Abandonment in the Classroom: Urban Education, Internalized Racism, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Abstract

This qualitative study used BlackCrit theory to elucidate how white supremacist thinking plays out in Black teachers’ perceptions of and practices with students with chronic disciplinary patterns. Black teachers’ perceptions of Black students are critical to understand because Black students experience disciplinary actions, classroom push-outs, and special education referrals at a disproportionate rate. Internalized racism and racial battle fatigue are consequences of racism experienced by Black educators. Their daily experiences with racism impact how they interact with and view their Black students.

Introduction

In 2019, a 6-year-old Black girl named Kaia Rolle was arrested and zip-tied by an officer after her school reported that she threw a temper tantrum and harmed school staff. This altercation is evidence that what constitutes a threat to safety is dangerously subjective when Black students are involved (Morris, 2016). The Black woman speaking to Kaia before her arrest was unfazed by the situation, her repressive disciplinary practices were considered acceptable (Dumas & Ross, 2016). The adultification (i.e. viewed as older) of Black students experiencing abandonment in the classroom is harmful to their physical and mental health. This incident encouraged the Florida Senate to create a bill named after Kaia Rolle, stating “a child younger than 7 years of age may not be adjudicated delinquent, arrested, or charged with a violation of law or a delinquent act on the basis of acts occurring before he or she reaches 7 years of age unless the violation of law is a forcible felony” (Ardrey, 2021, para. 26). Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) is used in this study to explain the severity of racial inequities in schools. According to Dumas and Ross (2016), the anti-Blackness pandemic is central in how we make sense of the social, economic, historical, and cultural dimensions of human life. Blackness exists in tension with the neoliberal-multicultural imagination and necessitates a space for Black liberation. BlackCrit focuses on the significance of racial attitudes toward Black individuals and the unjust repercussions that impact their lives. School policies continue to hinder Black students, therefore; Black teachers need awareness of the way schools perpetuate racism. BlackCrit acknowledges that anti-Blackness is endemic to Black lives and is embedded in all institutions (Dumas & Ross, 2016). This study addresses a gap in the literature by focusing on Black teachers. Although there is an abundance of literature highlighting white teachers’ perceptions of Black students, there are few studies that examine Black teachers’ perceptions of Black students.

Students who have repetitive behavioral challenges often face the abandonment of their educational and emotional needs through exclusionary discipline practices (Fenning & Rose, 2007). Unfortunately these practices contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline, a systemic process of discriminatory policies and practices that push marginalized adolescents into the juvenile justice system (Nocella et al., 2018). Abandonment is the act of ceasing or leaving an uninhabited place, resisting assistance, or giving up completely. Teachers who fail to create genuine connections with students are often unable to meet their academic needs. The abandonment of students manifests in the following ways: (1) excessive disciplinary write-ups; (2) neglect of student feelings by way of adultification; and (3) teachers pushing students out of the classroom, both physically and mentally (de Royston et al., 2021; Morris, 2016). de Royston et al. (2021) documented disturbing incidents of Black students who experienced interpersonal and institutional racism, inflicted by adults hired to educate and support them, who instead perpetrate various forms of violence against them. Further, these assaults on Black students provide examples of how schools, supposedly safe spaces, turn benign actions, like walking or talking into opportunities to enforce extreme punishment (e.g., suspension, expulsion, and arrest).

As previously stated, there is an abundance of research about the abandonment of Black students predicated by white teachers. However, there is little written about the ways Black teachers engage in the same behaviors. This paper explores the following research questions to address Black teachers’ perception of Black students and abandonment: (1) How do Black educators perceive Black students? and (2) How is anti-Blackness evident in Black educators’ perceptions of Black students? Black Critical Theory was used as a lens to analyze the data.

Black critical theory

Anti-Blackness is built into the fabric of our society and school systems. Anti-Blackness has become normalized and Black teachers are often unaware how anti-Blackness impacts their beliefs and perceptions. This study focuses on the complexity of Black teachers’ perceptions of Black students. Black students who are adultified and perceived as having chronic behavioral challenges experience abandonment more frequently than other students. Often these repeated behaviors are symptomatic of the lack of support they receive. Black Critical Theory (BlackCrit) provides a theoretical lens to better understand this dynamic. BlackCrit (Dumas & Ross, 2016) calls attention to anti-Blackness in schools and acknowledges that the lived experiences of Black people are unlike any other racial group’s experiences. BlackCrit is not a theorization of Blackness or even the Black condition; it is a theory of racism, based on analyzing the construction and influence of laws and policies intended to control Black people (Bryan, 2021; Dumas & Ross, 2016). These practices contribute to internalized racism, thus impacting Black teachers’ perceptions of Black students.

