge it at all levels.

• Miller (2015) studied how three young children received messages from church, schools, and other institutions (i.e., shopping centers) about White superiority. This study provides concrete examples of how children are socialized into systems of oppression.

• Schools and teachers uphold White supremacist thinking and practices in classrooms through school-related resources (i.e., books) and how the utilization of such resources socialize White children into oppressive thinking about people of Color. This highlights the need to critically examine school curricula and resources for bias and stereotypes.

• King (2005) contends that a part of the White supremacist agenda is to dehumanize Black people in and through school textbooks by highlighting sociocultural deficits about them instead of inequitable systems that negatively shape Black people’s lives. This critique challenges the ways in which textbooks often portray Black people in a negative light.

• Boutte (2015) suggests that most social studies/history books start with the enslavement of African people instead of portraying them as kings and queens prior to their enslavement. This highlights the need to provide a more balanced and accurate portrayal of African history and culture.

• Boutte et al. (2008) found that missing from most early childhood classrooms are children books, which positively highlight African American cultural ways of knowing and being. This underscores the need to diversify the books and resources available in early childhood classrooms.

• If White children are naturally prone and positioned to learn about their superiority in schools, they subsequently come to understand the perceived inferiority of Black people. This highlights the need to actively counter messages of White superiority and to promote understanding and respect for all cultures.

• Critical media literacy scholars acknowledge the inferior positioning of Black and other people in children’s cartoons and other children-related shows. This highlights the need to critically analyze media representations of Black people and other marginalized groups.

• Young White children develop stereotypical perspectives regarding them in schools, at home, and other in societal institutions because they are often negatively portrayed in media, films, cartoons, and public press and stereotypes about them are sensentialized. This highlights the need to challenge stereotypes and to promote more positive and accurate representations of Black people.

• They often take these stereotypes and biases into preservice teacher education programs. This underscores the need for teacher education programs to explicitly address issues of bias and stereotype.

White Teachers’ Socialization in Preservice Teacher Education

• When White children decide to pursue teaching, they take deficit perspectives inherited from society, K-12 schools, media, and popular press into their preservice teacher education programs, which become difficult to undo. This highlights the need for teacher education programs to actively challenge these deficit perspectives.

• Sealey-Ruiz and Greene (2015) used visual images and media to interrogate the assumptions of 56 racially diverse pre-service teachers in two urban teacher programs in the North and the South across two college courses (English Education for Diversity and Teachers in Film).

• White and pre- service teachers of other racial and ethnic backgrounds developed stereotypical assumptions about Black and Latino males in urban schools through movies including Boyz in the Hood, Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, 187, and Lean On Me.

  • Black and Latino males were seen as creating ‘‘mayhem in urban schools and the schools they attend are out of control’’ (p. 63).

• If preservice education programs do not interrupt such misreading of Black and Latino boys, then White and other preservice teachers have the potential to enter and leave teacher education programs with deficit beliefs and assumptions about them intact. This underscores the need for teacher education programs to actively challenge these deficit beliefs.

• These negative assumptions could have lingering implications beyond preservice teacher preparation. This highlights the need for ongoing professional development and support for teachers to challenge their biases and stereotypes.

• Most preservice teacher education programs continue to rely on the hegemonic structure of knowledge in teacher education, which validates Eurocentric ideas and ideologies. This highlights the need to decolonize teacher education curricula and to incorporate diverse perspectives and voices.

• Thus, preservice teacher education programs depend upon books, frameworks, and research methodologies, which decenter the voices and experiences of Black (and Brown) people to prepare White teachers to teach. This highlights the need to center the voices and experiences of Black and Brown people in teacher education.

• Most White preservice teachers spend their internship experience in predominantly White PreK-12 schools like Blaney; thus, developing a distorted view of the teaching profession and contributing to their lack of preparation to successfully teach students of Color. This highlights the need for preservice teachers to have diverse field experiences in a variety of school settings.

• Researchers have provided sustainable models for preservice teacher education to prepare White (and other) teachers to successfully teach and support Black boys and other children of Color. This highlights the availability of resources and models for teacher education programs to use.

• Ladson-Billings (2009) introduced culturally relevant pedagogy to the field of education and provided case studies and models of 8 successful teachers of Black children from whom White preservice and other teachers can learn to prepare to teach in culturally relevant ways.

  • Culturally relevant pedagogy demonstrates how White teachers can learn to acknowledge and value the cultural ways of knowing and being of Black children and use the strength and possibilities of Black culture as pedagogical reference points to support the academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical awareness of Black children in PreK-12 classrooms.

• Considering their history of academic failure in schools, Black children must experience academic success, which translates into rigor and high expectations that they develop beyond standardized test. This highlights the need to challenge deficit-based thinking and to set high expectations for Black children.

• Black children should also gain an appreciation for their own cultural experience and at least one other culture and develop critical awareness, which helps them to understand how they are raced, gendered, and classed in the world so that they may become a part of the democratic process. This highlights the need to promote cultural understanding and critical consciousness among Black children.

• Most preservice teacher education programs do not prepare prospective teachers to teach in culturally relevant ways, they maintain an apprenticeship of observation, which sustains the miseducation of White (and other) teachers.

  • Miseducation: prospective teachers lack knowledge about Black historical and cultural contributions to American society that can inform their pedagogies in PreK-12 classrooms.

• Brown (2009) notates the importance of culturally relevant pedagogy to the educational and social needs and experiences of Black male students, drawing from Ladson-Billings’ conception of culturally relevant pedagogy.

• Brown studied nine African American male teachers over the course of 9 months in an urban middle school setting and identified three dominant pedagogical styles including what he terms ‘‘enforcer,’’ ‘‘negotiator,’’ and ‘‘playful’’, which positively impacted their students’ academic outcomes.

  • Enforcer: ‘‘seeks immediate enforcement of defined [high] expectations’’ (p. 426).

  • The negotiator: uses ‘‘discussion, counsel, and questioning as a method for arriving at new solutions’’ (p. 430).

  • The playful teacher: uses ‘‘a carefree approach to teaching’’ (p. 427).

• Brown’s work not only expands the scholarship on culturally relevant Black male teachers by identifying specific performance styles that can support Black male students in K-12 classrooms, but also provides effective pedagogical strategies White teachers can use to better support Black boys in PreK-12 classrooms. This highlights the importance of learning from successful Black male teachers.

• Culturally relevant pedagogy focuses on teachers’ pedagogy and content knowledge.

• Scholars have studied the importance of teachers’ engagement in culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM) practices to prepare White preservice teachers to support Black and other students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and to dismantle inequitable school disciplinary practices which lead to the STPP.

  • CRCM entails:

  • (a) teachers’ ability to recognize their biases and stereotypes and understand students’ cultural background;

  • (b) teachers’ ability to build strong relationship with students inside and outside of the classroom;

  • (c) teachers’ ability to build caring classroom environments which emphasizes the importance of teaching and learning;

  • (d) teachers’ ability to value students’ voice and opinions to facilitate the classroom;

  • (e) teachers’ ability to teach with assertiveness; and

  • (f) teachers’ ability to emphasize and establish clear expectations and to teach in an assertive manner.

• Most teachers leave preservice