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Abstract
This paper contributes to the discourse on the role of critical pedagogy in the U.S. education system. The paper is inspired by the story of a participant from a larger ongoing phenomenological study designed to explore the experience of immigrant teachers in the United States. The participant was selected because she gained prominence in the larger study as the only teacher who reported that because of the injustices she experienced (personally and vicariously) during her K-12 education, she was inspired to pursue teaching as a career. The participant is a Black female teacher who immigrated from England to the United States, and who has taught for approximately 30 years between both countries. Her experience as a student and her work as a teacher, are reflective of, and analyzed through the lens of critical pedagogy. The participant’s experience was carefully and respectfully crafted into a profile that produced three major themes: (1) Racial injustice as an altruistic inspiration to becoming a teacher; (2) the work of the immigrant Teacher of Color in the United States necessarily involves actuating an inclusive and racial justice curricular agenda; and (3) what it means to be an immigrant Educator of Color in the United States is to conceptualize your practice as a deliberate political act that counteracts racial injustice and inequity.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 I have used BIPOC throughout this paper where possible, because it has become a more acceptable term. However I will use “People of Color,” “Students of Color” and other such terms where BIPOC does not fit structurally in a sentence. For example in the cases where I need to refer to students, I will use “Students of Color” instead of “BIPOC students”. I am fully aware that these are all problematic terms, however, I hope their usage does not cause the point of this paper to be missed.
2 It is important to point out here that Asians are not a homogenous group, and some ethnicities like South Asians perform lower than their White, and perform similar to their African American peers (Lee et al., Citation2017). The term “Asians” (like “Blacks”) is used in this paper therefore, to present the broad comparative report among the races in terms of academic achievement in the United States.
3 “Angella” is the pseudonymous name used for the participant.
4 So far in the larger study, data have been collected from 15 participants: 5 from the Caribbean, 4 from Africa, 4 from Europe, and 2 from Asia. Apart from Angella, the Blacks in this sample are from the Caribbean and Africa, which are predominantly Black societies. Preliminary analysis of their interviews (as with all the other participants) indicate that their motivation to pursue teaching was not inspired by commitment to racial injustice.
5 As stated earlier the allotted time for the stricter version of the methodology advocated by Seidman (Citation2013) is 90 minutes for the three interviews spread across days. Based on an earlier study the researcher conducted (Bailey, Citation2013), participants indicated that they could not commit that length of time due to their busy schedules of work and home. The researcher even lost prospective participants in early attempts to adhere to the structure. Based on that experience, the researcher had used the 2–2 ½-sessions to meaningful effect.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Erold K. Bailey
Dr. Erold Bailey is an associate professor of teacher education at Westfield State University. His primary research interests are in postcolonial studies in education, immigrant teachers and students, and school experiences in urban settings. Teaching areas are postcolonial studies in education, curriculum and instruction, schools in American culture, and technology in education.