Dumas and Ross (2016) introduced three essential tenets of BlackCrit: (a) anti-Blackness is endemic in American society; (b) “Blackness exists in tension with neoliberal-multiculturalism imagination”; and (c) “BlackCrit creates space for Black liberatory fantasy, and resists a revisionist history that supports dangerous majoritarian stories that disappear whites from the history of racial dominance, rape, mutilation, brutality, and murder” (pp. 430- 431). Anti-Blackness is so ingrained in society that Black teachers struggle to navigate their day-to-day interactions with Black students in an anti-Black school system. Racist ideas have been internalized by Black Americans for hundreds of years, creating generations of people who feel unsafe and are consistently shifting for the purpose of survival and preparation for discrimination. Blackness exists in tension with neoliberal multiculturalism, in the field of education we have countless examples of the dehumanization of Black bodies: (1) the long legacy of federal, state, and district policies and practices designed to deprive Black communities and children of educational resources; (2) the absence of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies; and (3) the maladministration of school discipline policies (Duman & Ross, 2016; Ferguson, 2000; Noguera, 2003; Skiba et al. 2002). The term neoliberal-multiculturalism highlights the connection between “neoliberalism” and “new racism” neoconservatism” (Case & Ngo, 2017, p. 216).

Before delving into the relevant literature it is important to share my own positionality. My eight years of experience as a Black educator in the state of Michigan, instructing Black students in a Black community was the motivation for this study. I began my reflective process when I enrolled in an Anti-Racist workshop and became aware of the ways I perpetuated racism in the workplace. Ignoring racial issues in my building was easy, I was one of two Black educators in my building and I was afraid of conflict. I believed that I would have done anything for my students, never realizing I was harming them with my inability to act on their behalf. I wanted to shed light on a systemically racist institution while also showing the harm these systems cause Black professionals and students. I assimilated in order to keep my job and be respected. As I walk a path toward anti-racism I acknowledge and reflect on the ways in which I’ve contributed to harmful practices against students who look like me. In my growth process, I speak up when discussions about race, racial issues, and schooling come up in my work and personal life.

Literature review

The enslavement of Africans denied Black people their African heritage. Black people have had to cultivate their own identity, derived from their enslaved African American ancestors. The first psychological research on internalized racial oppression was a series of doll studies, where Black children showed a preference for white over Black dolls and the results were interpreted as racial self-hatred (Clark & Clark 1939; Pyke, 2010). In a struggle to find their identity, they internalized the terms that white enslavers used to define them. Internalized racism is not hatred, it is the internalization of white being right, better, or pure:

The dominant group controls the construction of reality through the production of ideologies or “knowledge” that circulate throughout society where they inform social norms, organizational practices, bureaucratic procedures, and commonsense knowledge. In this way the interests of the oppressors are presented as reflecting everyone’s best interests, thereby getting oppressed groups to accept the dominant group’s interests as their own and minimize conflict. (Pyke, 2010, p. 556)

Cultural hegemony determines the way Black people are perceived by the rest of the world. The acceptance of white oppressive norms is a method of survival for Black people. Black people navigate the world with a double consciousness “the sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Du Bois, [1903]1989, as cited in Pyke, 2010, p. 2). This study examined how Black educators perceive Black students. In a country governed and founded on white supremacy, it is no surprise that many Black people suffer from internalized racism. This in turn manifests in the ways some Black teachers view and treat Black students. Systemic racism is prevalent in American culture, but hegemonic white norms within the school system often go unnoticed because Black people are conditioned to acquiesce to a system that was not designed for their success (Woodson, 2023). This does not mean that Black students cannot succeed, but institutional racism created more barriers and obstacles. In addition, Black students experience different forms of abandonment in the classroom, which decreases their ability to succeed in school.

