Abstract
This qualitative counter-narrative analysis investigates how Black male classroom educators articulate their experiences as students and teachers to motivate and educate at-risk Black male students.
The theoretical framework for this study was based on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. According to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, child development is a complicated network of relationships that the surrounding environment influences on multiple levels. These levels range from the direct settings of the family and the school to the more general cultural norms, laws, and traditions. Bronfenbrenner separated a person's surrounding environment into five distinct systems: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem.
A qualitative, counter-narrative inquiry design was selected. Interviews with each instructor participant were conducted one-on-one and used a semi-structured format throughout the data-gathering procedure. Interviews gathered data from four Black male teachers who participated in this research.
Interview sessions with a semi-structured format were conducted with four Black male teachers as participants. These sessions enabled the participants to explain and recount their personal experiences and story-telling for this study. The themes are (a) Dysconscious Racism; (b) Community; (c) Passion within the system; (d) Responsibility of Mentors.
These results indicate the need for further research into the mental exhaustion and health decline of African American male educators working in public schools. In the same way that further research into the fundamental nature of the conundrum would be beneficial to the area of study, so too might more extensive research and assessment of the psychological and physical health of Black educators as a group that is on the margins of society. The current findings indicate that school administrators must address the factors that may lead to the departure of African American male instructors from the teaching profession.