Although there are very few Black teachers in K-12, they are expected to be the epitome of Black excellence and be free from the struggle with internalized racism. Black students who had at least one Black teacher were more likely to both graduate high school and enroll in college, yet only 7% of teachers in K-12 education are Black (Gershenson et al., 2018; Stovall & Sullivan, 2022). The influence that Black teachers have on Black students would indicate healthy and safe relationships have been built. In addition, “Black teachers are key agents in practicing anti-racism and liberatory pedagogy, which allows marginalized students to give voice to their experiences” (Stovall & Sullivan, 2022, p. 1). Unfortunately, these practices are not automatic for all Black teachers. Many Black teachers have subconsciously internalized and perpetuated anti-Black practices. The practices of many Black educators are impacted by internalized racism and racial battle fatigue. It’s important to understand how these everyday realities impact Black teachers and thus Black students.

Internalized racism

Morris (2016) stated that internalized racial oppression is the unconscious acceptance of racially oppressive ideas that Black people form about their own people. Further, Kohli et al. (2006) explain internalized racism is a concept that leads people of color, consciously or unconsciously, to accept a racial hierarchy. Kendi (2019) states that people who believe a racial group is culturally or behaviorally inferior and put practices and policies in place to “fix” the behavior of said cultural group are engaging in racism. The pressures of institutional racism result in Black youth internalizing racist ideas and as they become adults, perpetuating those ideas generation after generation. Some of those Black adults become teachers who perpetuate racist ideas on their Black students. Internalized racism leads to the acceptance of negative stereotypes and beliefs about one’s own racial group which results in the devaluing of oneself and one’s race (Kohli et al., 2006; McKown, 2013; Pachter & Coll, 2009; Robertson, 2017). The development of false narratives about students of color often result in a classroom culture of disrespect, destruction, and invalidation, which impacts students’ self-perception, leading to self-blame and other psychological and educational challenges. One of the most dangerous stereotypes Black students face is created by the concept of adultification.

Adultification

Historically Black students have had challenges assimilating into school norms because the school system was not built for them. When Black educators misunderstand students’ struggles and take them as personal hits, it hinders their ability to be themselves in school. Having a sense of belonging is an important component of student growth and academic success. When students are looked at through the lens of adultification, it takes away their ability to fully show up in the classroom and impacts their sense of belonging. According to Blake, et al. (2017), adultification can be viewed as a socialization process and stereotype that shapes the ways in which Black children are perceived and subsequently treated by adults. The adultification of Black students with recurring behavior challenges leads to academic and emotional abandonment. As punishment, they are removed from the classroom and forced to become accountable for their own learning. Abandonment in the classroom reduces students’ chances for academic success and is harmful to their emotional and mental well-being. This is extremely harmful for students with special education services because in some cases the student is unable to complete a task without assistance. There is a connection between a teacher’s subconscious mapping of stereotypes about Black students and their expectations of students. For example, Black boys and girls are perceived as threatening and this often leads to more school suspensions (Blake et al., 2017; Morris, 2016). In order to create equitable school systems, educators have to be aware of the racist ideas they perpetuate consciously and subconsciously. Black educators may easily conform to white culture while at work, or experience double consciousness throughout the day, but the lack of conformity of Black students promotes fear in white and assimilated minority educators. This leads to student pushout and the perpetuation of inequity, based on race and (dis)ability.

Push out, disability & racial inequities

Black students are more likely to be diagnosed with disorders associated with their internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Skiba et al., 2006). As a result, Black students are often overrepresented in specific disability categories, including emotional disturbance, intellectual disabilities, and learning disabilities (Eitle, 2002; Fish, 2019; Oswald et al., 2001). These disproportionalities have not been defined as abandonment, but Black students with chronic behavioral challenges are continuously abandoned and left to deal with their emotions alone. Before Black students are even diagnosed with a disability, they are already being pushed into the arms of special education teachers. Black students don’t seem to have many options, either they are pushed into special education or pushed into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Morris (2016) amplified the voices of Black girls as she provided them with a safe space to share their exclusionary experiences in schools. As they shared stories of interactions with their teachers, it is clear that teachers’ perceptions of Black girls play a role in their academic achievement. Their teachers abandoned them emotionally and academically by neglecting their emotions and experiences, while continuing exclusionary discipline practices. Black children are 18 times more likely than white children to be sentenced as adults and represent 58% of children sentenced to adult facilities (Goff et al., 2014). This study does not focus on confined students but brings awareness to the harmful practices that criminalize Black students. A teacher’s response to a student’s behavior can determine the magnitude of the consequences a student experiences.

Jones et al. (2022) stated that administrators began to rely on policies to send the message that rule breakers would be met with punitive punishment, and misbehaving students were physically removed from the school. There is a gap in the research on classroom interactions between teacher and student before students are sent to the administration. Milner (2012) stated that Black teachers have been perceived negatively because of their classroom practices. One of the four negative perceptions of Black teachers Milner (2012) identifies is that they are too strict and provide too much structure in the classroom. Black teachers may believe they need to provide structure and more discipline with Black students in urban communities because they know the challenges many Black students face. In this study, all of the teachers grew up and remain in the same city as their students. For Black teachers, keeping Black students on the “straight and narrow” while in school could prevent them from problematic interactions with the police. Black teachers are unaware that the policing tactics they use in their classrooms are racist practices that can lead to broken teacher-student relationships, students feeling emotionally neglected, and ultimately pushing students into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Methodology

This qualitative case study allowed for an in-depth review of real-life events from the teachers’ perspectives. The participants included three Black teachers, two women, and one man. The three participants work within one of Michigan’s largest urban public school districts, two are special education teachers and one is an art teacher. This district also has one of Michigan’s largest populations of underrepresented students. The participants were selected through snowballing (Biernacki & Waldorf, 1981). Each participant went through two rounds of interviews lasting 60 min each. The interviews took place on Zoom, were audio recorded, and were transcribed verbatim. The data was then analyzed, coded, and securely stored in Dedoose.

Descriptive coding was used to generate initial codes that provided an insightful perspective of what participants shared. Descriptive coding laid the groundwork for the second cycle of coding (Saldaña, 2016), which was an advanced analysis after the first cycle of coding. Pattern coding was used in this round to combine categories and merge concepts (Saldaña, 2016). Pattern coding led to the development of major themes, causes, and patterns for teacher-student relationships. A list of the top ten most frequently used responses was used to focus more closely on the recurring themes (Saldaña, 2016). These themes were examined through the research questions and the purpose of the study. This paper focused on the two themes that were most connected to the research questions.

The two themes that emerged from the findings are real-world preparations and relationship building. The three participants teach in the same school district, which has a student population of 82% minorities. They have all taught for over twenty years in the state of Michigan. To them, it is important for their students to understand that they play a role in their own success. They believe their relationships with their students can help them succeed academically and avoid disciplinary problems. They all have experiences with students with chronic disciplinary challenges, and they neglect to see the role they play in those challenges. Ms. Dickerson and Ms. Munford are both special education teachers. Mr. Preston, an art teacher, has students at various grade levels K-12.

Findings

Students in special education come in with struggles. Those struggles can be academic (subject specific), physical (motor skills), behavioral (ADHD), and even mental (intellectual disability), so it is harmful and sometimes dangerous, for teachers who are educated to support students with these struggles, to ignore their well-being. Black students are more likely to be diagnosed with disorders associated with stigmatized behaviors and as a result are disproportionately funneled into special education (Linton, 2015; Skiba et al., 2006). Participants in this study were unable to make connections to these disproportionalities and their ability to influence the policies and procedures within their district.

The participants in this study admitted that they did not fully know or adhere to the school and district policies and procedures, instead they created and manipulated the policies and procedures on their own. In the midst of a push-out, students are being sent out in the hall–sometimes to the corner– to process their emotions alone. According to the school district’s policies and procedures, these methods are not allowed, but they happen regularly. In addition to the anti-Black America that Black students have to navigate daily, they also face isolation and neglect in the classroom.

Despite the challenges that Black students face, Black teachers provide them with real-world experiences to prepare them to navigate an anti-Black America. Unconsciously they are dismissing the racial challenges their students are already facing. Although building relationships with students and parents is a consistent challenge, Black teachers understand the trauma that their students’ families experience. Racial trauma is a commonality that Black people share and unfortunately, Black teachers become accustomed to experiencing it, hearing about it, and battling with it a second time in stories told by their students.

Real world preparation

For Black people, racial trauma is a part of their real-world experience. Trauma does not have an age and can be experienced from childhood to adulthood. Black children’s trauma is frequently neglected and not taken seriously. Black students who are consistently abandoned have recurring behavioral challenges that are not addressed and are instead covered up by disciplinary actions and special education. Receiving special education services is not a negative if a student is in need of additional support. However, when a student is placed in special education because a general education teacher neglects student needs, this often leads to negative outcomes. It is common for a student’s behavior to affect their academics; teachers who see students as having behavioral challenges often have low expectations of that student. Some of the teachers in this study agree that having high expectations for their students, no matter what they are facing, will help them be successful. Ms. Munford attended a Catholic school and her family never struggled financially while growing up. She was one of few students of color in her school and she stated that she always had to work harder than her white peers. Ms. Munford believes that her Black students need to know they have to work harder than students of other races in order to be successful. She recalled a conversation with one of her students with special needs during the pandemic, she stated:

I think other people have very low expectations for kids in the city, I don’t. I tell them so, too. They say, "Well my electricity is out." I said, "You got some candles at home?" "Yeah." I said, "Why didn’t you light the candle and do your homework?" I said, "See, that was an excuse." I said, "If you really wanted to learn," I said, "You would’ve got that candle and done that homework.”

There was a worldwide pandemic going on, and people were losing their jobs at extreme rates, and yet this student was not given any grace for homework completion. As Black people, it is difficult to acknowledge when and where to give grace because, in the real world, failure is not acceptable. Her response suggests she feels responsible for her student’s success, and by allowing her students to miss an assignment she participates in their future failures. Tough skin is needed to succeed while Black and Ms. Munford seems to feel it is her responsibility to help students grow that thick layer of skin.

Ms. Dickerson recalls a situation where a student was constantly removed from her general education class. Since the student had an individualized education plan (IEP) she was sent to her special education teacher for any perceived disobedience. Dickerson’s intentions were to support these students, but in doing so she let them know that no matter their age, they were responsible for healing themselves. She stated:

As a Black woman, most of my students are generally Black, African American. So, I just believe that we all have commonalities in our upbringing, especially those of us who were born and raised in an urban city that even though it might be a different generation, we still have that common factor of living in the city. I think that helps. But also, unlike some of my colleagues, I don’t say that being brought up maybe in an impoverished situation, or neglect, or whatever the trauma might be, I don’t think that it should always be an excuse for your behavior. I had a student one time; she was in foster care. And she was just angry at the world. One time, I can’t remember exactly what she said. And before I knew it, I said, "Sweetheart, what happened to you was horrible. No child should ever have to go through that. But you have got to let that be your motivator to do better. You can’t continue to hold a grudge against the world, because the world is going to eat you up and spit you out. You need to let your past be your motivation to be better, to do better.” I couldn’t believe I said that. But that’s how I feel a lot of times is that sometimes people allow our children to hold on to the negative as an excuse, instead of having them not minimizing what happens to them, but actually letting them say, okay, yes, what happened to you is horrible. I am not taking that away from you, but you can’t let it define your life.

Although Ms. Dickerson understands this student experienced something traumatic, she felt she could not let this little girl continue to dwell on this experience because the long-term effects could hinder her success. Perhaps if the student could use her pain as motivation to do better in life then she could accomplish something great. What Ms. Dickerson said may not be what a middle school girl needed at that moment, she may have needed a hug and an empathetic listener. As people of color, nothing in life comes with ease and Ms. Dickerson believes it is best for students to learn that before adulthood. Ms. Dickerson then discusses the disproportionality of special education:

So the kids who are always the ones being suspended from school. Interestingly enough, a lot of them are our special needs kids. Those are the kids that they’re trying to focus on and trying to do activities with and to get them to buy in to being okay. Stop acting out, stop doing the things that get you in trouble.

These two participants acknowledge that their students with disabilities are experiencing challenges inside and outside of the classroom, yet they cannot see the part they play in adultifying and neglecting. Their high expectations for their students helped maintain the abandonment and forced independence of Black students. Their instinctive responses have made them unaware of the potential harm they are causing students. Authentic relationship building could turn those situations of neglect into moments of support. Although the teachers did not name the tension between responsibility for students and neglecting their emotional needs, this tension was present in their responses.

Perception & treatment of students & Parents

High-quality relationships are defined by high levels of closeness and low levels of conflict between the teacher and child (O’Connor et al., 2011). The comfort that a student has with a teacher typically translates to other parts of their academic experiences, including behaviors toward other adults in the building. Mr. Preston believes a teacher should support their students and notes the importance of relationships. He said:

When you’re studying the background of students, when you look and connect with the parents and understand where the child is coming from, when you understand some of the challenges that the students face, whether it’s being a student in special ed or just being a student that’s dealing with a single-family household, or all those things, when you start to learn about your students, you are developing a relationship and you’re empathetic to what’s going on. You might look at their adversity and find ways to help.

Teachers are supposed to practice effective communication with students who are repeating behavioral patterns. Ms. Dickerson believes that these patterns are a sign of defiance and lack of respect for adults. Black students become responsible for processing their emotions and actions at a young age. Ms. Dickerson spoke about a challenging relationship between a parent and a student. A student in her class who was diagnosed with emotional impairment (EI) did not like how he was being treated and he stood up for himself. She knew this student’s challenges, and was aware of why he was being suspended repeatedly, yet there was no acknowledgment of his needs. She adultified this student, forgetting that although he was a child, he was a human being. The level of disrespect and lack of care she had for the student and his family was visible in her interaction with them. Dickerson stated:

I had this student, it wasn’t last school year, it was the school year before last. He came from a charter school. His disability was EI, which I got out of the EI classroom to do something different and it just seems like it just follows me anyway. So this kid was angry 99.9% of the time. You don’t walk in the door first thing in the morning cussing people out. What has happened? First of all, you’re eight, nine years old, you’re too young to be this angry. That’s the first thing. So anyway, his mom came up to the school, she wanted to talk to me, because she said that she’s tired of these teachers disrespecting her son. She’s sitting at the table with me, and I think it was the assistant principal. And she’s tired of him being disrespected. And I said, "I understand." And that’s what I said, "Every child should be respected." I said, "But it’s not his job to disrespect an adult. He must be respectful at all times. And if he’s not getting respected, he needs to come home and tell you so that you can come up to the school, like you did, and tell us what’s going on.": And she said, "But I don’t agree." She said, "I understand what you’re saying. But I don’t agree with you. Kids deserve to be respected." I said, "Everybody deserves to be respected." I said, "But as a kid, he has to earn that respect." "Well, so do adults." I said, "No, he’s going to be respectful at all times, period. He’s a kid."

Children’s rights are revoked, in the Black culture, students are reminded constantly to “get out of grown folks’ business”, “stay in a child’s place”, and they must accept what an adult tells them without an explanation. In and outside of school, the expectations we put on Black children are humanly unrealistic; conform to white culture: code switch, don’t speak: no one will speak for you so speak up. The teacher believed she should have authority over the student, so much so that the students shouldn’t react to disrespect, but should stay silent because as a child, they are seen as less than. Ms. Dickerson has an unrealistic belief that Black students must respect adults at all times no matter the situation, but they have to earn respect from adults. The student she describes has been advocating for himself and his sister for some time and is constantly suspended for sticking up for his sister who was regularly being physically harmed. Ms. Dickerson shared:

This is the same parent who told him he has to stick up for his little sister. His little sister was one of those big mouth kids who said things to people, and somebody was jumping her every other day. And so of course, he gets suspended for fighting because he’s trying to take up for her sister. Now mind you, he was a very small kid. He was in the fourth grade, but I promise you this kid did not look like he was older than a second or third grader. Okay. So I was talking with him and the principal, and he said his mama told him to take up for his sister. I said, "Well, I'm going to have a talk with your mom." I said, "Because we got to keep you in school. You can’t keep getting suspended." I said, "Because that’s messing up your education. Your sister’s going to have to take up for herself." This little boy went home and told his mother that I said she needed parenting classes.

Ms. Dickerson was concerned about his academics but there is a clear lack of support for this student and his family. There are unmet needs and this student is looking for help. As Ms. Dickerson’s former student, it seems likely that she would have a relationship with the student and their family. Ms. Dickerson acknowledges she wants to see the student in school and that shows she cares, but the school environment is not safe for either him or his sister. It’s important for teachers to understand that some students have adult-like responsibilities at a very young age. Parents who have limited support outside of school need their community to be within the school. Mr. Preston has also seen students take on responsibilities that are not childlike. Mr. Preston stated:

I see a variety of students being elective parents. I think a lot of times with my middle school, sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, they might have the responsibility of I will say in the role of a parent, taking care of a younger sibling while the parents are at work. Just things in general. For my eighth-grade level, I would sit there and say that some of them might have jobs outside the home. But for the most part, any responsibilities they have is related to the home. Then after school activities, I guess it is another responsibility. I guess in my honest opinion, I wouldn’t want them to be in that role, but in understanding the situation with a lot of my parents, let’s say you’re looking at maybe 60%, 65% of my parents are single-parent households whereby you might have anywhere from three to four children within that household. Though nobody may not want them to be in that role of being a secondary parent, in a lot of situations there’s no choice.

There are students who are in situations that prevent them from being kids. In the household they may have to take care of siblings and take on additional responsibilities. The relationships students have within the school should provide them with comfort. They should be able to trust that the teachers and school staff around them care and have their best interests in mind. Ms. Munford had a student who was being pushed out of the classroom daily. She recalled,

I had a student who every time I saw him the year before he was in the hall, he was getting suspended. Come to find out, he had an IEP. "Well, can’t you just"… "No, I can’t take him in until the mother produces an IEP." His sending school didn’t send it, I need an IEP, he’s from out of district. Even an old IEP, I told mom, "You got to give me that." Then he ended up in the room with me all day, I kept him all day. He was angry, and he was this and that, and he figured out that wasn’t going to fly with Ms. Milton. Then they realized, "We ain’t see [Lederick] in the hall." I said, "Lederick better not go out in that hall unless I give him a pass. I wish he would." He did at the beginning, he’d go out and I'd go get him, "Come on." I said, "Look, I'm not going to be chasing you every day." I told him, "I can understand that you’re angry." He was mad, he clenched the fists and face. I said, "There’s a corner over there." I said, "You get in there, go stand in that corner. I don’t care if your fists are clenched, just don’t say nothing." I said, "When you calm down, come back and sit down and join us." I told him, "But you cannot leave out of this room. You leave out of this room, I'm going to have to suspend you, and I don’t want to do that, so just do that." And he did. When he’d get mad he’d either go back there in that corner or he’d put his head down. When he was in the corner I'd just quietly watch him, the kids would watch him and I'm like, "Up here." When I'd see his hands start to relax and he wasn’t breathing as hard I said, "Okay, you ready to join us?" "Yeah." I said, "Come on back." That was it when he figured out I wasn’t going to holler and scream at him and suspend him all the time. I told him, "You can’t learn nothing if you at home. How you going to learn this? Come on, you need to be in school."

This strategy can be conceptualized as a form of neglect, or as a form of preparation. Black teachers feel they have to prepare their students for the harsh world. Ms. Munford truly cared about this student’s well-being and academic success. When he was pushed into her classroom, she put him in the corner until he could control his emotions and relieve his stress. He felt she cared and learned to adapt to her expectations. In that process Ms. Munford never mentioned discussing this student’s needs, what made him angry, or asking how she could help. It is challenging to manage multiple students and tending to the needs of one student takes sacrifice. Ms. Munford went on to say:

Depending on the disability, you have to come at it a different way. EI kids, it’s the emotional thing. Cognitively impaired kids, you can try to talk to them at this high level and they looking at you like they don’t understand it. You got to bring it down to they’re level so that they understand, and they still might not understand, so it’s going to take multiple attempts with them. So no, it takes a lot to get them suspended. If they’re punching the teacher or things like that, they get suspended for that because they know they know better. Usually the teacher’s given them some chances. I've had some come over to me like they’re fixing to do something. I tell them, "I'm pretty sure you don’t want to do that, because my mama told me to hit back." "Really?" "Yeah." I had a kid with his little fat self, he going to drop to the floor and not going to move. It was a fire drill. I had his hand and he just going to drop. I took him and drug his butt right on outside, he didn’t think I was going to do that. I said, "You stay on this ground, you going to get drug across the cement." I said, "Ain’t nobody burning up because you don’t want to move." We got to that sidewalk, he got up. "Thought you would, I ain’t playing with you." I didn’t care who saw me either. It’s a fire drill, I got kids over here to deal with and this one over here won’t move? I ain’t got time for that. Y'all can tell his parent, I don’t care. I'm going to ask them, "What do you want to do? We didn’t know, it was just an automatic drill. It could have been a real fire. You want me to leave him in here?" I said, "Because I ain’t going to stay in here with him. No, you want me to get him out the building whatever way I can."

This situation took place at a fire drill, not in the case of a real fire. Although the intent was to mitigate student harm in the case of a real fire, the emotional needs of the student were neglected. Physically removing the student during a real fire seems reasonable, but in the case of a fire drill it seems the teacher took it too far. However, educators are in an overworked profession and also need supportive relationships. There should have been a teacher who supported Ms. Munford in this situation. In her moment of anger and frustration, she harmed her student. Similar to what students with behavior patterns do when they are hurting internally, they can harm others. When she acts out, just as her student, she needs support. That assistance could have consisted of a teacher letting her know that they were keeping an eye on her students who were already outside, a support staff member encouraging the student to get up, or emotional support before or after the fire drill for the teacher and the student. As a Black teacher experiencing racial challenges, working with Black students in a system built upon racist practices, it can be extremely challenging to handle personal and secondary trauma.

Limitations

One of the limitations of this study is that the sample size was limited to three teachers. Chain referral sampling and purposive sampling were used to encourage special educators’ participation in the research study. The initial focus on special education also limited the pool of participants. I purposely limited my interview pool to Black educators. Black educators in this district often showed hesitation when asked to participate in research studies due to the potential push back from district leaders. The number of participants was a challenge for making generalizations from this study. Future studies should include a larger number of participants and follow the teachers over the course of a year. Longitudinal data would provide insight into the various ways anti-Blackness shows up in the classroom. Classroom observations should also be a method of data collection for future studies. The focus of this study was Black teachers and students; therefore, I used BlackCrit theory. However, the findings suggest Black Disability Studies should be incorporated into future studies in order to highlight Black students’ overrepresentation in special education.

Implications

The realities of Black students in systemically racist systems calls for change. Black teachers’ awareness of their own internalized racism could help change the ways school systems operate. Research reported by Gardner et al. (2022) “demonstrates that educators and students can work together to highlight and resist institutional and racialized violence and, in so doing, can promote hope, healing, and agency in urban schools” (p. 20). Black teachers in this study understood that there are systems in the community that hinder the success of Black students, but they failed to see how those systems have affected them in school. Black teachers are aware Black students experience trauma, but they believe their students should be mature enough to process and adjust to those experiences at the level of adults. BlackCrit and Black disability studies are important theoretical lenses when explaining the Black teacher and student experience. More studies should utilize these theoretical lenses to raise awareness of racist ideas and thinking within the school system that impact Black students who are experiencing patterned disciplinary actions.

This study suggests that “teaching requires a racialized and politicized awareness that must be cultivated in teacher education programs and as teachers grow in their practice as professionals. It is imperative that teacher educators support preservice and in-service teachers to continually develop, refine, and enact asset-based political clarity about their students and the communities and families they represent '' (de Royston et al., 2021, p. 31). Teachers can achieve this by sharing and critically reflecting on their students’ experiences and their teaching practices in relation to their views (de Royston et al., 2021; Jackson & Knight-Manuel, 2019; Ngo et al., 2017; Varghese & Snyder, 2018). In the stage of understanding his shortcomings, Mr. Preston mentioned:

In a lot of ways, when you’re faced with situations like that and you’re dealing with somebody who doesn’t have the same background, you have to understand how they’re raised, what are the standards, this, that or the other. To me, having an understanding of a person’s background alludes to how to resolve situations that you might appear to be negative. Because a lot of times you have to … I guess that’s a situation where you are dealing with biases of yourself? As a male teacher, dealing with a female student, I have to be aware of my biases towards females to make sure that that’s not guiding my decisions in dealing with the student.

Mr. Preston has started a process of critical reflection, but there should be support within school districts to facilitate this reflective process. Systemic oppression impacts everyone, thus the internalized racism of Black teachers has continuously impacted Black students. One way to facilitate this process is through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, which are becoming more prevalent in K-12 and higher education. These training sessions are meant to workshop through anti- Blackness and it takes a thoughtful, knowledgeable, and purposeful team to lead educators to think more deeply about their experiences, expectations, how they perpetuate students’ trauma, and process their own trauma. These are long-term ongoing processes that require commitment, resources, and community building amongst Black teachers. There is a need for state and federal policies that support this work across the nation. However, we continue to see policies that do just the opposite. The field of education is under attack and this requires a collective movement to create more forward thinking policy. We cannot stand by while Black students are harmed in classrooms, we must take collective action, lives are at stake.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).